Cycling stops in Flanders

33 places · 24 routes · Belgium

Flanders is where road cycling keeps its liturgy: the Ronde in April, the cobbled bergs of the Flemish Ardennes, the Zesdaagse filling Ghent's Kuipke velodrome in winter.

The bergs themselves are tiny. The Paterberg is 370 metres, the Koppenberg the same, the Muur climbs less than a hundred metres above the Dender. They are famous because they are paved in squared granite blocks, and because a hundred years of racing has arranged them into an afternoon.

Between them sit the cafés, and in Ghent the velodrome. De Karper beside the Kuipke is the Keisse family's brown café, and has been the Six Days' living room for as long as anyone can remember.

Cafés

't Juiste VerzetCafé · KluisbergenA cycling café built into a farmhouse on the Oude Kwaremont, run for over two decades by Annie Vermeulen.Brouwerij De Halve MaanCaféBrouwerij De Halve Maan is a family-run brewery on Bruges' Walplein, brewing since 1856 and still producing the city's own Brugse Zot beer.Café BoutiqueCaféCafé Boutique is a cyclists' bar at the foot of the Kemmelberg, run by former amateur racer Pieter and home to the local cycling club De Vlammers.Café d'Oude HoeveKoers Cafe · KwaremontAn authentic mid-19th-century café on the Ronde van Vlaanderenstraat in Kwaremont, close to the top of the Oude Kwaremont climb on the Tour of Flanders course.Café De KarperCafé · GhentCafé De Karper is a traditional brown café on Gent's inner ring, a short ride from Het Kuipke where the Zesdaagse van Vlaanderen is raced.Café FringaleCafé · ZoerselCafé Fringale is a specialty espresso bar in Zoersel, opened in 2021 by Kris Boeckmans, the retired Lotto-Soudal sprinter who took eight UCI wins in 2015 inc…Café VlissingheCaféCycling HubCafé · GeraardsbergenA cycling café, bike shop and training centre a few hundred metres from the Muur van Geraardsbergen, opened in 2024 by four cycling enthusiasts.Flandrien Hotel ClubhouseCaféThe Clubhouse is the social heart of Flandrien Hotel, a boutique cycling-themed hotel in the Flemish Ardennes near Brakel.In de VredeCaféIn de Vrede is the café and visitor centre of Sint-Sixtus Abbey in Westvleteren, the only place in the world licensed to serve Westvleteren Trappist beer.KOERSkaffeeMuseum cafe · RoeselareThe café of KOERS.NOIR CoffeeCaféNoir Coffeebar is a specialty coffee bar and roastery on Naamsestraat in central Leuven, run by Kris van Guyse of the Tāne Roasters Collective along with Mur…Peloton CaféCafé · OudenaardeThe house café of the Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen, the Tour of Flanders museum on Oudenaarde's Markt, in the modern race's finish town.VELO Food & DrinksCafe · BaalEetcafe on the first floor of the Sven Nys Cycling Center on the Balenberg in Baal, run personally by the retired cyclocross champion and his partner Anneke …Vitesse Coffee & CyclingCaféVitesse Coffee & Cycling is a cycling-themed coffee and lunch bar in central Antwerp, near the Antwerp Zoo and a short walk from Central Station.

Climbs, views & nature

Begijnhof Ter HoyeProtected areaThis walled beguinage, founded in 1235 by the Countess of Flanders, is considered the best-preserved beguinage from before the French Revolution.KemmelbergPeak · 154 mKemmelberg is the highest point in West Flanders at 154 metres, and its cobbled climb through the woods above Kemmel village has become the showpiece of Gent…KoppenbergPeak · 77 mThis 600-metre cobbled climb averages 11.6 percent and hits 22 percent near the top, rising 64 metres through a narrow, grass-banked corridor.OudebergViewpointThe Oudenberg is a witness hill in the Flemish Ardennes, its western slope cut into a deep valley by the Dender river while the eastern side falls away more …PaterbergPeak · 80 mThis 360-metre cobbled climb averages 13 percent, with pitches over 20 near the top, making it the shortest and steepest of the Tour of Flanders' bergs.RaspaillebosNature reserveRaspaillebos is a 50-hectare forest reserve on the slopes of the Bosberg in the Flemish Ardennes, protected as a landscape since 1980 and recognized as a Nat…

History & landmarks

Bijlokehospitaal en Bijlokeklooster van CisterciënMonasteryFounded in 1204 by Ermentrude Utenhove, this Cistercian hospital and abbey relocated here around 1228 and served as Ghent's main hospital for 750 years, once…Commandobunker KemmelHistoric site · HeuvellandIn the flank of the Kemmelberg, Flanders' highest hill, lies a 20-meter-deep Cold War command bunker built by the Belgian army between 1951 and 1953 as an ai…GravensteenCastleThe Gravensteen, or Castle of the Counts, is a moated medieval fortress built in 1180 by Philip of Alsace, possibly inspired by crusader castles he had seen …Het PandMonasteryHet Pand began as a hospital in 1201 before Dominican friars took it over in 1228, building it into a monastery beside the Leie river in Ghent's Onderbergen …LakenhalleBuilding · IeperThis vast Gothic cloth hall in Ieper's market square was built between 1200 and 1304 as the trading center of Flanders' medieval wool industry, its 70-metre …Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van KerselarekapelChapelThis brutalist concrete chapel crowning the Edelareberg near Oudenaarde marks a pilgrimage site dating to 1452, when a healing Marian statue was hung on a ch…Oude KwaremontAttractionThis 2.2-kilometre cobbled climb is the longest in the Tour of Flanders, gaining 92 metres at an average 4 percent but pitching to 11.6 percent partway up.Sint-HermesbasiliekChurchRonse's Sint-Hermesbasiliek is a late-Gothic church whose 79-metre tower was rebuilt after English soldiers burned the town in 1424, finished by 1526.Sint-MaartenskerkHistoric church · IeperSint-Maartenskerk, Ypres's towering former cathedral, rises 102 meters over the market square, among the tallest buildings in Belgium.Sint-WalburgakerkHistoric church · OudenaardeOudenaarde's Sint-Walburgakerk is a collegiate church honoring the city's patron saint, its 88-meter tower (built 1498-1624) a landmark visible for miles aro…SpanbroekmolenkraterMine craterThis water-filled crater is what remains of the largest of 19 British mines detonated at 3:10 am on 7 June 1917 to launch the Battle of Messines, when 41,000…Stadhuis OudenaardeTownhall · OudenaardeOudenaarde's town hall was built in Brabantine late-Gothic style between 1526 and 1537 by architect Hendrik van Pede, echoing the grand town halls of Leuven …

Climbs

Berendries0.9 km · 6.8%Boigneberg1.4 km · 4.1%Bosberg1.3 km · 4.7%Buikberg1.2 km · 2.1%Eikenberg1.0 km · 5.3%Kanarieberg1.1 km · 8.1%Katteberg0.8 km · 5.4%Kemmelberg1.1 km · 6.6%Knokteberg (Côte de Trieu)1.9 km · 4.9%Koppenberg0.4 km · 8.6%Kruisberg1.2 km · 3.3%Leberg0.9 km · 3.2%Molenberg0.3 km · 6.5%Muur van Geraardsbergen0.9 km · 6.6%Oude Kwaremont1.8 km · 4.5%Paterberg0.4 km · 10.0%Rekelberg0.5 km · 4.8%Stationsberg0.8 km · 2.1%Steenbeekdries0.7 km · 2.9%Taaienberg0.7 km · 5.3%Tiegemberg0.9 km · 4.4%Valkenberg0.8 km · 3.5%Volkegemberg0.5 km · 6.6%Wolvenberg0.8 km · 4.8%
HISTORY
Sint-Walburgakerk
LimoWreck, CC BY-SA 3.0· Wikimedia Commons

Sint-Walburgakerk

Oudenaarde · Flanders

Oudenaarde's Sint-Walburgakerk is a collegiate church honoring the city's patron saint, its 88-meter tower (built 1498-1624) a landmark visible for miles around. The church combines a 12th-century Tournai-stone choir with a 16th-century Gothic nave, blending two distinct building periods. Inside, richly decorated in Baroque style, it holds sculpture, polychrome statues, and tapestries. Its historic carillon marked its 500th anniversary in 2010.

The church was pillaged bare during the Iconoclastic Fury of 1566, which is why nearly everything inside today, the altars, the sculpture, the tapestries, was made in the two centuries that followed rather than before it. One of its fourteen chapels is dedicated to Saint Barbara, patron saint of weavers, a fitting dedication in a town that built its wealth on tapestry making. War came back twice: shelling during the Battle of the Scheldt on 1 November 1918 wrecked the tower and choir and left the stained glass never fully restored, and further damage in the Second World War meant repairs dragged on until 1949. A full restoration of the building was completed in 2019.

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From riders

What you'll see

The tower's Baroque cap, added in 1620, was meant to carry a slender spire above it, but a lightning strike burned that spire away in 1804 and it was never rebuilt, leaving the tower's crown blunter than its Gothic body below.

Practical

Open to visitors on select afternoons, Tuesday through Sunday, from April to September, with longer hours in summer; guided tours can be booked outside those times.

Common questions

Why stop at Sint-Walburgakerk on a bike ride?
Oudenaarde's Sint-Walburgakerk is a collegiate church honoring the city's patron saint, its 88-meter tower (built 1498-1624) a landmark visible for miles around. The church combines a 12th-century Tournai-stone choir with a 16th-century Gothic nave, blending two distinct building periods. Inside, richly decorated in Baroque style, it holds sculpture, polychrome statues, and tapestries. Its historic carillon marked its 500th anniversary in 2010.
Where is Sint-Walburgakerk?
Sint-Walburgakerk is in Oudenaarde, Flanders (Belgium).

Checked 13 August 2026

Church towerCarillonTapestry heritageWar damage

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Photo: LimoWreck, CC BY-SA 3.0 · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Sources: OpenStreetMap