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.
From Leiderdorp it runs 229 km to Leiderdorp; allow about 3 h 34 of riding. The stops in between: Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk, Elst-Grote Kerk and back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 61 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The Rhine ends in a whimper rather than a bang. After its long journey from the Alps, its old main branch, the Oude Rijn, winds quietly through the flat polders of South Holland past Leiden toward the North Sea, and for the Romans this sluggish waterway was the northern frontier of the empire. At Roomburg, on the edge of Leiden and Leiderdorp, stood the fort of Matilo, guarding the river and the canal that linked it with the Meuse, and today its site is part of the Roomburgerpark, a green space with information points and outlines marking where the fort stood. It belongs to the Lower Germanic Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan is where the day begins. Next is Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk.
Two layers of Dutch defence history sit on top of each other just south-east of Utrecht. Around two thousand years ago, the Romans built a fort here called Fectio, at the point where a branch of the Rhine met the Vecht, with a harbour for the fleet that patrolled the river frontier. Its remains lie buried in the fields near Vechten and are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, a World Heritage site since 2021. Close by stands Fort bij Vechten, a nineteenth-century fortress of the New Dutch Waterline, a defensive system that could flood large areas of land to stop an invading army. That system is itself part of the UNESCO site of the Dutch Water Defence Lines. The fort now houses a museum explaining how the waterline worked, and how a country below sea level turned water into a weapon.
Read the complete Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk comes up about 55 km into the recorded legs. Next is Elst-Grote Kerk.
Elst is a commuter town in the Betuwe, the flat river island between the Rhine and the Waal, halfway between Arnhem and Nijmegen. At first glance there is nothing remarkable about its big brick church on the market square. The surprise lies underneath it. Excavations in the twentieth century found the remains of two Roman temples beneath the floor, built one after another on the same spot, dedicated to a local god adopted into the Roman world. The site belongs to the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, and the foundations can be seen in the church cellar when it is open.
Read the complete Elst-Grote Kerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 115 km into the recorded legs you reach Elst-Grote Kerk. Next is back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk, late in the day. Next is Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan. That is the ride.
Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan → Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk → Elst-Grote Kerk is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Elst-Grote Kerk → back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk is 59 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk → Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.