Belgium / Luxembourg / Eastern Germany / Netherlands

tomogriffo

Hi all

Planning a trip for September and looking to drive around northern Europe for 3 weeks. Will have the road bikes in tow and a rough itinerary. Can any recommend any areas in the above that are 'not to be missed' for road cycling?

vincesummerskRoxcBTr

We stopped in the Ardennes for a few days last year and found it was an excellent area for cycling, rural quiet roads and rolling scenery. There is a cycle route system which works well. Apparantly this covers all of Wallonia.

itboffin

I've just come back from 2 weeks drive/cycling across Europe, we'd sign up to the Maratona in the Dolomites, so decided to turn it into a tour, which was a great idea.

Eurotunnel to Calais with an overnight stop over in Reims (no cycling just rest) then on to the French Alsace for a few days in the, right on the German/Switz border and perfect for the Bellon's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vosges

Beautiful area, lovely people and great food and drink.

Then on to the Dolomites, which was just wow! everywhere you look, epic climbs, descents and some of the most amazing mountains anywhere I've ever been or seen. After an amazing four night there it was on to Austria, staying a km 0 of the Grossglockner it was pretty clear what needed to be done. 34km climb straight up, averaging 9-11% for a lot of the way, the summit was still draped in snow even in the boiling hot July sun, beautiful roads, smoother than a velodrome, apart from one rock which i managed to hit on the descent. 😆

Aside from that beast, we also road most of the Ironman 70.3 course, which was a delight, 99% of the route is on their extensive cycling network or traffic free mountain passes, most of their cycling infrastructure is better maintained than any of our UK roads.

of course no trip to Europe would be complete without extensive sampling of the local beers, repeatedly.

We would have loved to have stayed longer in Austria but next up was another visit to the Alsace, this time on the German side, for an overnight rest and walk in the Eppenbrunn forest. Amazing but don't forget your insert repellent, the horse flies are evil.

Again somewhere we could have spent much more time, and regretted not bringing our gravel bikes, next time!

Then it was on to Belgium via Luxembourg/France, two days in Ypres we managed to squeeze in a short section of the Gent-Wevelgem route, leaving plenty of time for Mussels and beer(s).

Finally the short drive back to Calais followed by seemingly endless UK road closures and road works, home to more rain and grey skies.

2 weeks wasn't enough, we should have gone for at least a month.