Cycling and walking are healthy. They are both good ways to work on your condition and your health in general. Doctors and other health professionals often advise their patients to walk or cycle more for good reason. But which is better to do? Which is healthier, biking or walking? This question will be answered today.
The most beautiful mountain bike routes of the Netherlands
The great thing about a mountain bike is that you can ride it anywhere. With an e-MTB from BESV you can cover many dozens of kilometres without needing to be extremely well trained. You can tour through the city or choose a beautiful route and enjoy the wonderful cycle paths in our country. But of course, a mountain bike only really comes into its own on unpaved paths. You just need to know where to find them! That’s why we have listed the most beautiful mountain bike routes in the Netherlands. These routes are suitable for mountain bikers with an average to good condition and for those who have an electric mountain bike.
Mountain Bike route Rhenen
One of the most technically challenging trails in the Netherlands can be found in the City Forests of Rhenen, part of National Park “Utrechtse Heuvelrug”. This area is particularly relief rich for Dutch standards, which is due to the ice, sand and stones that over 130,000 years ago created these hills. The landscape is varied, with forests, heaths and meadows alternating each other. The route is rather short with 6,4 kilometres, but don’t be mistaken: the many large height differences and the challenging sharp bends will be a challenge even for an e-MTB!
More information about the Rhenen route can be found here.
Rough-riding in Rijssen
Between Rijssen and the A1 motorway, in Overijssel, lies nature reserve “De Borkeld”. In this 600-hectare nature reserve you will find everything you could wish for as a nature lover and mountain biker in the Netherlands: a sloping landscape full of forests, heaths, meadows, fields, clay pits and even bogs. The route starts at Sportpark de Koerbelt and is approximately 17.9 kilometres long. The height differences on this route are not that big, but don’t think it will be easy! There is almost no flat spot in this tour, which makes it pretty tough. You’ll ride over the 40-meter high Friezenberg and over a number of grave hills. Very special!
Want to learn more? Look here for more information about this route.
MTB trail St-Pietersberg
For this route we go to Limburg, on the outskirts of Maastricht, where the highest mountain in our country is located: the Sint-Pietersberg (171 m). Since 1974 the area around the mountain is a protected nature reserve and has beautiful limestone quarries, which makes for a magical setting. This singletrack with a length of 4,9 km is marked with the colour code black, which means that it is very difficult. This route is certainly not for beginners, because it has some very steep parts (up and down) and quite challenging curves. With the support of your electric mountain bike, the uphill sections are easy to do, but you’ll have to steer and control your bike yourself. So you have been warned!
View detailed information about this route here.
The three mountains of Lochem
For Dutch standards, a unique route can be found in Gelderland. This 21.2 km long route takes you over not one, not two, but three mountains. First you cycle over the Paaschberg, then comes the Lochemse Berg and to top it all off, you also get to ride over the Kale Berg. Definitely not an easy route. As a novice mountain biker without pedal assistance, we recommend you to train a while before you start here. However, the experienced rider or the one who rides an e-mountain bike will certainly find something to his liking, with nice steep slopes, alternated by fairly long flat stretches and a scenery full of dense forests, whimsical wooded banks and particularly rich ditch edges.
Want to know more about this route? Then please look here.
The roof of Netersel and MTB route Spaarnwoude
The roof of Netersel
A relatively short route but certainly not an easy one: the roof of Netersel in Brabant. This is a technically quite tough route, so only for those who have the bike under control! Expect a lot of short turns, extremely steep up and down hills and sharp corners. A beautiful challenge of 4.0 kilometres long, which has been carefully constructed in a wooded area, on a former garbage dump. Kudos to the trail builders!
Find out how to get to Netersel and discover more information.
MTB route Spaarnwoude
Finally, a beautiful route at a stone’s throw from Amsterdam, Haarlem, in the shadow of the blast furnaces in IJmuiden: the MTB route in the green recreation area Spaarnwoude. This is a recently constructed route, but is already one of the most beautiful mountain bike routes in the Netherlands. The route with a length of 7 km starts at ski slope Snow World and is nicely varied with small climbs, steep descents, narrow wooden bridges, grassland and shell paths. Another great thing about this route is that it contains so-called ‘chicken runs’: shortcuts that are a bit easier. This makes the route ideal for both advanced and beginners.
Read more about the route through Spaarnwoude here.
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