Tour of Flanders predictions and cycling betting tips: Asgreen can thwart stars

Free cycling tips, best bets and analysis for the Tour of Flanders, which starts in Belgium on Sunday morning.

What is the Tour of Flanders?

The Tour of Flanders, or De Ronde as it is also known, is one of the oldest races and the second of cycling's five Monuments - the most prestigious one-day races - on the calendar.

Held on the cobbles and 'bergs' of northern Belgium, the Tour of Flanders is a brutal test of 267km and is in its 105th year.

The 2021 edition of the race will be held on Sunday, April 7 with the men's race starting at 8.40am and shorter women's race (157km), first held in 2004, beginning afterwards.

Where to watch

Live on Eurosport 1 & GCN+, from 8.40am

Best bet

Kasper Asgreen
1.5pts each-way 10-1 BoyleSports

Race preview

Cycling fans were given a glimpse of the future at last year's Tour of Flanders as Mathieu van der Poel held off Wout van Aert by the mere width of a tyre.

The sport's newest stars have enjoyed some ding-dong battles in cyclocross in recent seasons and they are translating their dominance in that sphere on to the road with devastating effect.

At this year's Tirreno-Adriatico, they shared four of the seven stages between them and both have scored significant Classics success this season with Van der Poel powering away from the field at Strade Bianche and Van Aert victorious at Gent-Wevelgem last weekend.

Understandably given their dominance they are well clear of the rest in the betting for Sunday's race, so the question is can anyone stop them?

Strength in numbers may be the best way to do so and Deceuninck–Quick-Step certainly have more cards to play than most when it comes to one-day races.

Their world champion Julian Alaphilippe has been one of the only riders to beat the young upstarts of the peloton this year and was set to have a say in the finale of last year's De Ronde until crashing into a motorbike when hot on the heels of Van der Poel and Van Aert.

Florian Senechal is another card for Quickstep to play but the joker in the Belgian team's pack could be Danish champion Kasper Asgreen.

The 26-year-old attacked with 60km to go at the recent E3 Harelbeke and again in the last five kilometres to take victory in superb style - Van der Poel was third and Van Aert 12th - and has shown up well in two previous attempts at the Tour of Flanders, finishing second on his first try in 2019.

He's unlikely to have the beating of the big two if it comes down to a sprint but he will be hard to catch if launching another solo attack.

Hills are paying a fifth of the odds each-way for the first four places and BoyleSports the first five home.

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