Oudenaarde’s Tour of Flanders visitor centre to be improved as the race finish moves to the town
The Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen has been awarded a €90,000 grant by Geert Bourgeois, the Flemish minister for Tourism, according to Het Laatste Nieuws. The Centrum, which is a visitor centre and museum themed around “Vlaanderens Mooiste” race, is situated in the centre of the town of Oudenaarde, where the Ronde’s finish will switch to from 2012.
"The visitor centre and experience should be a lever for the development of tourism in the Flemish Ardennes," said Bourgeois. "The Ronde van Vlaanderen is the highlight of the Flemish cycling year and this is reflected in a cycling tradition that exists nowhere else than Flanders. Tourists from home and abroad will be able to get a taste of that tradition."
The Centrum already contains a number of interactive exhibits, as well as a number of items from the history of the race; these include a number of champions’ race bikes, an Eddy Merckx Molteni team car parked outside and a Flandria team car inside the Centrum itself. Since most of the attractions are on the basement level, the latest grant – as well as cash raised from visitor admissions – is to be spent on converting the large ground floor backroom into further attractions, including a projection room and a retro area.