THE FLANDERS ROUTE

The North of Belgium on a bike

From 8 to 20 July, 2025

INTRODUCTION

  • BELGIUM consists of 3 REGIONS : The FLEMISH REGION (or “Flanders”, Vlaanderen) in the North, the BRUSSELS CAPITAL REGION in the centre and THE WALLOON REGION (“Wallonia”) in the south.
  • The FLANDERS ROUTE (“FR”) is a long distance cycle route and makes a LOOP around the Flanders Region of about 960 kilometers.
  • This route has little to do with the iconic TOUR OF FLANDERS race (“De Ronde van Vlaanderen”) held every year on the first Sunday of April and finishing in the mother of all cities: OUDENAARDE… The Tour of Flanders is the most famous/infamous of the Cycling Spring Classics
  • The FR connects the 8 Flemish Icon Routes, alldeveloped by Tourism Flanders and runs along the best of what our region has to offer in terms of nature, landscape, heritage and culture. 
  • The Icon Routes themselves knit together pieces of the Flemish landscape around a theme: the river Meuse (“De Maas”), the Coast, Art Cities, the Scheldt river (“De Schelde”), the Green Belt around Brussels (“De Gordelroute”), the Campine (“De Kempen” in NE Belgium which once existed mainly of heath, moors and wetlands), the frontline of 1914-18 and the Route of the Hills (“De Heuvelroute”).
  • As such the FR connects or passes by worldfamous cities: Brussels, Antwerp, Gent, Brugge (Bruges) and Interesting secondary cities, often carrying major historic relevance: Diksmuide, Ieper (Ypres), Kortrijk, Tongeren, Dendermonde, Oostende
  • But MOST IMPORTANT: the FR guarantees you a lot of CYCLING FUN ! So, while on the bike you can skip most cultural aspects and do them afterwards with public transport or by renting your own car. Anyway, when cycling you often don’t want to swap scenic tranquility for the stress of a city…!
  • The Southern Line of the FR, converging or running together with the HEUVELROUTE or  ROUTE of THE HILLS (the orange line)  does present you with most hills that figure  in the Spring Classics, and does not always shy away from the infamous cobblestones. This part of the FR counts for 4150 m elevation of a total of 4700 m (own measurements). This line offers you also the most cycling fun with biting ascents and sizzling descents… or because what goes up must go down..!
  • While cycling you will realize that the routes are NOT takingthe shortest possible distance between citiesbut usually make a detour to show a cute church, a beautiful market square, a brewery belonging to our industrial archaeology or other cultural heritage. In short: you will meet Flanders in a low-traffic and scenic way. With dangerously good Flemish dishes and drinks to complement…!
  • The route will surprise you every day with sparkling variety and beauty and is certainly not inferior to most other routes in European regions!!  We were especially pleased how much forest there still remains and how long the route sometimes runs through or along those forests! (But these will probably be almost the only forests that remain…?!)
  • We did the route on our gravel bikes (Stevens), with a backpack for the day and a saddle bag for the evening clothes! We would not recommend a racing bike; tires of at least 28mm are recommended. So, a touring bike does the job as well and allows you a higher load..
  • We did the Flanders route in 9 stages and thus cover the entire route:
  • From Oudenaarde (Schorisse) to Leuven (Korbeek Dijle)
  • To Tongeren
  • To Plombières (end of the Hill Route)
  • From Maastricht to Pelt
  • From Pelt to Antwerp
  • To Ghent
  • To Ostend
  • To Ypres
  • To Schorisse (Oudenaarde)

For some data on our route, please click on underneath file:

STATISTICS FLANDERS ROUTE Download

We will not describe each stage; you can look on the website of  Tourism Flanders:  Flanders Route | Iconic Cycle Routes You can also contact us for any advice recommendations!