lukasz

I'm going to be in Amsterdam for a week, and will definitely want to leave town for a few long rides. Could anyone point me to a cue sheet or something on mapmyride.com? Any tips on generally which direction to go from the city?

I'm also open to getting on a train and heading somewhere nearby where the riding is better. I'm guessing that I have to get closer to the southern borders for good cycling.

lukasz

I find it hard to believe that no one knows here about the area. I thought this was bikeforums

Jed19

Maybe send a PM or e-mail to Botto. If I recall, he lives part of the year in Amsterdam.

DScott

Found it HERE!

pgjackson

I've been to Holland a coupel of times long before my cycling days. What I remember is that bikes are everywhere, but not road bikes. Lots of cruiser type bikes and people tooling around being real chill.

calamarichris

Sorry for the delayed response.
Up north in Amsterdam, it's pretty flat & windy. If you want to get into the real roadie-mecca of Holland, you must go south to Limburg.
Look at the roads between Valkenburg and Maastricht, and some of the spillover into Belgium--the roads there are frequently featured in the Amstel Gold Race, Ronde van Vlanderen (Tour of Flanders), Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The roads and the scenery down in Holland's "Little Switzerland" is just stellar. If you can get that far south for a few days (and the weather's good while you're there), it's just stellar. I got sick on my last visit and it turned into a pub-crawl to Luxembourg & eventually London.

lukasz

Responses like yours depress me. By your logic, we should just get rid of internet message boards and all google ****--no? PS, I did that. I'd rather have an experienced human being let me know what's up, but sometimes I forget the nature of most internet forums and think that I can actually have a constructive conversation about a topic on the internet.

Calamarichris: Thanks!

More specifically, I'll probably only have time for three or four rides, so something favored by local roadies would be ideal. For example: in NYC I would suggest that a visitor head over the George Washington Bridge and go North along the Hudson river. I know Amsterdam isn't ideal for road rides, but I have to make do.

Monster Pete

While I was in Amsterdam, the vast majority of the bikes I saw were rather old, upright bikes, most with coaster brakes and many with wild paint jobs to make them stand out a bit from the others in the typical heap at bike stands. There are virtually no cars in the city center, but there are bikes everywhere often riding slowly due to carrying an extra passenger or two. Small motorcycles are also allowed to use bike lanes, so look out for them as well. Talking to a Dutch friend, he said that very few people ride new or expensive bikes, or road bikes in general because they tend to get stolen. If you lock up a road bike in Amsterdam, make sure it's very well secured.

lukasz

I'm not planning on tooling around town. I don't go for road rides in Manhattan, either. I intend to leave. The direction of my travel out is what I need help with (and as calamarichris noted, I might just get on a train. But I'd like to avoid it if possible).