Cycling in Belgium

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naffets

Well-Known Member
Location
sheffield
Hi, planning on doing around a 100 odd mile circular loop,staying in brugge
does anyone have any knowledge of the area and is it do-able to encorperate any of the climbs from the tour of flanders?
As we have a car we are flexible on the start / finish
 
I've no knowledge of Belgium my self, other than Hercule Poirot but you could try a searching a routing site; I found this 102 miler, I've no idea how suitable it is though.
 

Christopher

Über Member
hi
Suggest you have a look at the website of the Ronde Museum in Oudenaarde:
http://www.rvv.be/en/tourism/routes
and there are three loops which, collectively, do the whole of the lumpy bits of the Ronde. You can get route brochures from the musuem, or just follow the signposts. There is also a hard-to-find map (in Flemish) that covers all the climbs, I found a copy in a bike shop there, cost 5 Euros. All the famous climbs except Kapelmuur are fairly near Oudenaarde.

I found the downhill cobbles to be quite tricky, the bike was drifting a bit with increasing speed. For some reason the pave is popular with motorcyclists and the Koppenberg and Paterberg are very narrow. Have fun - it is quite an experience!
 

monnet

Guru
When are you going? If you go for the weekend of Flanders you can ride the sportive the day before the race. It's only about €15 to enter, which you can do on the morning of the event and you get €5 back when you return your number.

There is a 140k route all well sign posted and thousands of cyclists and great feed stops. Absolutely brilliant day out and you'll do all the Flanders climbs. Best of all, the next day you can feel justified in stuffing your face with frites and beer as you watch the pros slog it out on the climbs.
 
OP
OP
naffets

naffets

Well-Known Member
Location
sheffield
Thanks for all the gen, a friend of mine did the flanders sportive last year and loved it
we are going on the may bank holiday weekend but now have a better idea after following everybodys suggestions
 

cygnet

Active Member
As well as the RVV routes mentioned by Frustruck, I found the node network very useful:
http://www.fietsroute.org/Cycle-Networks.php
Basically it's a series of numbered 'nodes' or road junctions. Not every juction is a node, but they all have signs to the next number(s). Plan your route, write down the numbers like a route sheet and off you go. The maps have distances between nodes on. Covers most of Flanders AFAIK

In addition to the RVV routes once you get to the Ardennes there are other similarly signposted routes (Adriaen Brouwer / Eddie Merckx / Watermills)

Enjoy, I have.
 
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