For the 1st time, the BXL TOUR is offering you ideas for training routes (+-40km) in preparation for the race on 22 June.
Passionate about cycling and want to find safe routes in Brussels? In the middle of preparing for the BXL TOUR, but can’t think of a route through the region? Then this article is for you.
What is BXL TOUR ?
The BXL TOUR is a unique cycling race in Brussels. It brings together amateurs, semi-professionals and a category for people with reduced mobility. What’s more, it allows participants to discover Brussels by bike over 32 or 40 kilometres, on a fully signposted and closed to trafic route.
The BXL TOUR course is only accessible on race day. With some streets going in opposite directions and parts of the course on major roads, it is necessary to close them to traffic. To get to the start line on the day, we strongly recommend that you opt for public transport or cycle directly to the start.
Our ideas for cycling routes in Brussels
Before embarking on this exceptional adventure, it’s important to be well prepared. That’s why we’ve contacted a number of Brussels-based cyclists to put together 40km training routes tailored to the race and the geography of Brussels.
The BXL TOUR is coming up, so do like Charles and Morgane and share your training and cycling performances with us. Together we’re more motivated!
Morgane de Halleux
Morgane de Halleux has been a keen cyclist for 5 years, a two-time winner of the BXL TOUR and an elite member of the women’s Lead Out Cycling Team. On Instagram, she shares her races, training sessions, coffee breaks (always well-deserved) and behind-the-scenes stories of life in cycling shorts. Her greatest adventure? The 7 Majeurs: 360 km and 11,000 m D+ across the Alps, between euphoria and survival, with more hills than energy bars in her pockets and landscapes that make you forget the suffering (almost).
The route it proposes here: 47km starting from the Bois de la Cambre, the unofficial HQ of Brussels cyclists – is one of its great classics. It’s an ideal mix of stinging climbs, rolling roads and green corners that give the illusion of a wild biketrip. Morgane loves it, and for good reason:
It includes the Smeysberg, a legendary wall from the Flèche Brabançonne and a faithful training companion of Eddy Merckx for years. Short, intense and the perfect reminder of who’s in charge (spoiler: it’s the wall).
Then there’s the Forêt de Soignes, a long green tunnel for relaunching, daydreaming… or discreetly recovering .
In short, a little tour that has all the potential of a big one – provided you don’t mistake the Smeysberg for a Giro summit finish.
Charles Masset
Charles Masset is a man from Brussels who recounts his sporting adventures with humour and self-mockery on Instagram. From short outings with friends to ultra-cycling challenges, he shares the ups and downs of his life as an average cyclist. Inspired by the idea of exploring his city in a different way, he has come up with two cycle loops of around forty kilometres, exclusively in the Brussels-Capital Region.
The aim: to test whether it’s possible to enjoy cycling in the heart of the city. In the West, between canals, cobblestones and emblematic monuments such as the Atomium. To the East, between green spaces, urban cycle paths and the Forêt de Soignes. Two itineraries designed to reveal another side of Brussels: greener, more rolling, sometimes surprising, but above all resolutely cycleable.
Discover the world of Charles and Morgane, through their cycling excursions on Instagram:
Morgane
Charles
Start training or try out their routes simply because you feel like going for a nice bike ride:
Morgane’s GPX
GPX of Charles’ eastern route
GPX of Charles’ western route
