Hi

Four of us are off to Oudenaarde for two nights next month. I’m looking at routes at the moment to take in all of the major cobbled climbs. I and one of the others want an epic ride, the other two want a ride that quickly dispenses of the days exertions to allow them to concentrate on beer and cigars….

So I’m looking at 35/40 miles as a loop hitting all of the big sections with an option for the two of us to crack on when they leave and re-do some of the sections again. The 70km Ronde van Vlanderen sportive route looks great and probably dont need to look further than that and I am also aware of signposted routes but do any of you have any avice onthese or ready made routes?

I’m also looking for a 20/30 mile route for a half day ride probably to the west/north west of the town (differet roads to the other route) if anyone has anything good.

Thanks

Steve

You’re quite right about using the 70km RVV route for capturing the hills.

If you want to ride north from Oudenaarde then it’s along the schelde jaagdpaad. (Towpath). It’s a normal road alongside the Schelde but closed to cars. There are always folks riding it. From Oudenaarde to Gent is 35km give or take.
Between those towns there isn’t much reason to stop to be honest.
West of Oudenaarde is also rather unexciting….

Perhaps a more pleasant ride would be to Geraardsbergen and to go up the Muur to the chapel?

The Schelde west of Oudenaard is very pleasant, you could then loop around the back of Kluisbergen, back over the hill to the Oude Kwaremont, then along to the Paterberg and finishing off on the Koppenberg all in a very compact area. You can also pick up local route maps at the RvV Centrum in Oudenaarde. For alternatives, check-out the Retroronde route which is basically 2 loops around Oudenaarde – misses out the Koppenberg and Paterberg, but you could easily add them.

Yep as above, buy a map in the RVV for a few euros will provide enough to keep everyone happy with route distances.

Blau route

Just lie about the length…

Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg, Koppenberg, other cobbled climbs, pretty well signed, cake shop on the route… finish at Flanders museam in Oudenaard for beers.

Brag for some time of you are the only one to clean all the climbs (none of us did…)

So as already mentioned best place to park is central Oudenaarde (easy to find) and it is roughly 3 euro’s for 4 hours to park in centre square, just to one side is the RVV museum. Get a map from there as it will have 3 loops on it, although they are 78km, 114km and 103km colour coded so you can follow the relevant colour signs (so technically you don’t need the map but easier to follow if you miss a junction plus can see which funky cobbled climbs you went up).

Be warned though each of these loops are seperate loops they don’t have the same bits in, easy enough to combine them though if you wanted to.

We went out again last weekend and I created a 35 mile loop (so shorter than the shortest map route) which is good as it takes in Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg, Koppenberg, Taainberg and Kluisberg and doesn’t take too long for those that want beers. If you want this let me know and I can always ping that over as a GPX file. Alternatively go on Strava and create one as so easy to do.

Good luck and enjoy it is the most fantastic place to ride! Ensure if you finish up at the RVV museum (showers for 2 euros), drink Kwaremont beer and eat a Tom Boonenaise 🙂

Madeupname what gears were you riding? OR was it gale force winds? We have ridden in Belgium a few times and yes some of the climbs are tough but not unrideable (unless you are riding with 24,000 others on a Sportif maybe!).Just use your MTB climbing tactics on some bits where your front wheel starts lifting!

Thanks all

Ridden around west Flanders several times but never tackled the classics climbs so really looking forward to it

Thanks for the advice, I like the idea of lying about the route length, I’m the only one who rides with a Garmin so easily done!

Great idea about riding up the Muur to the chapel on the other day will definately include that.

Cheers

all the above route ideas are great, but if you don’t mind a bit of route-plannng yourself then the FietsKompass App is a wonderful bit of technogeekery, drag and drop a route to fit your distance, and your phone tells you where to turn thanks to numbered signs at each junction

As above, blue is good but it’s worth either downloading a gpx or buying a map as I find it’s easy to miss an arrow. Gpx ftw really if you have a gps as it’s nice to just keep riding. I would go for the one from madeupname’s link above

I really liked the Muur-Kappelmuur and then big-ringing up the Bosberg like Eddy after 260km, and pretending to be Flecha actually chasing-down and catching Devolder before Ninove 8)