EuroVelo

Map of the EuroVelo network.

EuroVelo bicycle routes are a network of (currently 14) long-distance cycling routes criss-crossing Europe in various stages of completion. As of May 2013 more than 45,000 km (27,962 mi) were in place.[1] It is envisaged that the network will be substantially complete by 2020 and when finished, the EuroVelo network's total length will exceed 70,000 km (43,496 mi).[2][3] EuroVelo is a project of the European Cyclists' Federation (ECF).

EuroVelo routes can be used for bicycle touring across the continent, as well as by local people making short journeys. The routes are made of both existing national bike routes — such as the Dutch LF-Routes, the German D-Routes, and the British National Cycle Network — and existing general purpose roads, together with new stretches of cycle routes to connect them.[4]

History

The idea of creating a network of international cycle routes spanning Europe started in 1995. It was initially coordinated by the ECF, De Frie Fugle (Denmark) and Sustrans (UK) and the original plan was to create 12 long-distance cycling routes.

Since August 2007, the ECF has assumed full responsibility for the project. Despite sometimes tight financial constraints, the EuroVelo project has already begun to fulfil the vision of its founders with sections of the network being implemented in countries as far apart as Finland, Cyprus, Spain and the UK. In addition, the EuroVelo brand has become widely known and is increasingly seen as a sign of quality.

There have been various changes to the network over the years, most notably the addition of two new routes —EuroVelo 13 (the Iron Curtain Trail) and EuroVelo 15 (the Rhine Cycle Route)— in September 2011, which are the longest and shortest of the EuroVelo routes.[5]

Requirements

The ECF has written a route development manual for those working on developing EuroVelo routes, entitled EuroVelo: Guidance on the Route Development Process. According to these guidelines, all EuroVelo routes should fulfill the following criteria:

Route infrastructure

The current share of route infrastructure components in the EuroVelo network is as follows:[7]

Main points on the EuroVelo routes

EuroVelo routes (connections to other EV routes are in parentheses)
Route number Route name Passes through these cities Through these countries Length
km mi
EV1 Atlantic Coast Route North Cape (EV7, EV11) - Norwegian Coast - Trondheim (EV3) - Bergen (EV12) - Aberdeen (EV12) - Inverness  (EV12 ) - Glasgow - Stranraer - Belfast - Galway (EV2) - Cork - Rosslare - Fishguard - Bristol (EV2) - Plymouth - Roscoff (EV4) - Nantes (EV6) - La Rochelle - Burgos (EV3) - Salamanca - Sagres Norway, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal 8,186 5,087
EV2 Capitals Route Galway (EV1) - Dublin - Holyhead - Bristol (EV1) - London (EV5) - Harwich - Rotterdam - The Hague - Münster (EV3) - Berlin (EV7) - Poznań (EV9) - Warsaw (EV11) - Minsk - Moscow Ireland, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia 5,500 3,400
EV3 Pilgrims Route Santiago de Compostela - León - Burgos (EV1) - Bordeaux - Tours (EV6) - Orléans (EV6) - Paris - Namur (EV5) - Aachen (EV4) - Münster (EV2) - Hamburg (EV12) - Odense (EV10) - Viborg - Frederikshavn (EV12) - Gothenburg (EV12) - Oslo - Røros - Trondheim (EV1) Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway 5,122 3,183
EV4 Central Europe Route Roscoff (EV1) - the French Atlantic coast - Le Havre - Calais (EV5) - Middelburg - Eindhoven - Aachen (EV3) - Bonn - Frankfurt - Prague (EV7) - Brno (EV9) - Kraków (EV11) - L'viv - Kiev France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine 4,000 2,500
EV5 Via Romea Francigena London (EV2) - Canterbury - Calais (EV4) - Brussels - Namur (EV3) - Luxembourg - Saarbrücken - Sarreguemines - Strasbourg (EV15) - Basel (EV6) - Lucerne - Milan - Piacenza (EV8) - Parma - Florence(EV7) - Siena - Rome(EV7) - Brindisi United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy 3,900 2,400
EV6 Rivers Route (Atlantic – Black Sea) Nantes (EV1) - Tours (EV3) - Orleans (EV3) - Nevers - Chalon-sur-Saône - Basel (EV5) - Passau - Linz - Ybbs (EV7) - Vienna (EV9) - Bratislava - Budapest - Belgrade (EV11) - Bucharest - Constanţa France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania 3,653 2,270
EV7 Sun Route North Cape  (EV1, EV11) - Haparanda (EV10) - Sundsvall (EV10) - central Sweden - Copenhagen (EV10) - Gedser - Rostock (EV10) - Berlin (EV2) - Prague (EV4) - Ybbs (EV6) - Salzburg - Mantua (EV8) - Bologna - Florence (EV5) - Rome (EV5) - Naples - Syracuse - Malta Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Malta 6,000 3,700
EV8[8] Mediterranean Route Cádiz - Málaga - Almeria - Valencia - Barcelona - Monaco - Piacenza (EV5) - Mantua (EV7) - Ferrara - Venice - Trieste (EV9) - Rijeka - Split - Dubrovnik - Tirana - Patras - Athens (EV11) Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece 5,388 3,348
EV9[9][10] Baltic - Adriatic Gdańsk (EV10) - Poznań (EV2) - Wrocław - Olomouc - Brno (EV4) - Reinthal - Vienna (EV6) - Maribor - Ljubljana - Trieste (EV8) - Pula Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Croatia 1,930 1,200
EV10 Baltic Sea Cycle Route (Hansa circuit) St Petersburg - Helsinki (EV11) - Vaasa - Oulu - Haparanda (EV7) - Sundsvall (EV7) - Stockholm - Ystad - Malmö - Copenhagen (EV7) - Odense (EV3) - Rostock (EV7) - Gdańsk (EV9) - Kaliningrad - Klaipėda - Riga - Tallinn (EV11) - St Petersburg Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia 7,930 4,930
EV11 East Europe Route North Cape  (EV1, EV7) - the Finnish Lakes - Helsinki (EV10) - Tallinn (EV10) - Tartu - Vilnius - Warsaw (EV2) - Kraków (EV4) - Košice - Szeged - Belgrade (EV6) - Skopje - Thessaloniki - Athens (EV8) Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece 5,964 3,706
EV12 North Sea Cycle Route Bergen (EV1) - Stavanger - Kristiansand - Gothenburg (EV3) - Varberg - Grenaa - Frederikshavn (EV3) - Hirtshals - Esbjerg - Hamburg (EV3) - The Hague (EV2) - Rotterdam - Harwich (EV2) - Kingston upon Hull - Newcastle - Edinburgh - Aberdeen (EV1) - Inverness (EV1) - Thurso - Orkney - Shetland - Bergen (EV1) Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom 5,932 3,686
EV13 Iron Curtain Trail Kirkenes - Sodankylä (EV11) - Lappeenranta - Saint Petersburg (EV10) - Tallinn (EV10) - Riga (EV10) - Kaliningrad (EV10) - Gdańsk (EV 9, EV10) - Lübeck (EV10) - Cheb (EV4) - Bratislava (EV6) - Szeged - Vršac - Kladovo (EV6) - Zaječar - Pirot - Dragoman - Strumitsa - Petrich - Smolyan - Kyprinos - Svilengrad - Edirne - Malko Tarnovo - Rezovo Finland - Russia - Estonia - Latvia - Lithuania - Poland - Germany - Czech Republic - Austria - Slovakia - Hungary - Romania - Serbia - Bulgaria - Macedonia - Bulgaria - Greece - Bulgaria - Turkey - Bulgaria 10,400 6,500
EV15 Rhine Cycle Route Andermatt - Chur - Schaffhausen - Basel (EV5-EV6) - Huningue - Neuf-Brisach - Strasbourg (EV5) - Lauterbourg - Karlsruhe - Ludwigshafen - Mannheim - Mainz - Wiesbaden - Bingen - Koblenz - Bonn - Köln - Düsseldorf - Duisburg - Xanten - Arnhem - Utrecht - Rotterdam Switzerland, France, Germany, Netherlands 1,320 820
Legend - Green: North-South / Blue: West-East / Red: Circuits

Route information

EuroVelo 1

Stretching the length of the continent, from North Cape at the top of Scandinavia to the Algarve in Portugal, EuroVelo 1 the Atlantic Coast Route connects some of the world’s most beautiful seascapes in Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the West Country of England, France, Spain and Portugal. Expect dramatic fjords, sun-kissed beaches and bustling port towns.[11]

EuroVelo 2

The EV2 runs between Galway in Ireland to Moscow in Russia taking in all the capital cities along the way.

Between The Hague in the Netherlands and the German-Polish border, the EV2 follows the bicycle route called European Bicycle Route R1 or Euro-Route R1,[12] an international long-distance cycling route connecting Boulogne-sur-Mer in France with St Petersburg in Russia.

EuroVelo 3

EuroVelo 3 is named The Pilgrims Route. It goes from Trondheim in Norway to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The route follows traces of old roads used for pilgrimages in the Middle Ages. The route passes through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France and Spain. Most of these countries have a developed net of bicycle routes used as part of EV3.

EuroVelo 4

EuroVelo 4, the Central Europe Route takes in gorgeous coastlines, outstanding medieval architecture, dynamic cities and history lessons aplenty on its way from Roscoff, France to Kiev, Ukraine.[13]

EuroVelo 5

The EV5 is inspired by the Via Francigena, a pilgrimage route from London to Rome first recorded by Archbishop of Canterbury Sigeric in the 10th century AD. However, the route of the true Via Francigena is an almost straight line path from London to Rome, while the EuroVelo 5 route takes a more easterly route that passes through Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg in the Alsace. It then follows the Franco-German border, passes through Switzerland following Swiss National Bike Route no. 3, before crossing the Alps at the Gotthard Pass. It then passes through Italy (more closely following Sigeric's route) to Rome before continuing on to the Adriatic port city of Brindisi.

EuroVelo 6

Main article: EV6 The Rivers Route
Signage for EuroVelo 6 in France, near the tripoint of France, Switzerland and Germany.

EuroVelo 6 is the Rivers Route. It runs from Saint-Nazaire on the mouth of the River Loire along that river eastward through France. It passes over the border to Switzerland to Lake Constance and then on to Tuttlingen in Germany, where it begins its way down the Danube following the Donauradweg (Danube Cycle Route). It follows that river, Europe's second longest, through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania to the river's mouth at the Danube Delta. It then continues southwards to end in Constanța, on the Black Sea.[14]

EuroVelo 7

Main article: EV7 The Sun Route

EuroVelo 7, the Sun Route, running from the North Cape to Malta, will whisk you from the Arctic Circle in Norway, the land of the midnight sun, to island hopping in the Mediterranean.[15]

EuroVelo 8

EuroVelo 8 is called the Mediterranean Route as it follows the European coastline of the Mediterranean sea from Cádiz in Spain to Athens in Greece before jumping to the island-nation of Cyprus.[16]

EuroVelo 9

Main article: EV9 The Amber Route

EuroVelo 9 (in Poland, also labeled as R9) is called the Amber Route and stretches from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea. It is so called as the precious stone amber collected in the Baltic was taken by routes such as this to the Mediterranean. One of the shortest of all the EuroVelo routes, the EV9 still manages to cut across Europe from north to south, from Poland to Croatia, and in doing so passes through the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovenia en route.[17]

EuroVelo 10

EuroVelo 10 [18] runs around Baltic Sea. Some of its parts are mapped on OpenStreetMap project . On the state of the route there is an OpenStreetMap wiki page [19]

EuroVelo 11

Signage for EuroVelo 11, Vilnius, Lithuania.

EuroVelo 11 [20] is called the East Europe Route and connect (theoretically) the North Cape with Athens. On the state of the route there is an OpenStreetMap wiki page.[21]

EuroVelo 12

EuroVelo 12,[22] the North Sea Cycle Route,[23] was the first European route, opened in June 2001, 6,000 km (3,700 mi) route through England, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. It features in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest unbroken signposted cycling route. The second phase of European Union funding through the Interreg initiative came to a close in December 2006.

EuroVelo 13

EuroVelo 13,[24] the Iron Curtain Trail, follows the old Iron Curtain, the divided borders of Europe during the Cold War.[25] The ICT runs from Kirkenes, Norway on the Barents Sea, along the Finno-Russian border through to the Baltic Sea, then hugs the length of the Baltic coast to Lübeck in Germany. It then follows the old border between West Germany and the former East Germany, the current borders between the Czech Republic and both Germany then Austria, the Austrian-Slovak and Austrian-Hungarian borders before following the borders of Romania, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Macedonia.[26] It finishes at Rezovo in Bulgaria on the Black Sea after following the border with Greece and Turkey.[27]

EuroVelo 15

The international Rhine Cycle Route, EuroVelo 15,[28] with an overall length of about 1,320 km (820 mi) passes through four countries from the headwaters of the Rhine in Andermatt in the Swiss Alps to the estuary in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, via France [29] and Germany.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Projects and networks - EuroVelo". ECF. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  2. ↑ "EuroVelo - the European cycle route network". EuroVelo.org website. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  3. ↑ "Routes". EuroVelo. ECF. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  4. ↑ Richard Peace (2008-09-17). "Euros for EuroVelo". bikeradar.com. Future Publishing Ltd. Retrieved 2009-12-21.
  5. ↑ "History - EuroVelo - the European cycle route network". EuroVelo website. European Cyclists' Federation. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  6. ↑ "Guidance on the Route Development Process" (PDF). EuroVelo.org. European Cyclists' Federation. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
  7. ↑ "EuroVelo the European cycle route network Development Strategy 2012-2020" (PDF). EuroVelo.org website. European Cyclists' Federation. December 2011. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  8. ↑ eurovelo8.com EuroVelo 8
  9. ↑ Eurovelo 9 at CyclingEurope.org
  10. ↑ Radrouten Niederösterreich - EuroVelo 9
  11. ↑ "EuroVelo 1". EuroVelo.com website. European Cyclists' Federation. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  12. ↑ "The Complete Route". Euroroute R1 website. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  13. ↑ http://www.eurovelo.com/en/eurovelos/eurovelo-4
  14. ↑ EuroVelo 6, in Deutsch and French and English
  15. ↑ "EuroVelo 7". EuroVelo.com. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  16. ↑ "EuroVelo 8". EuroVelo.com website. European Cyclists' Federation. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  17. ↑ "EuroVelo 9". EuroVelo.com website. European Cyclists' Federation. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  18. ↑ http://www.eurovelo.com/en/eurovelos/eurovelo-10
  19. ↑ EV10 - OpenStreetMap Wiki
  20. ↑ http://www.eurovelo.com/en/eurovelos/eurovelo-11
  21. ↑ OpenStreetMap Wiki: EV11
  22. ↑ http://www.eurovelo.com/en/eurovelos/eurovelo-12
  23. ↑ North Sea Cycle Route
  24. ↑ http://www.eurovelo.com/en/eurovelos/eurovelo-13
  25. ↑ ECF - EuroVelo - The Iron Curtain Trail (EuroVelo 13)
  26. ↑ http://13.eurovelo.bg Development site for ICT on the Balkans
  27. ↑ Iron Curtain Trail - Through Europe along the former Iron Curtain
  28. ↑ EuroVelo 15
  29. ↑ via France

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to EuroVelo.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for EuroVelo cycling routes.
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