Georg

Continued with the plan to cyle along all of Belgium's canals. This time, headed back to the north. The spring-like weather was perfect for that. Finished by a short detour to the gigantic construction site for the Oosterweelverbinding.

A beautiful tour through the snow, mostly inside forest areas. Relatively short, as riding through the snow required quite a lot of power, resulting in the lowest average speed I have ever cycled at. However, the scenery was well worth it.

Tour in underestimated freezing cold and with continuous headwind. The crackling snow sounds wonderful under the tyres, but slows down the speed even more. First tour after switching to tubeless – at least no more flat tyres this time, even if the system still needs optimisation.

The original plan was to cycle furthermore along the Leie to Deûlémont and from there along the Deule till the Citadelle in Lille. Unfortunately, a first flat near Wilsbeke and then another one behind Kortrijk, apparently due to a damage of the tyre that i wasnt able to identify. Therefore broke off the track at Menen/Halluin and took a shorter, more direct route to Lille from there. ‍

Shorter tour along the Lieve- and Schipdonkkanaal, terminating at the Christmas market in Bruges.

Medium Cross-Country tour mainly based on the MTB route ‘Beringen Zwart’. Several changes have been made especially in the area south of Beringen and Heusden to reduce the amount of paved pathes there, which many do criticise on the ‘official’ route. Start moved from Heusden to Beringen, as there is a nice single trail along the SNCB route, perfect for the warm up. The MTB park at be-MINE on the terril in Beringen is absolutely fantastic – unfortunately, there was a running race scheduled there on Sunday, so parts of it were not really usable. At the and added another ca. 20km via ‘De Wijers’ to Hasselt. The section west of the Albert Canal can be completely omitted, as there is absolutely nothing to experience there for MTB/CC.

Sports-oriented tour to train energy/strength distribution over longer distances. Including travel to/from Landen station + some points in Liége a total of 162.41 km on that day done! The landscape, apart from the Groeve De Keel and Fort Eben-Emael, are unfortunately rather boring. The canal is a canal and looks largely identical along most of its length, and the ports, e.g. in Genk, are not exactly eye-soring either. Even the locks and most of the bridges are standard elements that are simply repeated in copies over and over again. After 5 kilometres, you have seen everything and feel like you are in a constant state of déjà vu.

Tour along the Lesse and Meuse rivers from Marloie to Namur. Stages and visits: Old train depot Jemelle, Ravel 150b Jemelle - Hoyete, Ancient Gare Royal d'Ardenne, short hiking tour with bike on the back near Gendron, Château de Walzin, confluence of the Lesse and Meuse in Anseremme, Rocher Bayard, Dinant, EuroVelo 19 ‘La Meuse’, Citadelle de Namur. Weather conditions OK, first section dry, then light snow for a while after Hoyete and some drizzle after Dinant.

Last link completed: The tours in Luxembourg are now also connected to the rest: No more gaps in my personal network. Unfortunately, despite "road bike routing", I was guided through several kilometres of terrain that was difficult to pass with that bike, resulting in a considerable loss of time due to lower speed then calculated. Planned bonus tour to Luxembourg City then canceled, as I would not have been able to catch the train there otherwise.

Follow-up to finally connect my routes in the Ardennes with the rest of my network on the map. Short detour to the race track in Francorchamps. Due to the autumn weather, unfortunately everything was covered in wet leaves and often extremely slippery, so for most parts only possible to ride with extreme caution, concentration and reduced speed. A shame, because many of the routes – such as the Ravel 44a – would be perfect for racing if in good conditions. This is particularly annoying because the cleaning service leaves a lot to be desired. In some cases, the roads themselves are swept, but the cycle lanes directly adjacent to them are not, which leads to incredibly dangerous situations.