I am back home after a fabulous week+ cycling in Flanders with good friends from Podium Cafe.
Below is a map with several of my rides that visit many of the most famous cobbled helligens (or bergs) of West Flanders. The routes were designed by my Flemish friend Bram and take care to use quiet, interesting roads as much as possible. Fantastic local knowledge!
Last week I rode four of the five routes and thoroughly enjoyed them all (I didn’t manage the blue route).
For more Flanders route ideas see:
- The Tour of Flanders Cyclosportive (141 kms) – challenging.
- The Ypres Peace Route (57 kms) – great!
- The Paris-Roubaix Challenge Sportive (145 kms) – bumpy.
- This great web site with many rides listed
Several of the routes overlap. Just enlarge map and click the desired route to put its line on top. The side information panel will also provide a fairly complete list of bergs for each loop. Email me if you want gpx files, or download them from the strava links below.
Green Route – Koppenberg, Paterberg, etc.
The green route is a superb loop featuring many famous little Flemish bergs including the legendary Koppenberg, Paterberg, Kwaremont, Taaienberg, Kortekeer, Hoogeberg, and Kruissberg.
Pink Route – The Muur van Geraardsbergen
The Pink route is a longer ride (87kms) through the Flanders countryside to visit the legendary Muur van Geraardsbergen (and the Bosberg), returning through Wallonia. Note, the route finishes with a couple of crazy steep little Wallonia climbs: Hameau les Papins (paved), and Mont St-Laurent (cobbled).
Red Route – Windmills
Heading north this is a more relaxed route. we actually deviated a little mid-way to visit the Molenberg (Mill Mountain).
Yellow Route – Wallonia
Bram led this ride through scenic parts of Wallonia. Some nice forest roads and several fun little climbs again visiting Mont St. Laurent and Hameau des Papins. We even went through the “hometown” of legendary Agatha Christie detective Hercule Poirot.
Below, we were trying to cycle a track that looked like a Flanders lion, but instead it looks like a chicken. 🙂
Blue Route
I didn’t ride the blue route, but Bram designed it so it must be good. You can see on the map the various helligens that it visits (including the Koppenberg).
Final Thoughts
I had an absolute blast biking in Flanders for the first time. But the secret to a successful cycling trip is good route planning. Many thanks to my great friend Bram for taking the time to design the above routes. Local knowledge is priceless.
