Slimmer fietsen — één artikel per keer.

Routes ontwerpen·6 min

Tenerife: training on the volcano in winter

Sea level to 2,300 m on one road, three climates on one island, and a week that leaves you fitter rather than wrecked. Roads from the park authority, weather from AEMET.

Routes ontwerpen·6 min

The Dolomites by bike: passes, order and the weather window

Short climbs in clusters, so the order and the start time matter more than fitness. The Sellaronda, Giau, Tre Cime, the organiser's gradients and the afternoon-storm rule.

Routes ontwerpen·6 min

Flanders: riding the cobbles and bergs of the Tour of Flanders

The Kwaremont, Koppenberg and Muur with the tourist board's gradients, why cobbles are a technique problem, the signposted loops from Oudenaarde and the Belgian road rules.

Routes ontwerpen·6 min

Alpe d'Huez, Galibier, Ventoux: a first Alps trip in one week

One base in Bourg-d'Oisans, the Alpe on day one, the Galibier on day three, a rest day, then south to Bédoin. Official climb figures, pass opening dates and a day-by-day shape.

Routes ontwerpen·6 min

Istria and the Croatian coast: quiet roads and where to base yourself

The riding is inland: hill towns, the Parenzana and the Učka ridge to 1,401 m. Where to stay, what the bura does, and the months when the coast road is worth avoiding.

Routes ontwerpen·6 min

How to use a heatmap to find roads locals actually ride

A heatmap is a map of what riders avoid as much as where they go. How it is built, what GPS route-choice research says it means, five patterns to read and a 15-minute method.

Routes ontwerpen·5 min

The perfect 60 km: designing a mid-week loop you'll ride all year

The route you ride fifty times a year is a training tool. One climb in the right place, a 15-minute uninterrupted stretch, few junctions, the same direction, and built for winter.

Routes ontwerpen·8 min

Navigating without a screen

Every rider eventually has the same afternoon: 80 km out, battery dead, phone on 4%. Five methods in the order you will use them, and why learning the shape of a route beats learning its turns.

Routes ontwerpen·8 min

Getting out of a city to the good riding

The good roads exist — there are just 45 minutes of traffic lights between you and them. Five strategies, why the exit is a problem you solve once rather than every ride, and the train trick almost nobody uses.

Routes ontwerpen·9 min

Reading an elevation profile: the picture is not to scale

Every route planner draws you a little mountain range, and every rider forms an opinion from it. That opinion is frequently wrong. What the distortion does, why averaging hides the steep bits, and the four numbers worth extracting before an event.

Routes ontwerpen·9 min

Planning gravel routes: reading the surface data

The difference between a superb gravel loop and four hours of pushing is usually a few hundred metres of surface nobody recorded. What the OpenStreetMap surface tags actually mean, which one is a coin toss, and the four checks before you commit.

Routes ontwerpen·8 min

Loop, out and back, or point to point?

Most riders default to one route shape without deciding to. The shape changes what a ride is good for — and for windy days and interval sessions, the usual favourite is clearly the wrong choice.

Routes ontwerpen·8 min

Finding the climbs near you (even if you live somewhere flat)

A good training climb is a specific thing, and it is rarely the famous one. What makes a climb worth training on, four ways to find them on a map, and three honest options if your area has no hills at all.

Routes ontwerpen·8 min

Riding at night: seeing, being seen, and the months you get back

For half the year, riding after work means riding in the dark. Two problems most riders confuse, how much light you actually need for each kind of road, and the cheap reflective trick that matters more than a bright jacket.

Routes ontwerpen·9 min

How to read the wind forecast for cycling (and stop riding into it both ways)

Wind costs a cyclist more than rain ever will, and the weather app's little arrow doesn't tell you what it'll do to your loop. Why headwinds punish you harder than tailwinds repay you, which way to ride your route, what 20 vs 40 km/h actually feels like, and how to plan around gusts before you clip in.