2015 Tour of Flanders
| 2015 UCI World Tour, race 8 of 28 | |||||||||||||
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Alexander Kristoff became the first Norwegian winner
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| Race details | |||||||||||||
| Dates | 5 April 2015 | ||||||||||||
| Stages | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Distance | 264.9 km (164.6 mi) | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 6h 26' 38" | ||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||
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| Winner |
 Alexander Kristoff (NOR)
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(Team Katusha) | |
| Second |
 Niki Terpstra (NED)
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(Etixx–Quick-Step) | |
| Third |
 Greg Van Avermaet (BEL)
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(BMC Racing Team) |
The 2015 Tour of Flanders (in Dutch, Ronde van Vlaanderen) was the 99th edition of the Tour of Flanders one-day cycling race. It took place on 5 April and was the eighth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. The race is one of the cobbled classics and is the second of the cycling monuments on the 2015 calendar. The 2014 champion was Fabian Cancellara; he was not able to defend his title after breaking two vertebrae in a crash at E3 Harelbeke.
The race was initially dominated by a breakaway group of up to seven riders before the favourites in the chasing group started to attack on the climb of the Taaienberg, 36 km (22 mi) from the finish. Eventually, Alexander Kristoff and Niki Terpstra broke free and contested the victory in a two-man sprint, won by Kristoff, who became the first Norwegian to win the race. Greg Van Avermaet finished third.
The route of the 2015 edition of the race was only slightly adjusted from that of the 2014 edition, with two climbs added to the route in the first 100 km (62 mi), the Tiegemberg and the Berendries. It was 264.9 kilometres (164.6 mi) in length, 5.8 kilometres (3.6 mi) longer than in the previous year and featured 19 small climbs, some of them cobbled. The race started in the Belgian city of Bruges, in the Grote Markt, with a 9.2 kilometres (5.7 mi) neutral zone. The racing began after the riders passed through Loppen, on the outskirts of Brugge. The first part of the route was a 43.6 kilometres (27.1 mi) route south to the city of Kortrijk, passing through Zwevezele, Ardooie and Izegem. This part of the route was almost entirely flat. After Kortrijk, the route turned east towards the region known as the Flemish Ardennes. The final 150 km (93 mi) were kept from the 2014 edition, with the toughest part of the race starting at the steep Koppenberg. In the last 45 km (28 mi), five climbs were set to prove decisive: the Steenbeekdries (at 39 km (24 mi) remaining), the Taaienberg (37 km (23 mi)), the Kruisberg (28 km (17 mi)), the Oude Kwaremont (17 km (11 mi)) and finally the Paterberg (13 km (8.1 mi)). Several climbs needed to be tackled more than once, as the route took two laps of a circuit. These included the Oude Kwaremont, which was ridden three times, first after 112 km (70 mi) as the second climb of the day and the Paterberg, which was featured twice.
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