One Ride Away: Flanders Classic

It’s that spring classics time of year again. The time when we watch, we marvel, we wonder—what’s it really like to take on the same brutal roads that break the pros? The cobbles, the gradients, the history layered into every climb. What does it feel like to push up these infamous leg-burners where champions are made—and sometimes undone?

Our curiosity got the better of us. So, we packed up the Cannondale Tesoro and set off for cycling’s heartland. The plan? To connect two of the most punishing finish lines in the sport—from Flèche Wallonne’s Mur de Huy to the Tour of Flanders’ Oudenaarde.

Bridging these two icons in a single day isn’t something most riders would dare attempt. But with e-technology, the door opens wider. The Cannondale Tesoro makes it possible for cycling diehards to experience the suffering without the collapse, to embrace the challenge with a little less cruelty. It’s a taste of the Classics—without the body count.

Huy, Chemin des Chapelles, 0 KM. A town half-asleep beneath a slate-gray sky, the weight of memory pressing into its streets. The Mur rises ahead, a 1.3-kilometer wall averaging 9.6%, steep enough to break spirits, to splinter resolve—but not today. On this day, we pedal onward, and the Tesoro anxiously answers. The Bosch Performance Line CX motor surges, 85Nm of silent strength beneath us, smoothing the savage pitch into something almost sublime. The famous ‘Huy, Huy, Huy’ markings flash by beneath us, but there’s no suffering, no gasping for breath. The climb folds beneath our wheels, and we press on.

Beyond Huy, the road stretches wide—rolling Wallonian hills, Flemish concrete slabs, villages where the scent of woodsmoke clings to the morning air. The Tesoro moves like a secret, its 800Wh battery a quiet promise of endless distance. The rain comes and goes, misting the fields, beading on our sleeves. The full fenders stand their ground, the always-on lights cut through the murk, and the wide tires make easy work of the occasional muddy detour. It feels effortless. Almost unfair.

Halle, 101 KM into our ride—  A coffee break, a stretch, a moment to breathe. The RackLock clicks into place—discreet, unshakable, peace of mind in a single motion. The Tesoro waits, unbothered. Minutes later, we’re moving again, chasing the horizon toward Flanders, where the real tests await.

Then, Flanders. Home to cycling's most merciless trials, where riders and bikes merge into a singular force, their bonds forged on ancient cobblestones and punishing gradients. Before ascending these iconic climbs, we briefly connect with Cannondale’s high-performance squad, EF Pro Cycling, competitors seasoned by global arenas like the legendary Tour of Flanders. Their stories remind us of Cannondale’s championship heritage—now accessible through the Tesoro. This ride, these challenges, they're no longer reserved for the elite; they're ours to embrace, comfortably cushioned by Cannondale innovation.

Geraardsbergen, 136 KM - The light turns gold, the world shifts. The Muur rises in the distance, its chapel watching from above. Here, the greats have faltered, their legs buckling against the gradient, against the slick menace of ancient cobbles. We should struggle. We should suffer. Instead, the Tesoro lifts us skyward, the HeadShok suspension muting the mayhem, the motor murmurs a motivational tone. At the top, we pause—not for breath, but for reverence. The city sprawls below. The road calls us onward.

Oude Kwaremont, 174 KM—endless, uneven, relentless. Paterberg—brutal, unforgiving. Koppenberg—an impossible ladder of slick, ancient stones. At 174 km, we arrive at the proving grounds. Places where champions come undone, where exhaustion writes its name into the legs. But today, the Tesoro flips the script. Climbing with quiet defiance, its 800Wh heart beats strong beneath us. Even here, even now, in the most punishing of places, there is only movement. Only the hum of rubber over history.

Oudenaarde, 186 KM since we set off. The ride ends in the shadow of the Tour of Flanders’ finish, the town alive with echoes of past battles. We roll to a stop, our journey complete, the Tesoro silent in the cooling air. It has carried us across time, across legend.

Cannondale calls the Tesoro a ‘ticket on two wheels,’ and after a day like this, that feels right. It’s not about speed. It’s not about suffering. It’s about going the distance; about riding the roads that built this sport. Letting the bike do what it was made for—bridging the past and present, one pedal stroke at a time.