Fabian Cancellara will face a new challenge when he tries to defend his 2013 win in the Tour of Flanders as the course has been altered. The Swiss star praised the fact that the feared Koppenberg is now located closer to the finish and expects a harder and more selective race.

The course for the Tour of Flanders have been more heavily discussed than most other routes for the biggest races after organizers chose to move the finish from Meerbeke to Oudenaarde. The change saw the famous Muur and Bosberg being removed from the race and replaced by three laps on a finishing circuit that includes the Paterberg and the Oude Kwaremont.

While the two new climbs are mostly regarded as harder than their predecessors, the race has been less selective after the change was made in 2012. The finale contained too many long, flat stretches that forced riders to wait until the final passages of the climbs to make their final moves.

That will change in 2014 as the organizers have again changed the course. The final circuit has been removed and the riders will only do the Paterberg twice while they will still cover the Kwaremont three times. There will be more climbs and fewer flat sections in the finale and most importantly, the feared and brutally steep Koppenberg is now located only 44km from the finish.

Fabian Cancellara managed to triumph on the old course in 2013 when he got away from Peter Sagan on the final passage of the Paterberg but he is nonetheless in favour of the new changes. According to the Swiss, the finale will be more selective, thus suiting the powerful Swiss more than the faster riders.

“I think it will become even harder and more selective. We’ve seen in the past two years that there’s been a selection but not an explosion,” he told Cyclingnews “The Koppenberg is important because of its position but it depends on who has the legs. The race will be more open but it will also be more difficult, because it’s not just the Paterberg that will make the selection anymore.The Koppenberg will cause the big explosion and then the drama will unfold on the final two climbs.”

Cancellara has also won in the old finish in Meerbeke when he dropped Tom Boonen on the Muur in 2010. Stating that he prefers the Kwaremont-Paterberg over the Muur-Bosberg due to the harder nature of the climbs, he has a distaste for the final stretch from the Paterberg to the finish.

“The only thing I don’t really like on the new course are the last eight or nine kilometres on the big road,” he said. “Maybe they could find a road that turns right and left instead of that big wide road. On the old course, the road to the finish [at Meerbeke] was more undulating, but then on the other hand, I prefer having more pavé climbs like we do on the current course.”

The Tour of Flanders is not the only monument that will significantly alter its course in 2014. The longest of the classics, Milan-Sanremo, will include the Pompeiana climb in the finale and it is a general assessment that the race is now for the punchy climbers and no longer one for the sprinters.

Cancellara's Trek manager Luca Guercilena has told Cyclingnews that it will now be harder for the Swiss to shine in the race in which he won in 2008, finished 2nd in 2012 and 3rd in 2013. However, Cancellara still expects to be able to challenge the climbers despite the inclusion of the new ascent.

“A 300km race will always be hard in the finale, so we’ll have to see,” he said. “It’s an extra climb and it will hurt, but it depends on how the race unfolds. The attacks will come on that climb and the last one, but after 300km they are sort of ‘dead’ attacks. It’s possible that there’ll be a group of two or three at the finish instead of six or seven. But we’ll see. I haven’t thought about it too much.”

Cancellara is likely to start his season at the new Dubai Tour in the Middle East and will again focus on the cobbled classics in the first part of the season.