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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 267 km round trip from Lier - roughly 4 h 36 in the saddle. The stops in between: Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal, Wortel, Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout and back through Wortel. It crosses from Belgium into Netherlands - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
26 km on Stadhuis en Belforttoren → Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal.
Lier's Grote Markt is one of those squares that makes you slow down without being asked. In the middle stands an elegant eighteenth-century town hall in pale stone, and grafted onto its side is something much older: a slim Gothic belfry from the fourteenth century, its four corner turrets giving it the look of a castle chess piece. Together they belong to the group of Belgian and French belfries listed by UNESCO, symbols of the moment when medieval towns won their freedoms and built towers to prove it.
Read the complete Stadhuis en Belforttoren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stadhuis en Belforttoren is where the day begins. Next is Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal.
Rik Van Looy, one of the great Belgian cyclists of the 1950s and 1960s, was known as the Emperor of Herentals, which tells you something about the priorities of this town in the Kempen. Herentals lies on the flat heathland of the province of Antwerp, and in the middle of its market square stands the old town hall, built in the fourteenth century as a cloth hall, a lakenhal, when the town grew rich on wool and weaving. Its belfry is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France, a symbol of civic pride and of the freedoms that merchants bought from their lords.
Read the complete Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wortel.
Wortel is a village in the Belgian Kempen, near the Dutch border, and it is the Belgian member of a World Heritage group whose other two parts, Frederiksoord and Veenhuizen, lie in the Netherlands. The story begins in 1818, when a Dutch army officer, Johannes van den Bosch, founded the Society of Benevolence, an organisation with the grand idea of rescuing the urban poor by sending them to work on farms in the countryside. The first free colonies were founded in the Netherlands, at Frederiksoord, and in 1822 the society bought land at Wortel, then part of the same kingdom, and opened a colony there. When Belgium split away in 1830 the colony remained in Belgian territory.
Read the complete Wortel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Wortel. Next is Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout.
Nineteen windmills stand in two rows along the canals at Kinderdijk, their sails turning slowly against the wide Dutch sky, and it is one of the most iconic sights in the Netherlands. They were built in the eighteenth century to pump water out of the Alblasserwaard, a low-lying polder between the rivers Lek and Noord, which would otherwise be flooded. Each mill lifted water from a lower canal to a higher one, and from there it was let out into the river. Over time steam, diesel and electric pumping stations took over the job, and the most recent ones still keep the polder dry today. The mill network was listed by UNESCO in 1997.
Read the complete Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout, about halfway. Next is back through Wortel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wortel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Wortel sits at 178 km, about halfway. Next is back through Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal comes up about 242 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stadhuis en Belforttoren.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stadhuis en Belforttoren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stadhuis en Belforttoren closes the day.
Stadhuis en Belforttoren → Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal → Wortel is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wortel → Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout → back through Wortel is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Wortel → back through Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Voormalig Stadhuis / Lakenhal → Stadhuis en Belforttoren is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.