Heuvelland — Flemish for "hill country" — is a quiet, wide-open pocket of West Flanders pressed against the French border, its rolling terrain a deliberate contrast to the denser, steeper climbs of the Flemish Ardennes further east.
At its centre stands the Kemmelberg, at 156 metres the highest point in West Flanders, and the decisive climb of Gent–Wevelgem (renamed In Flanders Fields from 2026) since its introduction to the race in 1955. Two cobbled approaches exist — the Belvedere side from the east, around 550 metres at 9.2%; the Ossuaire side from the west, longer and steeper still, with ramps reaching 23%.
The climb's roads were originally built during the First World War to haul munitions up to gun emplacements on the summit, where a war memorial now stands — the region's landscape and its cycling history are, here, literally the same ground.
Nearby, the plugstreets around Ploegsteert — named for British soldiers' mangled pronunciation of Ploegsteert — add gravel sectors to the modern race route, passing the Christmas Truce memorial. Based in Heuvelland, riders get the flavour of Flemish classics racing — short, biting climbs, cobbles, and open, wind-exposed fields — without the crowds of the Flemish Ardennes proper.
