Strade Spek en Ei 2025 gravel ride by “De Gammelse Wielervrienden”

110 km 160 m Hard

Route Description

One of the best gravel events in the area I heard about for years and never got to ride until now is “Strade Spek en Ei”. Translated: Strade Bacon and Eggs, organized by de Gammelse wielervrienden. A cycling club from Rijkevorsel in Belgium. According to their website 1020 gravel bikers joined the event. In addition to 1050 people joining for the mountain bike rides. The event is has a reputation of being very well organized. Always with a great variation in their gravel route compared to previous years. All true according to my experience this year.

I rode this route with my buddy and as you can see from the video we made a point of starting early. We started at dawn and enjoyed a hazy sunrise in a crisp Belgian winter landscape. The route quickly left us stunned by the amount of gravel in nature reserves and how beautiful this was all connected by smooth gravel roads. Entering “Kolonie-Merksplas from the south was a nice difference to how I usually enter this nice gravel area. And shortly after this, the nature reserve at Turnhout (Turnhouts Vennengebied) also provided some amazing gravel roads that we enjoyed to the fullest.

After this great start the route passes rural areas in Turnhout and Vosselaar. But this ride never fails to deliver on surprisingly nice gravel paths. I think this is nicely illustrated by the fact the route has a total of only 37% paved roads. Everything else is anywhere between gravel, cobbles, farm roads and forest trails.

The event is very well catered with organized refill stops after Turnhout at 45km and later at 73km. A couple of drinks were included in the subscription fee for the event. So think: good coffee, pancakes, candy, fruits, and energy drink refills. At the end when finishing back in Rijkevorsel a bike cleaning station made our bikes look fresh again. And of course we got our well deserved finisher treat of bacon and eggs sandwiches with complementary drinks. All in all a fantastic event that we can highly recommended to join in future editions.

Tip: Belgian winter can be all kinds of weather so dress accordingly
Tip: The anti tank ditch at Schilde is a beautiful place to pay some extra attention to your surroundings

Contributor

Vincent Neve

Since buying my first gravel bike in 2019 cycling has never been the same for me. The gravel bike quickly became my favorite bike that pushed my MTB and race bikes one place further back in the pecking order. I love how the gravel bike gives me the drive to explore. To set out for discovery of new routes and gravel roads, both in my backyard around Breda in the Netherlands and when traveling abroad with the family. Since that day in 2020 my time on bike and annual kilometers increased dramatically. Up to a point where I participated in my first ultra endurance events in 2025 where I finished FlatLands 300 and the Bright Midnight.

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