25 days to Cycle Tour in Europe Starting Mid-August (Mtn. bike routes?) | On Your Bike - Lonely Planet Forum

ONLINE

Fri, 03 Jul 2015 08:45:38 +0000

In mid-August I'll arrive in Paris and have about 25 days to fill with adventure. Unfortunately my wife had to bail, so instead of trekking I'm planning to do a solo cycle tour, either on my road or mountain bike. I would plan to have no more than about 5 kg/11 lbs of gear so I won't be weighed down while riding. Given the ultralight goal I'll need to select a route with reasonable accommodation and food options along the way. There is absolutely zero chance of me doing an organized tour as I value improvisation when traveling. I'm 32 and budget is totally open for travel between regions and basic accommodation - I want to have a lifetime experience yet be frugal where possible.

MOUNTAIN BIKING
My heart wants to do a mountain biking tour and spend as much time in the backcountry away from traffic and congestion as possible, but still in a position to meet a bunch of people. Are there any good resources out there for mountain bike cycle tour routes? Camino Santiago trail may be fun, but are there other recommended long distance routes? Is the Camino trail going to be undesirable from mid-August through early September due to heat and overcrowding? Would it make more sense for me to break this into a few week-long mountain bike tours in different regions? If so, what are some recommendations for an experienced solo cycle tourist with no camping or cooking gear?

ROAD BIKING
By searching this forum I found pretty good route options for road biking on the EuroVelo website. If I were to pick one of those routes it would be the Eastern European route starting in Helsinki heading as far south as I could make it.

http://www.eurovelo.com/en/eurovelos/eurovelo-11

I do a lot of big distance road rides in the California mountains and have done some cycle-touring in the US with daily distances ranging from 80-200+ miles and 15k+ feet climbing, so challenging terrain is invited but not required. Temps exceeding 80 F, 27 C will likely happen no matter what, but I'd like excess temperature to be limited.

Any advice/recommendations?

ONLINE

Fri, 03 Jul 2015 12:05:45 +0000

I have only done a two month tour in France so I can't say anything beyond that. But I find your question too broad and I think you are looking for easy answers or may be you just need to talk to people who have done a lot of rides in Europe. I think you need to do a bit more research yourself to find out what there is to see and do in europe that interests you.

I usually spend quite a lot of time researching the routes i take. If you don't want to do that just go with the eurovelo routes.

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ONLINE

Fri, 03 Jul 2015 14:34:54 +0000

In response to #1

Thanks, newislander.

From researching (I've spent many hours and days looking for resources) I was able to find quite a lot of information about road routes, so I'm good there.

To be more specific I'm looking for a longer mountain bike cycle tour route in Europe that would take about 3 weeks, or alternately a few highly recommended week-long mt. bike cycle tours. Ideally I'd like to find a list of mountain bike cycle tours that don't require central organization, such as alpine crossing (if it's feasible). I'm looking for point-to-point routes that have accommodation and food available along the route so I can travel ultralight.

Are there any extended mountain bike trail systems that pass through multiple countries in Europe?

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ONLINE

Fri, 03 Jul 2015 22:39:10 +0000

I see. Thanks for clarifying. Can I suggest you contact the moutain bike organistations in some european countries. I know there's a lot of mountain bike in in France but I don't know the trails.

I think you'll be hard put to find a trail that goes for three weeks with nightly stopovers with accommodation but you never know what you may find if you keep looking.

I still think you could patch together a route yourself if you can find out about the shorter routes.

I did come across one trail on my trip. It was in the tarn gorge. I rode into the top end of the gorge from the west side and that was amazing enough. Then when i came down it, i started by riding along the east side. It is a pretty narrow path and I had to push my hybrid bike a fair bit but i did come across a local group of mountain bikers on the trail.

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ONLINE

Tue, 21 Jul 2015 19:59:27 +0000

Mountains around Carcassonne are a good bet. North and south.

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Fri, 22 Jul 2016 01:00:31 +0000

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