Cycling in Utrecht means cycling in our country's smallest province. In this respect, the options are limited(er) than in other provinces. But as already previously showed, you can see in Utrecht and surroundings actually go in all directions. One of my favourite routes (from Sander, ed.), is the one towards Soestdijk and Lage Vuursche. From the city of Utrecht, you are pretty quickly in the open field and once past Groenekan, you can make long laps without delay. This route is also great for training blocks and with several loops you can attach to it, it is an ideal building block for a micro adventure in your area! Are you reading with us?
City out
The route starts from the city of Utrecht. If you live on the north-east side of the city, it is preferably convenient to start via Fort Blauwkapel. Anyway, this is a beautiful part of Utrecht and when you are there you have two options:
- You drive around the fort. This is a quiet route, with good tarmac and you can take nice pictures
- You ride across the fort's alley, where you can catch a few more nice cobblestones. Nice for the photos and the experience.
In any case, it's a great start to the route. Then you drive to the village of Groenekan and you have several options:
- You cross left through the meadows and then head towards Hilversum to enter Lage Vuursche 'over right'. Nice route, but not so good with several people
- You cross straight ahead and bounce along the poor clinker path
- You turn right, over the railway track and then towards the Sports Fields. That's the prettiest route and without delay. We'll take that one today.
Through the fields
If you drive to the hockey club Voordaan, it's best to drive along the right-hand side. Then you have to take a path that has a pedestrian gate in front of it, but then you drive along a nice path, through the woods towards Maartensdijk. It's generally pretty quiet here, but on Sunday afternoons in summer it's best to avoid it. At the end of this path you turn left and immediately right through the small tunnel under the road towards Maartensdijk. Here you ride through the field again and have beautiful views to the left, especially at sunrise. Cycling in Utrecht is really beautiful like this.
Direction De Vuursche
Once in the village, you turn onto the road towards Lage Vuursche. This is nicely asphalted, nice and wide and you can ride head over head. There are a few speed bumps to watch out for, but in principle that's not a problem. You then have a stretch of a few kilometres where you can ride nicely through the woods and enjoy the scenery. Be careful at the junction towards Bilthoven. You are on a major road, but some people forget that. After this junction, continue for about two kilometres and you'll see a white house on your left. At that junction, we turn left. Always be careful here too, because the 'Sunday-morning-old-man-bellies-club' sometimes wants to take priority here. By the way, you can do several variations on this route here. We are now turning left, but you can also go straight ahead and take the route anti-clockwise. If you turn left immediately, you can pick up the route again later.
The village and beyond
Once in Lage Vuursche, you could stop here for coffee. That might be a bit quick, but there are a lot of coffee shops and pancake houses here, so plenty to stop at. Be careful, too, because everyone claims the road here, from cars to pedestrians. After the village, you meander towards the Lage Vuursche climb. Lovely to turn on there and great for training. Just before that, you will have seen Princess Beatrix's residence on your left. She still seems to be there sometimes, so next time wave! At the end of the climb (again watch out for crossing MTB riders) we turn right towards Baarn. This cycle path is nicely undulating and reasonably wide. Perfect for a group ride. As we ride towards Baarn, there is the beautiful Hooge Vuursche castle. Should you want to do another cool event....
Soestdijk and beyond
At the junction with Baarn, we turn right and soon have the gardens of Soestdijk on our right. The palace is no longer inhabited, but you can still take a quick 'photo with 'Jula' and Bernard'. It is an impressive sight, though. Just after the palace, you have to contend with traffic lights for a while, but then we continue on towards Soest. Here route knowledge also comes in handy. You can go straight through Soest (don't do that), you can continue along the N-road that goes past the airbase, but eventually you have to take the Wieksloterweg. A small road that doesn't look very inviting at first, but which seems almost made for cycling. You can ride on it in one go to the Soest Dunes and eventually to the back of the airbase. Highly recommended!
Flying high
The route thus arrives at the Air Base via the Soest Dunes. This route is a public secret. You drive very nicely up the little climb, past Herman van Veen's home and workplace. It is a shame they eventually replaced the cobblestones on this climb with concrete slabs. That does take a bit of the charm away. After this climb, you have a short way down and then you can turn right into Soesterberg Airfield. In good weather, it's crowded here with walkers and other cyclists, but in principle you can steer well around them. In summer between April and August, the runway is closed, but in autumn you can cross it nicely and take fat pictures.
Back home
Eventually, you ride off the airbase and follow the N-road back towards Utrecht. This way, you make a nice round trip of just over 45 kilometres. You can extend it to your heart's content, including the Amersfoort loop or if you drive straight on in Baarn instead of turning right towards Soestdijk, you'll catch the area between Baarn, Amersfoort and Bunschoten. Not wrong either. More inspiration? Check out our other articles and our Komoot account!
