The 57th running of the

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders ( nl, Ronde van Vlaanderen), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and organi ...

cycling race Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling sp ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

was held on Sunday 1 April 1973. Belgian

Eric Leman Eric Leman (born 17 July 1946) is a former professional road racing cyclist from West Flanders, Belgium. He won the prestigious Tour of Flanders three times.LaroussTour des Flandres " Les Belges Achille Bruyne, Éric Leman, Johan Museeuw, Tom Boo ...

won the classic ahead of

Freddy Maertens Freddy Maertens (born 13 February 1952) is a Belgian former professional racing cyclist who was twice world road race champion. His career coincided with the best years of another Belgian rider, Eddy Merckx, and supporters and reporters were sp ...

and

Eddy Merckx Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (, ; born 17 June 1945), better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer who is among the most successful riders in the history of competitive cycling. His victorie ...

.Vanwalleghem, Rik (1991), De Ronde van Vlaanderen, Pinguin, Belgium, , p168 The race started in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

and finished for the first time in

Meerbeke Meerbeke is a village in the Denderstreek in the province of East Flanders in Belgium. Administratively it is part of the municipality of Ninove. This rural community is located along the Dender River on the western border of what is known as "Pajo ...

(

Ninove Ninove () is a city and municipality located in the Flemish province of East Flanders in Belgium. It is situated on the river Dender, and is part of the Denderstreek. The municipality comprises the city of Ninove proper and since the 1976 merger of ...

). 37 out of 174 riders arrived.

Course

Cycling icon Eddy Merckx was the pre-race favourite, but despite several attempts, he failed to distance Leman, Maertens and De Geest on the

Muur van Geraardsbergen The Muur van Geraardsbergen (English: ''Wall of Geraardsbergen/Grammont'', French: ''Mur de Grammont'') is a steep, narrow road with cobblestones in Geraardsbergen, Belgium. It is also known as Kapelmuur, Muur-Kapelmuur or simply Muur. The hil ...

and the run-in to the finish. In a four-man sprint Eric Leman narrowly beat Freddy Maertens. Merckx was third.Vanwalleghem, Rik (1991), De Ronde van Vlaanderen, Pinguin, Belgium, , p172 Leman became the third rider to win the

three times, equalling the previous record of Achiel Buysse and

Fiorenzo Magni Fiorenzo Magni (; 7 December 1920 – 19 October 2012) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist. Biography Magni was born to Giuseppe Magni and Giulia Caciolli, and had an elder sister Fiorenza. Bulbarelli, pp. 14–15 He started c ...

. Vanwalleghem, Rik (1991), De Ronde van Vlaanderen, Pinguin, Belgium, , p169-173

Climbs

There were six categorized climbs:

Course

Climbs

Results

References

Further reading