Evergreens – flint and gravel in Drenthe

The name Erwin Sikkens is a well-known name among komoot users. I've been following Erwin for years. He is the komoot pioneer for me, who, like me, loves making routes and scouting Highlights. However, Erwin is able to process this and thus create hundreds of Highlights in the most beautiful cycling areas in the Netherlands. Everywhere I make a route, Highlights from Erwin can be found. My thanks go to him for all this loving work on komoot.

In addition, many other users create local Highlights, which I then use for my routes for clients or my own events by linking them together. For example, the arrival of komoot has made the life of a route builder even more beautiful!

Back to the route in Drenthe: since my youth I have been a fan of the cycling classic Paris-Roubaix and for that reason I have been looking for cobbled sections in the Netherlands for years. I ended up at the local Drenthe flintenwegen, which are so special by Dutch standards that this route is worthy of an Evergreen mention. The route has been put together with, of course, the help of Erwin's Highlights, and based on my many camping visits to Drenthe at beautiful natural camping grounds such as Landgoed Mariahoeve.

The start of this route is at the beginning of the longest flint strip: the Staatsbos. A spacious parking lot between Rolde and Gieten. But you don't start on this strip, you will end on it. First you warm up slowly on a paved cycle path, a cart track through the fields and a winding cycle path towards Papenvoort. In Drenthe you are allowed to cycle and walk on roads and paths in many areas, which brings you to the most beautiful forest roads with hidden flints that are sometimes sandy or muddy.

The first flint strip emerges in the woods of Grolloo and is short. After the intersection you dive into a beautiful wide gravel road that continues for kilometers to the Ieberenplas. In forestry Schoonloo there are the most beautiful flint strips such as the Zwatte and the Tweeling, which give you the feeling that you have ended up in a spring classic. Are you tired of flints? Then you can also take the nearby bike path.
In the direction of Borger, the route goes over wide dirt roads, through open fields, along a canal and cobblestones towards the beginning of the longest strip of flints in the Netherlands, 'the Staatsbos'. Bouncing six kilometers over the flinten, full house, because you are back at the point where you started.

Fan of boulders? Then be sure to visit Erwin's special komoot Collection containing all Drenthe boulder strips and an ultimate boulder route: komoot.nl/collection/919731/-de-ware-hel-van-het-noorden-drentse-keien.