Cauberg (Amstel Gold Race) -1.2km at 5.8%

Where the Tour of Flanders has the Koppenberg and Oude Kwaremont, the Amstel Gold Race comes to the party with the Cauberg. The Netherlands may, by and large, be pan-flat, but this corner, jutting out south towards Belgium, has plenty of short climbs.

The Amstel Gold Race is centred on the 1.2km ascent, which will be climbed four times in all – including just 1.8km from the finish line.

It has also been used five times at the World Championships and featured in both the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana.

Its bare statistics – 1.2km at 5.8 per cent average gradient – don’t tell the full story, with a steep S-bend pitching up to nearly 13 per cent.

Though the hill is 1.2km in length, the climb is often given as 800m due to it being much flatter at the top – hence the misleading average gradient.

Keutenberg (Amstel Gold Race) – 700m at 9.9%

While the Cauberg is the Amstel Gold Race’s most famous climb, it is not the steepest – that honour is reserved for the Keutenberg which has previously been the race’s penultimate climb.

Not only is it short and very steep – being considered the steepest in the Netherlands – it is also narrow.

At just 700m in length, it is not the distance which will punish riders but the gradient – an average just shy of ten per cent and a steepest section which kicks up to 22 per cent, all in the first part of the climb.

Mur de Huy (La Fleche Wallonne) – 1.3km at 9.6%

Moving into Belgium and the super-steel Mur de Huy is the centrepiece of La Fleche Wallonne.

Climbed three times in the race, including to the hill-top finish, the Mur de Huy was also used on stage three of last year’s Tour de France – blowing the GC wide open very early on as Chris Froome claimed the yellow jersey for the first time in the race.

The twisting climb starts gently but at every bend ramps up sharply, including one corner coming with a maximum gradient of 26 per cent.

It says steep, between 15 and 20 per cent, and gives the climb a total average of 9.6 per cent in all – fully justifying its title of the ‘Wall of Huy’.

Cote de Stockeu (Liege-Bastogne-Liege) – 1.1km at 10.5%

Plenty of the climbs in Liege-Bastogne-Liege could feature in a list of the toughest climbs of the Ardennes Classics. It’s a real war of attrition, with ten categorised ascents in all, mostly packed into the second half of the race, and plenty more uncategorised climbing.

The Stockeu is the race’s equivalent to the Koppenberg at the Tour of Flanders. It comes a fair way out from the finish but that didn’t stop Eddy Merckx using it as an attack launchpad for a number of his five victories in the race, and a statue of the Cannibal pays tribute at the top.

Very steep, very narrow and poorly surfaced as it leads into the woods above Stavelot, the Stockeu may be just a kilometre in length but an average gradient of 10.5 per cent tells the story of how difficult it is.

In truth, it gets much steeper than that, with some of the toughest pitches at the bottom of the climb, making it a real struggle to maintain momentum. There’s no two ways around it, the Stockeu is a tough climb.

Cote du Rosier (Liege-Bastogne-Liege) – 5.4km at 5.9%

The Cote du Rosier is a rarity in the Ardennes Classics in that, at 5.4km, it is reasonably long and was re-introduced to the route in 2015.

And the length, combined with the climb’s undulating profile and the winding road, makes it a difficult to get into a rhythm on the ascent.

The average gradient of 5.9 per cent masks the many kicks up as the road twists its way to the summit.

While not the steepest, it offers a different challenge to the short, sharp climbs more commonly associated with the race.

Cote de la Redoute (Liege-Bastogne-Liege) – 2.1km at 8.4%

Perhaps the most famous of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege climbs, La Redoute can be split into three distinct sections.

La Redoute lulls you into a false sense of security with the gradient on the lower side of the 8.4 average, but the scenery is nothing to shout about as you approach a large bridge across which runs the N662 motorway.

Things only get tougher from there, with a heavy 7-8 per cent section running parallel to the main road before there’s a left-hand bend which leads to the toughest part of the climb, where the gradient doubles and the road narrows.

At its steepest, the road reaches 17 per cent and is comfortably in double figures from a long stretch before things flatten out towards the summit. Coming less than 40km from the finish, La Redoute plays a key role in the outcome of Liege-Bastogne-Liege – if you don’t have the legs here then there’s not much chance of coming back.