European rides

[mpambire]

Does anyone know how to organise a ride on mainland Europe?

Is anyone out there intrested in a bit of adventure to visit new places across the channel or beyond? I would love join any such trips made in the summer.

Fred

[Andrew G]

The easiest way is to just decide where you fancy going, possibly following chats with mates or asking on the forum, and then check out areas with the benefit of maps (proper paper ones are far better for this to scan areas for good roads/climbs/terrain). After that do a few travel and accommodation searches and go from there. Getting commitments and sorting booking can be a pain with numbers so best is that you decide on days of travel and accommodation and then all book individually, if you are on different flights or a day or two different at either end it doesn’t matter.

It’s not difficult really and if you have an idea where you fancy going or go from a recommendation then people can probably help point you in the direction of somewhere reasonable to stay, although in reality it’s quite tricky to find somewhere that isn’t okay unless you have no common sense.

Acouple of us are just back from a week in Lanzarote which is great at this time of year. Okay not mainland Europe but only a 4 hour flight away and 22 degrees, sunshine and blue skies in February. Majorca is popular but better left to a bit later, and Riccione (late April early May is best as it can be wet before then) on the Adriatic coast have some good hotels (Riccione Bike Hotels) and do guided rides up in the hills included in the price if you don’t fancy the map work yourself. Both easy to get to, although for Riccione it’s better to fly Gatwick to Bologna and get a train down to Riccione as outside July/Aug not a lot flies to Riccione and it tends to be Stanstead departures, continental train travel is easy and cheap.

Anywhere in France is pretty easy to get to either Eurostar or Ferry and drive, or fly/train. I stayed near Carcassonne (just north of) and it was nice and had some lovely riding around the Pic Noire area.

There used to be a good foot passenger plus bike day trip you could do from Dover to Boulogne-sur-Mer on the SeaCat but as they’ve stopped that now the ferry takes too long. You could ferry to Calais and drive to say Wissant. From there you get nice riding around that area on the coast, between say Wissant and Etaples and a bit inland which wouldn’t be mega miles but make a nice day if you wanted a long day trip or split to a two-dayer. You can still do the day trip foot passenger thing but Calais is a dump so not so great as you need to get through there. You could do a 2 or 3 dayer though and use the Dunkirk crossing one or both ways to widden options.

If you have multiples of two then a good cheap route is to pair up and get a ferry and then drive to where you’re going non-stop, just swap the drivers around every so often. You arrive tired but do the travel in one hit and after a night’s sleep are fine. Going this way also means no bike bag pack up as with flying, just sling both bikes and your luggage in the back and off you go.

[Jon C C on a Bianchi]

Hi Fred

We did the Alps a couple of years ago - four of us in one car with a bike rack. One week. Eurotunnel and drove all the way down there in one hit (but stopped for rests/food on the way!). Self-catering flat.
We did Belgium - Oudenaarde - in 2013. Four days. loads of cobbles and climbs. Four of us. Two cars - bikes in back estates - Eurotunnel. Stayed at the Chainstay ( a cycling doss house - 30 other cyclist were there - but quite fun).
Year before just went to France for the day. Two of us, one car, bikes in back. Took the ferry.

All great fun. Go for it!

Jon

[Phil H]

People sometimes advertise trips on here but normally before Christmas as organising a larger party is hassle. Did my first trip to the Alps last year with some of the ACC crew and it was ... hilly. Absolutely incredible though .

[JulianG]

i did a charity ride from London to Paderborn in northern Germany, started in the centre of Calais which actually is not that bad, head north up to Belgium, up through Antwerpe and then across, If you like flat riding its stunning, only 110m over 400 miles lol.

If you just fancy a day just get an early walkers ticket, out of the port turn right and within ten mins nice country lanes and belgium in no time..

just ride and have fun.

we too have just done a week in the sun, Tenerife and Mount Teide some stunning routes, really long climbs, 47km avg 6% max 21% a cracking ACC break away...

[Paul on the Pearson]

Howdy,
Another option would be to enter one of the many sportives, there's loads of easy to enter ones. That way you don't have to worry about directions...just follow everybody else! I always do the Tour of Picardie that starts in Abbeville. It might not have the breathtaking views of the alps, but the organisation is brilliant. Marshals stopping traffic at all the junctions means it virtually run on closed roads.

[Marek]

See some of my threads from organised rides I have been on in the past, if you search the forum by my name am sure you will some. Last one I did was Northern Spain, it was cheap and was fantastic roads and scenery. What you ideally need is to find some kind retired or semi retired person to drive the van for you then get a bunch together. You pay for the van drivers food and drink and travel etc and add that to your cost of trip.

You need to plan route and find good stop off points. Then you get people to organise the hotel to stay in town near the distance you want to travel each day. A bit of delegation to those coming along does not hurt. You need to ensure you get a hotel that can do a decent dinner, put up however many cyclists and can do a good breakfast for a reasonable price.

By taking a big van you can put the bike and luggage into this before you go, the van drives down or gets ferry to Bilbao and then you fly and meet the driver at the first hotel. This means you save masses of cash on luggage transfer as you only need to take hand luggage. We sometime arrange a bus transfer from the airport depending on how many and how far etc.

Is pretty easy but you do need a very good team leader who is organised and can get the routes planned etc. If you want to chat about it a bit more then pm me and I can give you my number and we can have a chin wag. Ideally you need over 10 riders as this keeps the cost down.

I have done the Pyrenees twice, France and Switzerland in the Alps, Dolomites Austria into Italy and Northern Spain, Picos D'Europa (amazing, especially the Angliru). Each trip has its own nuances and costs (Switzerland is expensive and Spain is cheap).

Cheers

Marek.....

[tazmania_1981]

me and a mate are planing to go to Paris this 25th of june till 28th

we will start from central london early and make ourways to dover 80 miles
sleep somewhere close to calais
than another 80 miles sleep and another 85 miles and comes the paris

if you are interested please just sent a pm

thanks

£20 for ferry and £40 for eurostar plus hostel and food costs