Sportives

I'm running a Tour of Flanders (Ronde van Vlaanderen) open weekend and a Paris-Roubaix open weekend in 2020. I'm afraid that they are both now full but below you will see a description of how they work. The same 3-day model can be applied to any of the sportives associated with the great Spring classics and the big stage races, such as Paris-Nice. They all havefantastic sportives the day before the one-day classics or during the final weekend of the stage races.

This is what such weekends look like, but the same model can be applied to others:

The Tour of Flanders plan:

Friday 3rd April: drive the group down from SE London/Kent early on Friday, to have nice, gentle 60ish km ride to the hotel on Friday afternoon, followed by a trip to Antwerp to pick up the race packs on Friday evening.

Saturday 4th April: riders can ride the route of the their choice of the RVV Cyclo. Routes range from about 75km to over 200km and include all of those iconic cobbled climbs for which Flanders is so famous, such as the Koppenberg, the Paterberg and the Oude Kwaremont.

Sunday 5th April: riders can either take a leisurely ride on their bikes or an even more leisurely post-sportive ride in the van to watch one of the greatest cycling events on the planet when up to 3 million fans crowd the course to roar on their favourites and watch the race on the big screens, beer in hand. After the race has ended I bring you all back to the UK.

Price:

£345, includes getting you and your bikes and bags to Flanders from Kent/SE London area, and back again; 2 nights B&B in a nice 3* Flemish hotel, near Ghent; all vehicle support during all rides (even during the sportive as and where I can get access to you where the roads are closed).

The Paris-Roubaix plan:

Friday 10th April: drive the group down from SE London/Kent early on Friday, to have nice, gentle 60ish km ride to the hotel on Friday afternoon, followed by a trip to pick up the race packs on Friday evening.

Saturday 11th April: riders can ride the route of the their choice of the Paris-Roubaix challenge. Routes range from about 75km to over 200km and include all of those iconic cobbles for which Paris-Roubaix is so famous, such as the Arenberg forest.

Sunday 12th April: riders can either take a leisurely ride on their bikes or an even more leisurely post-sportive ride in the van to watch one of the greatest cycling events on the planet when fans crowd the course to roar on their favourites and watch the race on the big screens, beer in hand. After the race has ended I bring you all back to the UK.

Price:

£345, includes getting you and your bikes and bags to France from Kent/SE London area, and back again; 2 nights B&B in a nice 3* hotel; all vehicle support during all rides (even during the sportive as and where I can get access to you where the roads are closed).

What's so great about doing European Sportives?

So, you've done a few UK sportives? What next? Want to go and do one of the big (or small?) European sportives? Make a weekend of it?

We can take your bikes down ahead of you and meet you at a local airport or station, or you can ride with us from the UK.

We can organise a trip around you and your friends. If you don't have enough takers to fill a trip (7 or 8), then we'd help you look for others. If you can find 7 or 8 then we can take your wherever you want to go.

Here are few suggestions, big and small, but there are many, many more (see here for suggestions - in French):

• Marmotte - a series of global super-sportives in the Alps & Pyrenees, and now Scotland!!!
• L'Étape du Tour - the most famous one of the lot. Ride a Tour stage (different location every year - announced the previous Autumn)
• Ariégeoise - a classic for a real taste of a proper French mountain sportive. 4 routes in the heart of the mighty Pyrenees.
• Ardéchoise - a 4 day cycling festival involving 14,000 people on many courses in June in the beautiful Ardéche region in SE France.
• La Ronde Picarde - very close to our shores in northern France in September.
• Tour of Flanders Cyclo - Around 16000 do the cobbled climbs sportive before the big race the next day. (See above)
• Paris-Roubaix Challenge - Around 9000 do the Hell of the North cobbled sportive before the big race the next day.
• Liége-Bastogne-Liége Challenge - Around 5000 do the sportive before the big race the next day.
• Figure of H8 - A new British-run sportive in a beautiful part of the Pyrenees in September.
• La Résistance - A new road and gravel sportive in the French Alps.

Some pics from Orpington-based club GS Avanti's Tour of Flanders trip from April 2016. They arrived on the Friday afternoon, rode the Cyclosportive along with about 15,000 others on the Saturday and then watched the pro' race on the Sunday.