Riding Tour of Flanders Route

[Lovetoclimb]

Hemming and Hawing over a weeklong Belgium trip the first week of April. Culminating with watching the race live of course. I really want to ride the iconic parts of the race course which looks doable from Ghent or Oudenaarde keeping the total distance <150km.

Question for anyone who has done the route, is it open during the weekdays leading up to the sportive and professional race? Having received some advice from friends who have been there multiple times, they said the sportive can be a madhouse what with the 15,000 rider cap. So a bit more peace and quiet would certainly be nice. Having to refuel at gas stations or cafes may be difficult but maybe my German would get me far enough ...

Any help or advice is much appreciated.

[herb5998]

Super easy to hit the various highlights, there are very well marked and color coded signs for each version of the various routes. Most of the roads for the bergs aren't really used by normal traffic, so you won't be fighting a bunch of people, unless they are all trying the same leading up to the sportive.

[sailorboy]

I've done the sportif and yes, it is crowded at times, but if you do the full route it actually thins out pretty good on the roads due to the long distance but the feeds are where it is utterly mad. I would suggest just hitting a local bakery somewhere for a ham brioche or something since the stuff at the official feeds was mostly sugary and had little protein anyhow.

Since it sounds like you are just trying to do it on your own which should be easy if you used the ridewithgps or similar websites to save the route to your garmin or smartphone. It's a beautiful place to ride the bike, especially when you get out into the bergs and old narrow farm roads toward the end where the actual race really goes into the next gear. Enjoy!