Why this ride
From Utrecht it runs 239 km to Utrecht; allow about 3 h 35 of riding. It goes by way of Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk, Works along the IJ before Durgerdam and back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Utrecht-Domplein and Works along the IJ before Durgerdam
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 239 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 35
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Dutch Flower Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 59 km this is Dutch Flower Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 59 km
- Named road
- Dutch Flower Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Utrecht-Domplein
Dig under the Domplein in Utrecht and you hit a Roman fort. That is not a figure of speech: when the city was rebuilt after the great storm that brought down the nave of the cathedral in 1674, the foundations were already sitting on the foundations of something much older. The Romans built a fort here around the middle of the first century, on a low sandy rise beside the Rhine, and called it Traiectum, the crossing. When the legions left, the name stuck, and a thousand years of sound changes turned it into Utrecht.
Read the complete Utrecht-Domplein write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Utrecht-Domplein is where the day begins. Next is Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk.
2. Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk
The Vliet, a calm green waterway running between Leiden and The Hague, looks like any other Dutch canal, lined with reeds, cyclists and the occasional houseboat. But it follows, more or less, the route of one of the oldest canals in Western Europe. In about AD 47, the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo ordered his soldiers to dig a canal linking the Rhine and the Meuse estuaries, so that boats could move supplies along the coast without risking the North Sea. The historian Tacitus says Corbulo did it partly to keep his troops busy. Traces of the Fossa Corbulonis have been found here at Vlietwijk, near Voorschoten, and the site is part of the Lower German Limes World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2021.
Read the complete Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Works along the IJ before Durgerdam.
3. Works along the IJ before Durgerdam
East of Amsterdam, where the IJ widens into the IJmeer and the city gives way to water and sky, the old dike village of Durgerdam sits on a strip of land between the sea wall and the polders. Its wooden houses, painted in strong colours and leaning on each other along the dike, look out over a lake that was once the Zuiderzee, open to the North Sea until the Afsluitdijk closed it in 1932. The works along the IJ here belong to the Defence Line of Amsterdam, now part of the Dutch Water Defence Lines World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Works along the IJ before Durgerdam write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 119 km into the recorded legs you reach Works along the IJ before Durgerdam. Next is back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk.
4. back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk, late in the day. Next is Utrecht-Domplein.
5. Utrecht-Domplein
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Utrecht-Domplein write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Utrecht-Domplein. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Utrecht-Domplein to Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk
Utrecht-Domplein → Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk to Works along the IJ before Durgerdam
Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk → Works along the IJ before Durgerdam is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Works along the IJ before Durgerdam to back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk
Works along the IJ before Durgerdam → back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk to Utrecht-Domplein
back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk → Utrecht-Domplein is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.