Decided to pick up on the Gordel trail today. I noticed yesterday that the Gordel trail passed at the Zoete Waters. A little searching on the Gordel website quickly revealed that this was a 50K trail concentrating on the regions between Leuven and Overijse. Nice.
So I rode this trail today. There was a lot of wind and the temperatures weren't very high when the sun disappeared after one of the many clouds. Apart from a few droplets in the wind it remained dry during my ride but when I arrived in Sint Agatha Rode on the last stretch of the loop the tarmac was wet, so it had rained here. The trail itself wasn't very spectacular but offered a nice succession of quiet backroads and even some gravel tracks. Luckily the Marathon Supreme tyres on my Hilset laugh at those conditions and I had a good easy long distance workout. In Overijse I stopped to take a picture of the starting gate. Tomorrow this place will be inundated with literally thousands of bikers doing the annual Gordel event around Brussels. The event started out as a 100K loop to accentuate the Flemish presence all around Brussels but through the years it has evolved, offering longer road loops of up to 177K, local loops - like the one I did - of 24 and 50K and a plethora of mountainbike loops also starting in Overijse and focussing on the tracks of and around the 2 valley Bloso routes in Overijse, Tombeek and Ottenburg. I have done the 100K once, a couple of years ago, and what I remember is that it is a fine loop but way too crowded for my liking. Still if you haven't done it , its a nice experience and to be recommended.

Ride Stats : 64K and 425/490 heightmeters in 2h57mins

6780/66600