The Propeller

Here in café Den Drijhaard, the charm of the Tour of Flanders was saved in 1992: cobblestone sections.

Three individuals who were driving forces behind this rescue were Robin Vanheuverswyn, Marc De Jonghe, and Paul Van Ceunebroeck, the green guys who saved the cobblestones for the cyclists.

These cobblestones were a relic from the long period of poverty in this agricultural region. For a long time, there was no money to replace those cobblestones, as had been done elsewhere in Flanders. But the local population wanted to get rid of those miserable cobblestones.

In this café, they put together, along with cycling and hiking clubs, a list of 46 kilometers of cobblestone sections that were worth protecting. With the list, they approached the office of the competent Flemish minister Johan Sauwens (then of Volksunie) – also a cycling enthusiast. The strength of our dossier was that nature, heritage, and sport were interconnected.

Sauwens made a ministerial decision that he signed in 1995: 25 cobblestone sections, amounting to 27 kilometers, were recognized as a monument, but also the adjacent verges, with their often biologically valuable flora and fauna and landscape-defining, sometimes centuries-old trees. Most of the names now sound like cycling icons in the ears: the Oude Kruisstraat in Ronse, the Oude Kwaremont, the Koppen- and Paterberg in Kluisbergen, the Eikenberg in Maarkedal, the Muur van Geraardsbergen, the Berg ten Houte in Schorisse, the Vesten in Geraardsbergen, and the Lange Ast in Huise.

Mediahuis België