The fall and rain is coming in Norway, and this mean that is a great time to write up a experience share post on the bikepacking trip to Belgium and France this summer. We clearly took away some massive learnings – but also found some nice tips and tricks for later bikepacking trips.
Planning phase
First out was the planning phase – we have a good cycling background, but very limited experience in living on and with the bike for almost a week. On my personal side I am used to two to four hours rides during weekends, and several two to three hour rides during the week, combined with some swimming and running.
We agreed on the destination airport and looked at the map at spots that we wanted to visit. We knew that we wanted to cover historic places, famous cities and cycling history with the climbs and cobbles of tour of Flanders and the velodrome in Roubaix.
From marks on the map, we went to Google Maps and allowed it to create the best cycling routes between our points of interest. This was the first massive positive experience – using Google Maps to create cycling routes in Belgium was a blast – we had no issues with traffic and mainly cycled on cycling path on the side of the road. To get the route into our Garmin Edge, I exported the route from Google Maps, into the route builder on Strava – and from there I exported the GPX file from Strava to Edge through the sync function. It was surprisingly easy.
We booked in hotels for each part of the trip, but kept the opportunity for late cancellations – as we had no clue if we would make it to our set destinations. When booking flights, we decided to fly in late the night before our planned start to have time to put our bikes together at the airport and make sure that we got a good breakfast before rolling out on day 1.
Packing phase
As mentioned, this was new to us – and we had no clue what to pack and how to fit our pack on the bike. On my BMC Teammachine SLR Disc, it turned out that I had very limited space for bags. As I run a small 51” frame, and had no space for a framebag – and with a low and narrow bar I could not fit a big bag there either – so I ended up with a set up that used two bags from Restrap. On the seat I attached the biggest Saddlebag and as a tiny excuse for the bar bag I used their “Canister bag”
Due to limited space I had to prioritize what to bring and I ended with this:
- Clothes (Cycling shirt x5, undershirts x2, Boxers, Wind Proof Gilet, Bibs x2, Casual tshirt x2, Casual hoodie, Casual trousers, Leg and Arm warmers, Rain jacket, Socks)
- Bike gear (Lights front and back, Garmin Computer, Powerbank, Pump and tubes, multitook, bottles, helmet)
- Other (Selfie-stick, Snacks for 1 day, Passport, Phone, Di2 and phone chargers and wallet, sunscreen, sunglasses, and pain-killer gel)
Looking back we did not feel that we had forgot anything – but we felt that we had very limited space when repacking every day.
Day 0 – experiences from our “Prolog” (5km, 44m elevation, 18 min moving time)
We landed around 19.00 in Brussels and got our luggage swiftly even though it was check-in among the odd sized luggage. A tip is to empty the wheels for air before packing the bike, because airport security might want you to unpack the bike if you haven’t done it…
Nevetheless, we took our stuff out to the carpark and started putting our bike together. This turned out to be the first challenge of the trip as I haven’t done it in the past. It took me above 1 hour in a sweaty carpark before I could start biking on a bike that I did not really trust was put properly together. Anyways – we decided to leave our bike boxes in the airport. Brussels Airport has a very nice service where they store odd sized stuff for a daily fee. You simply call a phone number, and they help you out.
From here – we took the short ride to the nearest Holliday In Hotel to get a good nights sleep. You can read more about this first stage here
A key learning from this day is to bring a proper pump, because our small pump only allowed us to get less than two bar of pressure (compared to my normal 5.5 bar pressure). Adding on the between 8 and 10 kilos of bikepacks to the bike – this would lead to punctures on Day 1 – so stay tuned 😉
Day 1 – Crossing Belgium from Brussels to Blankenberge (153 km, 501m elevation, 6.50.18 moving time)
First proper day at the saddle – and it was going to be a rough one. We had planned for a long day, and because it was very flat, we estimated an average speed of close to 30 km/hrs – however, we did not take into account the headwind and all the small villages, red lights and low tire pressure that was going to slow us down.
Biking out at 09 after a good breakfast, we headed north of Brussels to avoid the Monday morning rush hour – and to be honest we did not see any rush hour this morning – maybe due to the summer vacation in Belgium.
Just an hour and half into the ride, when the rain started drizzling and we had passed through some cobble in a tiny village, my inner tube decided that it had got enough of this trip. A tiny snakebite was enough, and we had to take the time to change it. When changing it we also discussed the reason for the puncture, and we both saw that we had very low tire pressure, and that our rims almost hit the asphalt while biking – so in the next city we found a bike shop that help us out. It is the only time in my like I have paid 2 Euros for air – per bike – but it was the best investment of the trip, no doubt about that.
On our way to Ghent we bike a lot along the channel, which on a day with tailwind would have been a blast. However, flat open lands, and heavy wind from west to east made those kilometers along the channel rough. In Ghent we stopped for lunch and after some sightseeing, we biked to Bruges where we had dinner. The ride between the two cites was quite a bit of “transport” and just about getting the job done. The same was for the last leg into Blankenberge. The full ride report can be found here – where you also will find the GPX if you want to go for the same cycling path.
To our surprise, the city of Blankenberge was very busy, and we found out that we had landed in the Belgian summer paradise. It is fair to say that we were probably the only Nordic tourists, but the hotels were packed. We had a nice sunset by the sea before heading in getting ready for day 2.
Day 2 – Along the Coast to Dunkirk, up Kemmelberg, and into Roubaix (160km, 776m elevation, 6.38.26 moving time)
It was the day of boarder crossings, and a high number of boarder crossing as we would see when checking the map after the ride. Nevertheless, we started out early at 09.00 on this day where we had planned to get at much historic places into our ride as possible. The weather was gray ish, and we had a forecast of both rain and wind – but we were prepared, and happy that the wind was coming from the north. The details of this day can be found on the report: https://www.bikeabout.cc/2022/08/16/stage-2-blankenberge-via-dukirk-to-roubaix/ but a summary of the day below:
Following the coast we did our second very smart move for the trip, we stopped and bought 30 energy bars and stuffed our pockets full – looking back this saved me from having a taxi ride on day three – more about that later..
Along the coast we biked all the way down to De Panne before our first stop for the early lunch coffee and checking tripadvisor for “Great Places to see” in Dunkirk in relation to the second world war (WWII). One recommendation is to stop by the “Les Fort Des Dunes”, just before heading into Dunkirk.
From the crossing of the boarder into France, the rain had started drizzling and we did not stop long before moving on from Dunkirk into the more inland parts of France. On the way we missed the city of Bergues that when checking later probably had been worth a stop. The same goes for the city of Poperinge, after we had crossed back into Belgium, but this was also a city that we skipped. However, one attraction that we did not skip – but nor planned – was to go by Kemmelberg probably the hardest climb in the area according to the locals.
We had not planned it, but when we saw the sign of 17% incline and got a “hill segment” up on our Garmin Edge, we knew that we were approaching a hill. At the foot of it we met some locals that had just got a puncture – but had no pump. We helped them out, and also got they question why we had chosen this climb with “all that gear on your bikes”. It was a wise question, those few hundred meters with 17% climb on cobles, required the lightest gear just to get to the top.
After Kemmelberg we felt it was almost downhill into Roubiax where we stopped for the night. Looking back, we though it would be a lot to see in Roubiax, but we were a bit disappointed and we were quite happy that we had limited time in the city.
Day 3: Roubaix, to trench of Arenberg, via Oude Kwaremont to Oudenaarde (119km, 623 elevation, 5.15.36 moving time)
Getting out of bed on day three, I started to feel that I had spend more time than normal on my bike. No doubt, we had already done above 300 km over the last two days – and for armature cyclists, that’s more than we normally do. Of course, we have big days, but normally that is followed by a rest day.
Nevertheless, we biked out at our normal start time at 09.00, heading for the Velodrome in Roubaix. The legendary finish line in the Paris-Roubaix was great to see in “real life”. Also, the fact that the velodrome is open for public made it possible for us to do a lap, and feel how it is to give it a small sprint. However, with bikepacks and heavy gear, biking the velodrome was not fun and we did not feel that we could give it all in in fear of crashing.
From the Velodrome we headed towards the trench of Arenberg (Arenberg Forrest / Trouée d’Arenberg. The trench as always been a dream to bike – watching the Paris-Roubiax and the peloton hammering into the cobbles – now it was our turn to feel the hard cobbles. It was rougher than expected, and I felt bad for my BMC teammachine – but luckily it survived without any broken parts or punctures.
From here, we pointed our nose back north towards Belgium – and we did not really know when we crossed the border, and we suspect that it was in the middle of one of the massive corn (?) fields. Another issue we ran into was getting food and water – in the area near the border, and on the back roads that Google had chosen for us – we did not meet any cars, but nor did we find a place to pick up some food. As we were about to get low on energy, and tried snacking and eating the energy bars we had – we randomly came across a grocery store with the light turned off. We assumed it was closed, but as we were desperate for food we stopped. Surprisingly, the store was open, it just had the light off to save in on energy bill putting some perspective on the energy pricing….
Before we got into Oudenaarde, we had to try one for the famous climbs of the Tour de Flanders – Oude Kwaremont. However, I had just put in the top of the hill on the Garmin and it turned out that we climbed it on the wrong side, and only half of it. We understood that something was wrong, as our climb did not have cobbles – then we just has to find another way to climb it to do it the correct way – but also this time we made a mistake – we only climbed half of it…
Nevertheless, it was not time to get to Oudenaarde, and that was just in time. I was about to tank on low energy and the date bars from day two came in and saved my ride. I could really feel the bad mood coming in – and a key learning from this is to always have enough energy available to keep the good atmosphere going.
Oudenaarde on the last note was a brilliant city to stay in – a definitely place to visit if you are a passionate cyclist.
Day 4 – A mini-Tour of Flanders covering some of the legendary KOMs (89 km, 1090 elevation, 4.32.40 moving time)
It might have been the amazing dinner on Day 3 – or just a good night sleep – but the body felt amazing getting out on day 4. Further, we had booked two nights on the hotel in Oudenaarde so we felt our bikepacks when we headed out for the legendary climbs of the Flanders. Having a bike with half the weight and good weather – all the arrows was pointing towards a good day.
We had a plan – climbing as many climbs as possible, and the best way to check them out is to look at the map here.
We again took on the Oude Kwaremont, now the correct way all the way from the bottom and to the top – the rough cobbles felt different but still hard even with “naked” bikes. Further, climbing the KOMs also meant that we had to bike down some of the cobbles – and that was scary!
From Oude Kwaremont – we went to Koppenberg – and after about two hours of biking – and about an hour of stopping to take photos – we stopped for coffee and lunch in Ronse.
After a good coffee we climbed the heavy Kruiseberg. From here we had several climbs and small bumps
When we had completed the initial route – we had “just” been out biking for three hours. Based on this we decided to go for the three first climbed one more time – just to put up our best effort by setting a our best climb time.
Day 5 – Last day, from Oudenaarde, via Muur van Geeraarsbergen, to Brussels Airport (87km, 752m elevation, 4.14.53 moving time)
We were ready for our final day, 87 km from Ouudenarde to Brussels Airport – to reach out flight in time we decided to start out quite early, just after 09.00. We had several extra hours but we knew that a simple small break-down on rural side road, could take us hours to get fixed of find pickup – so our strategy was to get to Brussles as fast as possible, and relax from there.
The intention for this day was to have a chill day with flat roads – but, quite early on we got a climb up on the Garmin… One that we had not planned – and a name that we both knew… Muur van Geeraarsbergen. It was a heavy climb, on cobbles, but the view was worth it! And from the top, it felt like we rolled all the way into Brussels – at least from my memory 😊 We tried to take it chill, as showers at the airport was very limited, and we had a two hours flight home.. More detals on the report here
When in Brussels we did the normal sightseeing, an nice lunch and set off to the airport. We had a good gap of four hours till take-off, but damn, that bike had taken a turn during the last 600 km and all screws and bolts had tightened. Putting the bike together took more than an hour, and I am sure that also taking it apart took as long time.