Junction network · NL & BE
Plan by the numbers
The junction network covers the Low Countries with numbered nodes. Pick a start and an end, and the route writes itself as a string of numbers you can tape to your handlebars. This planner does the picking — and tells you what you are actually riding into.
Choose two nodes.
What this planner tells you that maps don't
Three things decide whether a flat route is pleasant or grim, and none of them show up as contour lines.
Surface
A route that looks identical on a map can be smooth asphalt or three kilometres of loose shell path. Every segment here carries a surface tag, and the rolling estimate adjusts for it — shell costs you roughly a third of your speed, sand closer to half.
Wind
In flat country the wind is the hill. There is no elevation to plan around, so the thing worth planning around is direction: take the exposed dike section outbound while your legs are fresh, and let the sheltered inland leg carry you home.
Ferries
Half the interesting crossings involve a small boat running on its own schedule, and several stop entirely in winter. Ferry-dependent segments are flagged with operating months in the route output, because the detour around a cancelled crossing is rarely under thirty kilometres.
On numbering. The network is not one system but a patchwork of regional networks that agreed to connect at the seams. Numbers repeat between provinces, which is why "head for 42" is useless advice without knowing whose 42 you mean.
Featured routes
Rides worth the drive to the start, each with a full node strip and the practical notes that matter.
Zeeland delta crossing
Sea dike out, polder roads back, one ferry in the middle. The best cycling in the country on a still day and a wind tunnel on a bad one.
Limburg hill loop
The only real elevation in the Netherlands, packed into seventy-odd kilometres around Valkenburg and Vaals. Steeper than the numbers suggest.
River dikes to Kinderdijk
Utrecht out along the water, windmills at the far end, and enough café stops that nobody has to suffer for it.