Based in Vorselaar for next three months

Questions about bike hire abroad and everything light bike related. No off-topic chat please

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Tinea Pedis
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by Tinea Pedis

For racing. But also want to get out on the days off and ride other parts of Belgium/Europe.

How easy would it be for me to do a day trip to, say, the French Pyrenees? On paper, doesn't look easy.

Certainly want to ride some of the course of Flanders, Fleche, LBL and maybe even Roubiax. Other rides that people would recommend?

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Frankie - B
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by Frankie - B

The idea of a daytrip to the pyrenees isn't totaly doable ;) a weekend trip would be.

Oh, and if you want to visit Holland, you are welcome in my appartement.
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kevinkalis
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by kevinkalis

Drop me a message if you fancy doing a part of AGR, you're really close.
K2

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basilic
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by basilic

Pyrenees or Alps: you'll need several days to make it worthwhile, but it would be a shame to come all this way and not to. Most places will take all day to get to, e.g. the train from Brussels to Pau is 8-9 hrs at best. I would look for a morning flight into Zurich, get on the train at the airport, you could be in Andermatt by lunchtime. From there you have 2-3 days worth of different rides in a spectacular setting. Or get off the train in Schwyz (about an hour away from Zurich), do the Pragel/Klausen loop, and then to Andermatt in the evening or the next day.

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de zwarten
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by de zwarten

If you have a car and fancy hills, don't look much further in the first place than:
1. Amstel Gold Race parcours;
2. LBL parcours;
3. RVV parcours (PR just one hour further);
4. Vosges (5-6 hrs drive)
5. Swiss Alps
6. French Alps.

If you fancy riding around the RVV finale area, pm.
Don't forget you will have plenty of groups riding around Vorselaar, and you will encounter (almost weekly) a race in the nearby area.

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Tinea Pedis
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by Tinea Pedis

kevinkalis wrote:Drop me a message if you fancy doing a part of AGR

Sorry, 'AGR'?

/noobie to Belg

Riding those courses are super high on my list (love the Classics). Otherwise the racing is what I'll be there for.

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thencameyou
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by thencameyou

Tinea Pedis wrote:Sorry, 'AGR'? = Amstel Gold Race

Oswald
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by Oswald

This is a route that you need to do when in Belgium:
http://www.routeyou.com/route/view/1463 ... ollines.nl

And as mentioned before: LBL, Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold, ... you can find gpx files for those classics online. They are all within 1,5 hour car ride from Vorselaar. So you can make daytrips out of those.

A daytrip to the Alps is not realistic. You will need to go for at least 1 week as you need to drive for 1 day to get there and 1 day to get back.

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Tinea Pedis
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by Tinea Pedis

Oswald, could you please just elaborate on what that route takes in?

And I'm planning on taking my 705 with Opensource Maps on it.

Oswald
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by Oswald

You need to do the classics like Flanders Tour simply because they are... classics! They do all the famous climbs and cobbles, so if you're an avid cyclist you will want to do these at least once in your life. But what I don't like about them is the traffic. Sometimes there are long stretches of high traffic roads leading towards the hilly sections. You don't notice this on tv, because the pros take these at 50kms/h and the roads are free of traffic when the pros pass... And most of these sections are done by the time the tv starts broadcasting. But when you will ride it, you'll be going far slower with trucks flying by at 90kms/h...

This is where the 'route des collines' really shines. It crosses the Flanders - Walloon region, which means that you have the same kind of terrain as in Flanders, but the low traffic of the Walloon region. The scenery is sometimes breathtaking. It has some less known climbs, but they are hard nonetheless. For instance Hurdumont is 9,5% average and 16% max. And sometimes you only need to make a small detour of a couple of hundred meters to get on the famous climbs, like the Kluisberg which is 6,3% average and 14% max.
Last edited by Oswald on Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

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de zwarten
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by de zwarten

Fully agree with Oswald.

Franklin
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by Franklin

Tinea, you need the following (free!) maps:

http://www.openfietsmap.nl/

It's a rework of the Openstreetmaps, but completely focussed on cycling, complete with cycling roads. And yes, it's very up to date ;)

It's by far the best mapping solution for the Benelux.


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mythical
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by mythical

Europe welcomes you. :beerchug:
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ultyguy
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by ultyguy

If you make it down to Geneva/Haute Savoie, I'll show ya round and can help find a bed.

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