Tuesday - Arrival

• Arrival at Brussels or Charleroi airport or Lille Flanders train station. Depending on time between flight arrivals at different airports, we transfer our clients, luggage and bikes to a Bed & Breakfast in the Flemish Ardennes. Travel time from Brussels to B&B +/- 1h and from Charleroi to B&B  +/- 1h30
• Check-in & bike setup.
• Diner served between 18h00 & 19h00 and from 20h00 to 21h00 a welcome meeting to “Flanders Cycling Tours”  with a Belgian beer. The week schedule will be presented by Kortweg.

Wednesday - 1st ride: 80km of Flanders + brewery visit

At this first day of our Flanders Cycling Tour, we will start with breakfast between 8h15 and 9h00. At 9h45 we meet for the daily short briefing & supply and at 10h00-10h15 the 1st Tour of Flanders loop starts. Depending on the location of the B&B we ride on the following cobblestones sections: Paddestraat (2400 m), Lippenhovestraat (1300m), Kerkgate (3000 m), Doorn (1600m) and the cobblestone section in Wannegem Lede (1500 m).
Around noon, we stop at the Bostmolen in Roborst (lovely small town with an old mill, where we will take our daily Performance supply (Performance biscuits, gels, candy bars, fruit, isotonic drinks ).
After this sugar break we’re ready to climb the Molenberg (max 14%, 450m long) and Wolvenberg (max 17% 800m long)  
These are mostly the 1st hills in the real Tour of Flanders (TOF), where the riders hit the pedals like lightening!
On our tour we will stop in the small town of Mullem (probably for a coffee break).
Our estimated arrival time is at 15h30 and around 16h30 we leave for a brewery visit in Oudenaarde (or Gavere). 
Diner served around 19 PM
Free time after diner.

Thursday - 2nd ride: 100km to Roubaix

Today we will ride on the 'real' cobblestones, those from the end section in Paris-Roubaix.  After a nitricious breakfast we will start around 9h30 from the B&B towards Schorisse. From this point we’re riding through the 'Pays des Colines' (French-speaking part of the Flemish Ardennes).
This road never feels flat and meanwhile we’ll climb 'La Houppe' and 'Hameau Des Papins' riding towards Frasnez Les Anvaing where we take the Performance supply break.
From this point we’ll go directly to Camphin en Pévèle (3 stars rated and 1800 m long) & Carrefour de l’Arbre (4 stars rated in Paris Roubaix and  2100 m long), Gruson  (2 stars rated and 1100 m long). After these real cobblestones (please do not think that the Flemish cobblestones are just as hard) we ride towards the famous Vélodrome, finishline in Paris-Roubaix.  Before we finish we have to ride over the new cobblestones in Hem and those of Roubaix (both 1 star rated) .
Crossing the finish line probably after a nice sprint, we will take a refreshing and cold shower in the old Vélodrome building. This is exceptional, normally, only professional riders are allowed to do this.  
Very tired we’ll return home with our minivan and bike transport and take diner in the B&B.
On request (and to pay) we can organize a good professional sports massage!

Friday - Visit CRVV with Freddy Maertens and 3rd Ride: 50km to Ghent + 2h track racing

After the fantastic Roubaix ride, we fear some bad legs today and we’ll start later then usual. After breakfast we’ll come together and start at 10h30 towards Oudenaarde for a visit in the reality museum Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen with old World Champion Freddy Maertens! After this visit we’ll take an adapted sports lunch and around 14h30 we’ll start our flat cycling ride towards Ghent. We ride through Nederename towards Gavere and it continues practically almost flat towards Ghent.
Once arrived at the velodrome 'Eddy Merckx' around 18h30, we’ll take a Performance break. We change our road bikes for track bikes and have a track racing introduction for almost 2 hours.
Afterwards transport by minivan and bike transport to our B&B where we’ll arrive around midnight.

Saturday - 4th ride: 115km of Flanders + visit Ghent

For our 4th day we’ll take breakfast between 8h15 and 8h45, at 9h00 group meeting for the daily short briefing & supply. Start at 9h15 and depending on the location of the B&B we will ride the following hills : Achterberg (1300 m long  max 11 %), quick followed by Varentberg, Foreest and Steenberg (all of them max 13% but hard to climb).
We have little time for recuperation because the real first cobblestones of this ride 'The Haaghoek' is in front of us, 2000m of though riding and 4 stars rated in the Tour of Flanders. This is the 3rd section where riders makes the difference in the Tour of Flanders for pros.
A little stop at the end of the Haaghoek in Zegelsem, drinking isotonic drinks and eat some fruit.
We start climbing again Leberg, Berendries, Valkenberg (all max 12,5%) and Ten Bossestraat (8,7%).
After these 4 hills we’ll race towards Geraardsbergen where the famous 'Muur van Geraardsbergen' (the Wall) waits for us.1100m climbing on cobblestones with a max of 20%.
At the top of the Kapelmuur we’ll stop for a quick break, Performance supplies, drinks and eat a delicious Mattentaart in café “Hemelryck”.
After the break we’ll ride towards the Bosberg (400m in cobblestones and max 11%), very difficult after all these hills.  The legs will be feeling tired right now ….  but slightly downhill we’ll fly towards Ninove (where the finish is of the TOF), you feel no pain anymore in this section.
We’ll cross the finish line and we’ll ride back towards Oudenaarde, on our tour we climb Eikenmolen (610m long and max 12%) and Rekelberg (580m long and max 11%).
In Rozebeke or Sint Maria Horebeke we’ll stop for a short supply break before we have to do half the cobblestone section of Kerkgate and we finish in Oudenaarde at the CRVV, normally around 3PM.  We’ll ride back to the B&B where you’ll have the rest of the day free.
Around 18h  we go to the historical  center of Ghent, called “De Kuip” for a cultural, touristic and historical walk with dinner at different locations, taking about 3,5 hours.
We will arrive back at the B&B  before midnight.

Sunday - 5th ride: 80km of Flanders including the Koppenberg + Celebration dinner

The last cycling day of the Tour of Flanders Cycling Tour has arrived!  Many of the riders have already heard about the Koppenberg, Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg.  Today we will hit them! We’ll start around 10AM and ride from the B&B towards Tiegem where we climb the Tiegemberg.  Following we’ll ride smoothly towards the heart of the Flanders cycling tour. No less than 11 hills will be climbed, all of them very steep or in cobblestones. We ride the cobblestones of Oude Kwaremont (3 stars  & 1500 m long) + Steenbeekdries (3 stars  & 800m long) and climb also the following hills: the famous Koppenberg (max 20% 680 m long) + Kluisberg (max 14,5%  925 m long) + Oude Kwaremont (max 11%
2500 m long) + Paterberg (max 21%  360 m long) + Taaienberg (max 15%  530 m long) + Eikenberg (max 10%  1250 m long). In the TOF the best riders will always be in the first rows of the group when this section appears. We’ll finish on the market place in Oudenaarde where we’ll drink a beer to celebrate our almost  550 km long Flanders ride. After this stop we’ll ride towards the B&B, where the group has an afternoon off. Around 8 PM we’ll go on a celebration dinner at a typical Flemish restaurant in Oudenaarde.

Monday - Return

Depending on the flight schedule we have an early airport/train station transfer or a last breakfast in the B&B and check-out.

Exhausted but very satisfied we’ll return back home!

In total:

In total we’ll have climbed around 35 km and we will have approx 1800 positive altitude meters.  The total length of the cobblestoned sections will be around 30 km and we will overcome 550 km in 5 days on mainly Flanders roads.

Price:

minimum 4 persons required
4 cyclists:   € 1.249,00   per person in double room
From 5 to 6 cyclists:   € 1.115,00   per person in double room
From 7 to 8 cyclists:   € 1.049,00   per person in double room
From 9 to 10 cyclists:    € 999,00   per person in double room

When and how to pay will be submitted with the confirmation of your booking.

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