CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
246 km from Binche to Binche, about 3 h 22 of riding. It goes by way of Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A, Sint-Leonarduskerk and back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Once a year, on the Tuesday before Lent, the little town of Binche in Belgian Hainaut goes completely mad. The Gilles, men dressed in costumes decorated with heraldic lions, crowns and stars, wearing wooden clogs, padded humps and, in the afternoon, enormous hats of ostrich feathers, dance through the streets to the beat of drums from dawn until late at night, throwing oranges into the crowd. The carnival of Binche is one of the oldest and most famous in Europe and is listed by UNESCO as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. If you are hit by an orange, it is considered a sign of luck, and throwing it back is not done.
Read the complete Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Binche write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Binche is where the day begins. Next is Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A.
Brussels has a cathedral of trees. The Sonian Forest, or Zoniënwoud, covers about four and a half thousand hectares on the south-eastern edge of the city, and most of it is beech, tall grey-barked trunks that rise like columns, with a canopy so dense that the forest floor under it is open and dim. Some trees are two centuries old, and the pattern of straight, evenly spaced trunks comes from the way the forest was managed in the eighteenth century under Austrian rule, when foresters planted the stands in a deliberate style. Parts of the forest were listed by UNESCO in 2021 as part of the ancient beech forests of Europe.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sint-Leonarduskerk.
The church of Saint Leonard rises over the little town of Zoutleeuw, in the fruit-growing country east of Leuven, and it is far grander than the size of the place suggests. In the Middle Ages the town, known in French as Léau, was a prosperous trading centre on a route between Brabant and Liège, and its burghers put their money into stone. Work on the church began in the thirteenth century and went on for generations, giving a late Gothic body with a tall tower, rich sculpture and a lofty, light interior with white walls and tall windows.
Read the complete Sint-Leonarduskerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 122 km into the recorded legs you reach Sint-Leonarduskerk. Next is back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A, late in the day. Next is Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Binche.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Binche write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Binche. That is the ride.
Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Binche → Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A → Sint-Leonarduskerk is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sint-Leonarduskerk → back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A → Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Binche is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.