Cat Ferguson’s Spring Classics column: Tour of Flanders is the toughest, most powerful race on the calendar, and that is felt in every pedal stroke

I’m 19 years old, starting my second year as a professional, and just raced my second Tour of Flanders, a race that, for me, is 100% the hardest race that I’ve ever done and that there is on the calendar because of its history in cycling, how the women’s race has evolved into the level it is today, and the fact that it has been like an unknown World Championships to my team, Movistar, and to our directors – It is the most important one-day race on the calendar.

For that reason, everyone wants to be their best, and for me, it was a brutal, brutal race. It was hard in the moments when people watching on TV don’t realize how hard it is, that places that aren’t as obvious: the flat roads with corners, the approach to climbs, and the positioning in the peloton. It’s out of this world, and it is difficult to describe how much concentration and physical energy are involved. In a race like Flanders, it’s constantly positioning followed by a climb. The climbs are short, but that only makes it so much harder because you get over the climb, and if the positioning was good, that’s great, you’re in the front group, but then the next climb’s coming. So you can never, ever rest.