E3 Saxo Bank Classic, previously known as E3 BinckBank Classic, E3 Harelbeke, Harelbeke–Antwerp–Harelbeke and E3-Prijs Vlaanderen, is an annual
road cycling race in
Flanders, Belgium. The race starts and finishes in
Harelbeke, covering 203 kilometres,[1] mainly in the
Flemish Ardennes.
First raced in 1958, it is one of the more recently founded
one-day classics, but has developed into a prestigious and desirable event.[2] It is on the
UCI World Tour calendar, as part of a series of
cobbled classics in Belgium and Northern France in March and April.
Belgian
Tom Boonen holds the record of victories with five wins, trailed by cycling icon
Rik Van Looy who won four times.
E3 Harelbeke is held on the last Friday of March and marks the start of the
Flemish Cycling Week, starting a fortnight of WorldTour racing on the cobbles and bergs of
Flanders.[2] It is the second in the series of cobbled races in Belgium and northern France that take place over a two-week period from the Wednesday after
Milan–San Remo until
Paris–Roubaix. E3 Harelbeke is the race that resembles the Tour of Flanders the most.[3]
In 2010,
UCI made some calendar changes, most notably positioning the
Pro Tour race
Gent–Wevelgem on the day after E3 Harelbeke, causing a dispute between the two races.[4] In 2012, when the E3 race was upgraded to World Tour status as well, organizers changed the date of their event to Friday to meet the demands of UCI, who requested a day of rest between two arduous World Tour events.[5]
Because of its place on the calendar, the race has built a reputation as the final rehearsal for the more prestigious
Tour of Flanders, the Flemish
monument race coming nine days after the E3 Harelbeke.[6] With a distance of 200–215 km, the E3 route is shorter than the Tour of Flanders, but addresses many of the same roads and hills of the
Flemish Ardennes.[7] With cobbles, steep climbs, winding and narrow roads, and often affected by wind, it offers all race circumstances that characterize Flemish classic races.[3] Favourites for the Tour of Flanders often do well in Harelbeke, eager to win the race and using it as the perfect testing ground. Because of the similarities, Flemish media have dubbed the race The little Tour of Flanders.[8][9][10]
History
The E3 Harelbeke was created in 1958. The first editions were raced from Harelbeke to
Antwerp and back, hence the event was named Harelbeke-Antwerp-Harelbeke. Belgian cycling icon
Rik Van Looy won the race four times in the 1960s. E3 does not refer to a race sponsor; the race was renamed E3-Prijs Harelbeke in the early 1960s, as a reference to the former
European route E03, a series of European highways from
Lisbon to
Stockholm.[11] The Belgian part of the E3 – now called
E17 – connected Antwerp and
Kortrijk, close to Harelbeke.
Although the race is much younger than many other
cycling classics in Flanders, it quickly became a desirable entry for specialists of the cobbled races. Many winners on the roll of honour have also won the Tour of Flanders or Paris–Roubaix in their careers. Classics specialist
Jan Raas won the race three consecutive times in the early 1980s. In the 1990s
Johan Museeuw and
Andrei Tchmil won their first important one-day races in Harelbeke, before winning cycling's most prestigious cobbled classics.[3][12]
Since the first edition until 2011, the race was held on a Saturday in the weekend before the Tour of Flanders, forming a tandem with the
Brabantse Pijl on Sunday. From 2005 until
2011 the race was part of the continental
UCI Europe Tour, where it was classified as a 1.HC race. Belgian
Tom Boonen, claiming four consecutive wins, and Swiss
Fabian Cancellara were the main protagonists with some spectacular victories, and the event garnered a lot of prestige on the international calendar.[13][14][15][16]
In
2012 the race was upgraded to
World Tour level, cycling's highest level of professional races. Tom Boonen won the edition, setting a record of five victories, and the race was officially named E3 Harelbeke.[11] In
2013 Fabian Cancellara claimed his third win after a long-distance attack on the
Oude Kwaremont and a 35 km solo raid to the finish.[17] The race has a reputation as a foremost cobbled classic.[18][19] The race was rebranded E3 BinckBank Classic for the
2019 edition, following a sponsorship deal. The name change does not have consequences for the route, as the city of Harelbeke continues to host the start and finish of the race.[20]
It was raced without interruption from its inception until the
COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 edition.
Route
Usually a little over 200 kilometres long and always starting and finishing in Harelbeke, the E3 Harelbeke contains anything between 12 and 17 short, sharp, cobbled climbs, mainly in the last 90 kilometres. As usual in Flemish one-day racing, local knowledge can be crucial.[2]
The race starts on Harelbeke's Grote Markt and travels east on mainly flat roads towards
Oudenaarde and
Zottegem. The riders reach the most easterly point in
Ninove after 85 km, before returning west via
Geraardsbergen, after which the race addresses the bergs and cobbled roads of the Flemish Ardennes in the south of
East Flanders. The race unfolds in the hill zone with a succession of short, sharp climbs as the course loops between
Ronse and Oudenaarde.[21]
The last climbs in the Flemish Ardennes –
Paterberg,
Oude Kwaremont and Karnemelkbeekstraat – are notoriously difficult and the sites where the race tends to split apart for good; before the race re-enters
West Flanders for a mainly flat run-in to the finish. The Tiegemberg, the last climb of the day, comes at 20 kilometres from the finish in Harelbeke.[21]
Hills and cobbles
In
2017 there were 15 categorized hills.[22] The climbs, in order of appearance, are Katteberg, La Houppe,
Kruisberg, Côte de Trieu, Hotond,
Kortekeer,
Taaienberg, Boigneberg,
Eikenberg, Stationsberg, Kapelberg,
Paterberg,
Oude Kwaremont, Karnemelkbeekstraat and Tiegemberg. The Paterberg is a cobbled 300m climb that averages 12.5%, while the Oude Kwaremont is 2200m, of which 1500m cobbled, with a gradient average of 4.2%. In addition to the climbs, there are four flat stretches of cobbled roads.[21]
10 riders won E3 Harelbeke and the Tour of Flanders in the same year: Noël Foré in 1963, Walter Planckaert in 1976, Jan Raas in 1979, Johan Museeuw in 1998, Peter Van Petegem in 1999, Tom Boonen in 2005, 2006 and 2012, Fabian Cancellara in 2010 and 2013, Niki Terpstra in 2018, Kasper Asgreen in 2021 and Mathieu van der Poel in 2024.
In 2012 the famed
Muur van Geraardsbergen was included in the E3 Harelbeke for the first time. It was organizers' whimsical response to Flanders Classics' decision to exclude the climb from the
Tour of Flanders, an action that caused great upheaval among Flanders' tradition-loving cycling aficionado's.[24]
In
2015 a publicity poster for the race caused severe controversy. The poster showed a woman's bare legs from behind, with a cyclist's gloved hand apparently going to pinch the woman's bottom. It was a reference to
Peter Sagan's actions after the
2013 Tour of Flanders, when he pinched a podium miss' bottom during the after-race ceremony.[26] The poster was considered "demeaning" and "misogynistic" and was criticized by the Belgian Jury of Advertising Ethics,[26] forcing
UCI to issue a statement disapproving the promotional poster and ordering the organisers to withdraw and replace it.[27]
Geraint Thomas, winner of the
2015 event, became the first Tour de France winner on the roll of honour, following his overall victory at the
2018 Tour de France. Five-fold Tour de France winner
Eddy Merckx finished third in the
1971 race and second in
1972, but failed to win the event.
In 2019 organisers were again forced to withdraw a controversial poster. The poster showed two bodypainted women entwined to form the figure of a frog, accompanied by the tagline: "Who shall crown himself prince in Harelbeke?" E3 organisers were roundly criticised again, forcing them to remove the graphics from all of its media.[28]