Ultimate Flanders 525

More than the 525 kilometres that separate you from Ypres, it is the six thousand meters of climbing that will put your endurance to the test. In Haspengouw the road rises and falls endlessly through a beautiful, rolling landscape of fields and orchards. The cycling race is less of a tradition here than it is further west, although new traditions are being built. The Kolmontberg, the Zammelenberg and the cobblestones of Manshoven, for instance, formed the battleground for the 2024 Road European Championships and the Tour of Limburg still proves where the strong are separated from the weak. You may ride your own rhythm here – but take care not to squander your strength. The real ordeal is yet to begin.

Leaving Limburg behind, you hardly notice the shift from Haspengouw to Hageland – the landscape looks much the same at first. Here, too, fruit is still grown in abundance, but a typical landscape feature appears more and more often on your route: sunken roads. Centuries of use and erosion have carved these tracks deep into the fertile Hageland soil. Beautiful, but treacherous! Many plunge sharply downhill, while others climb mercilessly, as in Sint-Katarina-Hauthem. Just beyond Hoegaarden comes the perfect storm: a steep sunken road where cobblestones seem to have been scattered into the clay by some unseen hand. Near the crest, the village church emerges through the canopy of overhanging trees. Could this be Hageland’s answer to the Muur of Geraardsbergen?

To speak of Hageland is to speak of the G.O.A.T., Eddy Merckx. The Cannibal may have spent a large part of his youth near Brussels but he was born in Meensel-Kiezegem, and the locals are still quite proud of that. No Ultimate Flanders route would be complete without a tribute to the greatest of all time. So, get ready for a big loop that swings north via Tienen. At café 't Klein Verlet, right opposite Merckx's birthplace, a statue unveiled in 2015 pays homage to his legend. Yet it is the vast mural painted across the café’s side wall that is worth a selfie. From here, you now continue on beautiful, small and still quite gently sloping roads through the fields and meadows of Flemish Brabant. 

The Brabantse Pijl may not be the most talked-about of the spring classics, yet its climbs are as punishing as those of De Ronde, the Omloop or the E3. If in Haspengouw or Hageland you ever toyed with the idea of dancing lightly on the pedals, the Smeysberg will now mercilessly crush that ambition. A road sign warns of a gradient of 17 percent, a brutal initiation into what makes "Cycling in Flanders" so notorious. And if that isn’t enough, the nearby Moskesstraat sets the standard even higher: steep, cobbled, and merciless.

Almost as iconic in Belgium as the Africa Museum, is what follows after you have climbed the Bekestraat, the Groeneweg, the S-bend and the Schavei in Overijse: the vast Sonian forest. A unique stretch of route to enjoy to the fullest. In the forest, brand-new asphalt suddenly turns into champagne gravel, while the centuries-old beeches around you rise like pillars in a cathedral of nature. When leaving the forest, the odometer nears 200 kilometres since you left Tongeren. Time for a local beer?

After the aperitif in Haspengouw, the appetizer in the Hageland and the starter in the Dijleland, it is time for the main course of this bikepacking: the Flemish Ardennes. After a relatively easy passage through the Pajottenland  we ride through Schepdaal, where Remco fever reigns year-round, it goes in the opposite direction to the old finale of the Tour of Flanders to check off a notorious cobblestone trinity. After the somewhat lesser-known Congoberg, you will go to the Bosberg and - of course - also the iconic Muur of Geraardsbergen. 

Geraardsbergen is a logical stopover if you cycle the route in four days. After 280 kilometres, you are just past halfway and in this area you can choose from a wide range of nice cycling cafes and lodgings. Bar Gidon on the ‘Markt van Geraardsbergen’ is the bar of former professional Fredje Penne while just around the corner The Cycling Hub boasts one of the coziest terraces in the city. A little further on in Parike, you can stay at the Flandrien Hotel or at Après-Vélo. You have ended up in the cycling heart of Flanders, that much is clear. You just ride on instead ? Then be sure to buy a mattentaartje in one of the bakeries and gain strength. Those extra carbohydrates will soon prove usefull....

We must disappoint those who thought that, just like for the cyclists in "Vlaanderens Mooiste", the suffering would come to an end in Oudenaarde. In the Tour of Flanders Centre, you will learn all about the history of the Hoogmis, but the real practical lesson lies ahead. The Koppenberg is rightly one of the Flanders’ climbs most feared by cycling tourists. When the cobblestones are slick with rain, there is little chance that you will make it to the top cycling. Hopefully your bike bags are not too heavily loaded? Every gram of extra weight seems to drag you back down again. But we have to move forward! On to more challenges in Maarkedal and Ronse. At the top of the Taaienberg, can you resist the urge to compare the circumference of your thighs with those of Tom Boonen? 

Anyone who hasn't cried out for his mother by this point should put a DNA sample next to that of Briek Schotte or Roger De Vlaeminck. The turning, climbing and descending will continue for a while. Self-chastisement is essential to becoming a better person – or in this case a better cyclist . Prepare for a hellish succession of Berg Ten Houte, the Kanarieberg, the Oude Kruisstraat, the Hotondberg, the Paterberg, and finally the Oude Kwaremont. Now that you are probably hanging over the handlebars of your bike like a wet mop, you can catch your breath in the Ronde van Vlaanderenstraat at the bust of Karel Van Wijnendaele ('Koarle'), the original father of De Ronde.

You are now starting the last 'cycling race re-enactment': that of Ghent-Wevelgem. Then you also know that the 'plugstreets' are coming.

After that focus on the past, back to the here and now, because something appears at the end: the Kemmelberg. A comparison with the Ventoux may be a bit exaggerated, but in the otherwise almost flat West Flanders, the stone hill looks formidable. You can climb it on two sides, but fortunately we will keep it to one, the most difficult side: a wide cobblestone road that draws a straight line from the French 'Ossuary' with a gradient of more than 20% towards the top. The gigantic statue in honour of the French soldiers who died here is your target and is approaching painfully slowly. At the top you will breathe deeply but also with relief. After a last climb over the Monteberg and the Baneberg, you will likely be wanting to blast towards Ypres as quickly as possible. Well deserved !