I'm off on holiday to Belgium in a couple of weeks (near Genk) any off road riding in the area or a handy online map to use?
Trail forks doesn't have much in the area.
I've just come back from holiday in the South Limburg area of Holland. It's just the other side of Maastricht from where you will be. If you Google mtb Valkenburg you will find some routes. They are all way marked with little triangles with 2 circles and are roughly 25-35 km loops of easy single-track, gravel and country road. Ideal for a gravel bike or short travel 29er.
Nothing gnar but do 2 loops at a reasonable pace and I guarantee you'll be knackered. Plenty of short sharp ascents. We did almost 5000ft ascent in 65km one day.
Great beer to finish with.
If you have a car, a fairly short drive south will take you into the Ardennes forest, where you'll find some really excellent riding. Try Vielsalm, La Roche, Houffalize, for instance. Local tourist offices sell excellent mtb maps for a few euros and most trails are well marked.
I used to do a fair bit of rallying in Belgium and at Genk you’re in that green rolling-hills Wallonie countryside that I’m guessing must have an abundance of trails. I love that area around Namur, Charleroi etc.
It’s very different to the flatter northern territories that borders NL.
+ frites + beer + chocolate
What’s not to like.
Thanks Winston, from your suggestion I found this handy website.
The Singlespeed Euro's were at Maredsous in 2011. There was some great mountain biking round there. The beer was pretty good too...
As above some great stuff in the Ardennes. I was in vielsalm last year and some brilliant local dh, some of it very lakes-esque! If you are in the area, look on Strava for trails 'dh1’ and 'salm it down' there is loads of other local built dh runs on the opposite hill to the dh1 trail.
Have also ridden at malmedy -look up appolinaire dh trails.
Also went to houffalize for a family ride, looked to be som great trail centre type stuff there but didn't try it
Get yourself a couple of laps at Spa if you can while you're at it... Awesome track, even on foot!
We rode around Malmedy which is about an hour south east of Genk and we were really surprised by how steep and fun some of the trails were. This is the ride we did, which was sort of done on a wing and a prayer after the bike shop advised us to do a family route. We just happened to be passing through, I bet with some real research you could find a great ride.
Spa's got some wicked hills in it in the forests around the area. I ran up to Skydive Spa from the town and it damn near killed me. Horrible. Going down that on a bike would be fun. Or deadly.
Anyway, yes, much forest and trails around Spa. Nice.
