The 2016 Tour of Flanders was special for many reasons. It was the 100th edition of the great race. It saw the changing of the guard as three-time champion Fabian Cancellara in his last Ronde before retirement was finally beaten by young buck and reigning World Champion Peter Sagan, taking his first Monument win. Last but not least it was our fifth visit to the race but our first with our young son, 14 month old Arthur.

I won’t lie to you, it’s a lot easier if you leave the baby at home and you’ll probably see a lot more of the race if you do. But if you do have a little one, don’t be put off from making the trip. The Belgians see the Ronde as fun for all the family, and West Flanders is a great base for a family cycling holiday.

I have previously written detailed posts about how to watch the Tour of Flanders and enjoying a cycling break in Bruges, so rather than repeat myself this post is intended to provide some supplementary info for those travelling with babies, and also to share a few pictures from the 100th Ronde.

It’s never too soon to introduce your kids to the Ronde!

The sign-in

As in previous years, we stayed in Bruges which meant we were able to see the riders sign in before the race set off at 10.15am.  The crowd seemed particularly large this year, perhaps because it was the 100th race or perhaps because the weather was particularly good.

The 100th Tour of Flanders was blessed with fine weather

There were big crowds in Bruges’ Grote Markt for the start of the 2016 race

With a baby in a buggy we stayed away from the very centre of the crowd but still got a great view of proceedings from the edge.

Fabian Cancellara is interviewed before his last ever Ronde

World champion and eventual winner Peter Sagan charms the crowd

I was expecting some extra bells and whistles for the 100th edition, but it was business as usual with the same oompah band and the same compere who hadn’t even bought a new fleece for the occasion (I’ve checked my old photographs and can confirm he has owned this one for at least five years).

Why change a winning formula?

Watching the race in Oudenaarde

I’m already having a dilemma about what we do next year. I love staying in Bruges and the sign-in is one of the highlights of Ronde day, but the hour-long train journey to Oudenaarde to see more of the race seems to take up way too much of the day when you have a young baby to entertain, especially if you end up waiting half an hour for a connection at Kortrijk. Maybe Ghent would be a better base (nearer to Oudenaarde), but that would mean missing the sign-in of course.

A concession we made this year was not to hop on the shuttlebus to the Oude Kwaremont at Oudenaarde station.  The bus can get crowded and bawdy, particularly on the way back. The public zone at the Oude Kwaremont is also very busy, although space can be found if you wander out of Kwaremont village along the length of the barriers.

Instead we walked into the centre of town. Following the terrorist attacks in Brussels less than two weeks previously, bags were searched when entering the market square and backpacks were not permitted at all, which fortunately we’d heard about before travelling. Aside from that, Oudenaarde was in party mood and we bagged a café table in the sun to soak up the atmosphere and have a spot of lunch washed down with a non-negotiable tripel blond beer.

The warm-up act in Oudenaarde

Oudenaarde has its own public zone with beer, friets and merchandise stalls positioned close to the finish line and heading here to watch the race on the big screen was our plan for the day. It’s easy to find; walk alongside or around the square (which will be full of team buses) towards the church then follow the road round to the right, with the Tour of Flanders museum on your left (more about this marvellous institution in a later post). Keep going until you get to the recreation park that hosts the public zone, about a 20 minute walk; you’ll see plenty of other people going in the same direction. As we approached, the TV helicopters were circling as Lizzie Armistead’s victory in the women’s Tour of Flanders was announced over loudspeakers.

This public zone was just as crowded and boisterous as the one at the Oude Kwaremont but it was bigger and we found space at a picnic table with a good view of the big screen and a crowd-participation contraption where plucky volunteers pedaled a static bike that was hoisted into the air to a height proportionate to their efforts.

However, we had just got settled in with a beer when a tell-tale whiff drifted under our noses…our little boy can really pick his moments. Unsurprisingly there weren’t any baby-change tables nestled in amongst the portaloos so we had to come out of the public zone into a field and change his nappy next to some wet and rather sorry-looking bouncy castles there to tick the “family friendly” box. We didn’t have the energy to go back in and fight for another picnic table, so we wandered back to town and watched the end of the race on a pavement cafe’s TV.

Oudenaarde town hall was suitably decorated for the occasion

We would probably have been better off staying here the whole time; we had access to beer, loos and TV and still got to see the pros as they rode right by us after the race on their way to their team buses. We still experienced the jovial Ronde day atmosphere and were right by the Tour of Flanders museum to enjoy an obligatory poke round the gift shop.

Family cycling in Bruges

Bruges is a great place for a family holiday and we revisited several tourist attractions that we hadn’t been to for years, including the canal boat trip which our little boy loved (babies go free). As ever though we were keen to get out and about exploring further afield by bike.

It’s easy to cycle with babies in Bruges

As we travel by train and our baby still needs his buggy, we have yet to take our own bikes on holiday since he was born, but fortunately there are a few places to hire bikes in Bruges. We rented two bikes and a baby seat from De Ketting on Gentpoortstraat for just EUR 15 for the day (EUR 6 each plus EUR 3 for the seat). We would have preferred a trailer for the babe but they didn’t have any (and neither did another provider we asked – I’ve heard before that trailers aren’t terribly robust and rental companies tend to have to replace them every season, so this may be why).

Recommended bike hire

The bikes were great and the baby seat must have been comfortable enough because Arthur fell asleep in it as soon as we got out into the countryside, thus missing out on the views of fields, canals, windmills and farm animals that had been one of the primary reasons for hiring bikes in the first place!

If only they fell asleep this easily at bedtime

After an abortive attempt to ride out to the anecdotally lovely village of Lissewege that took us through some of the more industrial parts of outer Bruges (my bad!), we were getting hungry and decided instead to take the tried and trusted route along the canal to Damme where we knew there were plenty of places for a spot of lunch. None of them seemed to have a high chair though, so we ended up choosing a table outside Tijl & Nele on Jacob Von Maerlantstraat where I could sit more comfortably with the baby on my knee.

Just around the corner from the townhall and viciously cobbled market square, this little café cum gift shop proved to be a great choice, as its house beer turned out to be one of the tastiest we sampled on the whole trip, which is no mean feat in Belgium! Called Pater Van Damme, it is brewed especially for the shop and available nowhere else, so definitely worth seeking out. They also do bike rental here.

Canals and farmlands make for easy cycling after a beery lunch

One of the great joys of cycling in this area is that there are so many routes to choose from that you never need to take the same one twice. It’s handy to have a map so you don’t wander too far off piste, as after a while all the canals and fields start to look the same (Fietsroute Netwerk maps are available from Stanfords, many bike rental outfits will also provide maps). Our circuitous route back to Bruges this time was via Moerkerke, passing a dairy on a road called Legewege that sold ice cream and had a lovely children’s playground that would definitely have been worth a stop if sleeping beauty hadn’t still been snoring away in the back.

The dairy will have to wait until next time

Back in Bruges, the abundance of friet and waffle pedlars means that it’s never hard to find a child-pleasing snack to keep the whole family going (I also developed a serious hot chocolate addiction this time around). For the grown-ups, some of the bars I’ve previously recommended where you can sample beers from a list of hundreds can be, while not off limits to children, cramped and difficult to negotiate with a buggy (this is a quaint medieval town with buildings to match after all). I’m pleased to report that Cambrinus, however, has high chairs and baby change facilities as well as a selection of hearty Flemish dishes to eat and so is still very much on the menu. Cheers!

Let’s not forget why we’re really here.