Paterberg
Peak · 80 m · Flanders
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This 360-metre cobbled climb averages 13 percent, with pitches over 20 near the top, making it the shortest and steepest of the Tour of Flanders' bergs. It stayed unpaved until 1986, when a local farmer laid the cobbles himself so the race would pass his house. Classified a protected monument in 1993, it has paired with the Oude Kwaremont as the race's decisive finale since 2012.
When Kluisbergen's town council decided in 1983 to finally pave this dirt farm track, the original plan was ordinary asphalt; cobblestones were suggested instead, and the farmer living at the top ended up laying them himself three years later so the race would pass his door. Unlike the winding lines of most Flemish bergs, the road runs almost dead straight up the hillside, leaving no gentler line to hunt once the gradient bites. Wooden fences flank the cobbles on both sides, marking a course barely wide enough for two riders and framing the ramp's steepness for anyone watching from the roadside. Off the top, the run to the finish in Oudenaarde is a fast, narrow descent followed by ten flat kilometres, terrain that gives little chance to close a gap opened on the climb itself.
What you see
The cobbled ramp runs dead straight up the hillside between wooden fences, with a bench at the top looking back over the climb and the rolling Flemish Ardennes.
part of: The cobbled bergs of Flandersmonument climbtour of flanders