"I asked Vandenhaute to move the Ronde. Priorities, right"

INTERVIEWS Jan Vertonghen is a man of broad interests. Like many Flemings, he is a cycling fan and so the Tour of Flanders is a high day. Unfortunately, on Sunday, the day of Vlaanderens Mooiste, he has to play soccer with Anderlecht at 4 p.m. Not even Wouter Vandenhaute could change that.


"I find it deadly sad that I can't watch Sunday," Vertonghen told Het Nieuwsblad. Vertonghen jokes that he sent a message to Wouter Vandenhaute, non-executive chairman of Anderlecht and, as boss of Flanders Classics, also the big man behind the Ronde van Vlaanderen, asking him to move the Ronde. "Unfortunately. I thought, however, that Wouter would know his priorities."

Vertonghen already has a definite preference for who may win Sunday. "Sepp Vanmarcke. With the Anderlecht doctors and physiotherapists, we are playing a cycling manager's game and I am in the lead. I want to stay there and I have the only Vanmarcke in my team." Although Vertonghen doesn't think his favorite will make it.