Cycling in Belgium / Flanders

I'm trying to plan an eight-day tour of Belgium (and a bit of France) for the end of July and I was hoping some of you forum-dwellers might be able to help me by recommending cities, towns and villages they shouldn't be missed, 'areas of outstanding beauty' that might be nice, cycling meccas where we must pay our respects, beers that ought to be imbibed and so on... in fact, any relevant information at all would be really ace, first-hand ideally.

I'm pretty sure I remember some of the forum stalwarts doing a spot of touring there but I can't find a thread.

So far we have in mind: Brussels > Roubaix > Dunkirk > Bruges > Gent > Antwerp > Brussels. We are however open to suggestions, the only constraint being that we will arrive in and leave from Brussels (Eurostar innit). Oh, and we're camping.

Dankje!

Cycled to most of those places. Belgian beers means I don't recall any details..

Brugge and Ghent go without saying:

De Kulminator in Antwerp:

Canals riding to the coast from Brugge (Damme):

Tournai was nice, Ieper for the Menin Gate and nastiness of WWI.

Riding along the coast (Breskens) towards Nederlands.

Thanks Hippy. I wonder if there are any beer festivals happening..................

Oudenaarde cycling museum

a loop to the west > south > east of Brussels would be my choice, you can ride the tour of flanders route as it's signposted year round so you can get your pave fix and not be limited to the pancake flat west of the country.
Kortijk, Oudinarde, Ninove etc, then over towards Huy to check out the Mur de Huy.
i like hills, the flat stuff gets boring after a while.

roubaix is an industrial shithole. i did ride down from Kortijk to carrefour d' arbe which was on quiet rolling roads, a nice ride to check out the french interpretation of cobblestones.

rode from liege to calais a couple of summers back
just follow the canals / rivers for top quality flat cycling
i only saw hills near that area the rest is lovely and flat
liege found a stunning bar there called l'antre vaude the largest selection of beers in one place i have ever seen and that includes a few sizable beer festivals
leuven the home of stella artois is a lovely town small enough to get around and see it all especially the central area
brugges didn't really do it for me
went to the town of hoegarden, the brewery ( old site ) is a lovely building with good resteraunt and of course loads of good beer
the coastal areas are quite nice lovely beaches and dune areas

Pop into the bike shop called AR-SE Sport purely for comedy value.

^ My bike in Cantillon Brewery. It's in Brussels (http://www.cantillon.be/br/3_1) and will give you some tastebud bending naturally fermented lambic beer to try after their tour.

cantillon do gueuze, one of my favorite beer styles.
didn't realise they brewed the stuff.

Yep, standard brewery tour, explain the process then sample their goods. I don't recall seeing any Cantillon beers outside of Brussels though. Pity.

Not sure if it will make a difference, but your ticket will be valid for free travel on trains in Belgium for the days you're travelling on the Eurostar. You could kick off way down in the Ardennes and come up along the Liege-Bastogne-Liege route, with hills and lovely wooded countryside.

Visit the chocolate museum in Bruges to see a chocolate life-size statue of the President of the USA. Something really not quite right about all that....

Gentse Feesten is from 16-25 July and is crazy. I'd suggest you book your camping site in advance if you're planning to go there. More information here.

Not sure if it will make a difference, but your ticket will be valid for free travel on trains in Belgium for the days you're travelling on the Eurostar. You could kick off way down in the Ardennes and come up along the Liege-Bastogne-Liege route, with hills and lovely wooded countryside.

Visit the chocolate museum in Bruges to see a chocolate life-size statue of the President of the USA. Something really not quite right about all that....

1. When in Belgium avoid the hills

2. and the chocolate museum thingy ...... thats verging on racist !
   is it obama and is it white and dark chocolate mixed ? ;-)

What I personally like the most is the Oudenaarde/Ronse/Brakel area with the flamish hills.
If you want to ride the famous (cobbled) hills, you have to do some preparation.
Get the most detailed maps and study the routes of the pro races.
De Muur, Kerkgate, Les Hauts, Koppenberg, Paterberg, Molenberg, Berendries, Eikenberg, Valkenberg, Kwaremont, Taaienberg, etc.

Totally different is the area south of Liege. A bit easier to find the hills, because you can follow the arrows on the streets. What makes it difficult is that there are about 50 different signs/marks/arrows... Again, some route planning is advised.
Beers are nice everywhere.

I can recomment the big square in downtown Leuven. Approx. 50 pubs surrounding that square. Is Marktrock still there ?

1. When in Belgium avoid the hills
   
   
   

are you a cyclist or a lazy tourist, the hills are the best bits.

Gentse Feesten is from 16-25 July and is crazy. I'd suggest you book your camping site in advance if you're planning to go there. More information here.

+1 Great party, you might see me there again this year.

are you a cyclist or a lazy tourist, the hills are the best bits.

Nope. The bars are the best bit.
If you want climbs go to Italy, Spain, France..

true but riding up a cobbled climb to a bar is nice.

You know I love cobbles.

+1 Great party, you might see me there again this year.

Gentse Feesten is from 16-25 July and is crazy. I'd suggest you book your camping site in advance if you're planning to go there. More information here.

+1 Kick ass festival, you might see me there too

Canals riding to the coast from Brugge (Damme):

was there yesterday! saw both these exact views :)

I live in Brussels at the mo. Depending on timings, I could meet you and sort out a day ride which takes classic bits of the Tour of Flanders route? Always keen for riding buddies and forum love.

The post is quite colourful . All the images are quite good , remind me of India.

This looks like a great holiday destination for a cycling nut, I may start planning something. Those photos are indeed beautiful and I've had a morbid fascination with WW1 since I read All Quiet On The Western Front when I was a lad.