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.
138 km from Spangen to Spangen, about 2 h 47 of riding. On the way it passes Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout, Woerden-Centrum and back through Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 26 km this is Zeeland Delta Works Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Van Nelle factory, on the edge of Rotterdam, is one of the most beautiful industrial buildings ever made. Built between 1925 and 1931 for a company that processed coffee, tea and tobacco, it is a long, light building of glass and steel, with curtain walls that let daylight flood into the workspaces. The designers, Johannes Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlugt, created what became an icon of modernist architecture, a factory of light and air for its workers. It was added to the UNESCO list in 2014.
Read the complete Van Nellefabriek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Van Nellefabriek is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Woerden-Centrum.
Woerden is a small Dutch town on the Oude Rijn, the old Rhine, halfway between Utrecht and Leiden, in the middle of the Green Heart of Holland, a landscape of polders, meadows, ditches and cows. Its centre is a compact old town ringed by canals, with a castle, a big church and a windmill on the old ramparts. The Romans were here too: Woerden lies on the line of the Lower German Limes, and the remains of a Roman fort lie beneath the town centre.
Read the complete Woerden-Centrum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Woerden-Centrum. Next is back through Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout, late in the day. Next is Van Nellefabriek.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Van Nellefabriek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Van Nellefabriek. That is the ride.
Van Nellefabriek → Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout → Woerden-Centrum is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Woerden-Centrum → back through Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout → Van Nellefabriek is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.