EuroVelo

Map of the EuroVelo network.

EuroVelo is a network of long-distance cycling routes (currently 14) criss-crossing Europe, in various stages of completion. As of May 2013 more than 45,000 km (27,962 mi) were in place.[1] The network is scheduled for substantial completion 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]

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[6] 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[7][8] 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 – Atlantic Coast Route

Stretching the length of the continent, from North Cape at the top of Scandinavia to the Algarve in Portugal, EV1 connects some of the world’s most beautiful seascapes in Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the West Country of England, France, Spain and Portugal, with fjords, beaches and port towns.[9]

EuroVelo 2 – Capitals Route

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,[10] an international long-distance cycling route connecting Boulogne-sur-Mer in France with St Petersburg in Russia.

EuroVelo 3 – Pilgrims Route

EV3 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 – Central Europe Route

EV4 takes in coastlines, medieval architecture, cities and history on its way from Roscoff, France to Kiev, Ukraine.

EuroVelo 5 – Via Romea Francigena

The EV5 route 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 – River Route

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

Running from Saint-Nazaire on the mouth of the River Loire along that river eastward through France, EV6 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.[11]

EuroVelo 7 – Sun Route

Main article: EV7 The Sun Route

EV7 runs 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.[12]

EuroVelo 8 – Mediterranean Route

EV8 follows the European coastline of the Mediterranean sea from Cádiz in Spain to Athens in Greece before jumping to the island-nation of Cyprus.[13]

EuroVelo 9 – Amber Route

Main article: EV9 The Amber Route

EV9 (in Poland, also labeled as R9) stretches from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea. It is so named after the precious stone amber collected in the Baltic, which was taken by routes such as this to the Mediterranean. One of the shortest of the EuroVelo routes, 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.[14]

EuroVelo 10 – Baltic Route

EV10 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 [15]

EuroVelo 11 – East Europe Route

Signage for EuroVelo 11, Vilnius, Lithuania.

EV11 connects (theoretically) the Norway's North Cape with Athens.

EuroVelo 12 – North Sea Route

EV12 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. It was funded in part by the European Union's Interreg initiative.

EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail

EuV13 follows the old Iron Curtain, the divided borders of Europe during the Cold War.[16] 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.[17] It finishes at Rezovo in Bulgaria on the Black Sea after following the border with Greece and Turkey.[18]

EuroVelo 15 – The Rhine Cycle Route

EV15, 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 [19] and Germany.

Requirements

The ECF has written a route development manual for those working on developing EuroVelo routes.[20] According to the 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:[22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Projects and networks - EuroVelo". ECF. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  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. ↑ admin. "EuroVelo 8 - Mediterranean Route". Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  7. ↑ "Eurovelo 9". 18 September 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  8. ↑ Radrouten Niederösterreich - EuroVelo 9
  9. ↑ "EuroVelo 1". EuroVelo.com website. European Cyclists' Federation. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  10. ↑ "The Complete Route". Euroroute R1 website. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  11. ↑ "L'itinéraire vélo de Bâle à l'Atlantique — EuroVelo 6". Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  12. ↑ "EuroVelo 7". EuroVelo.com. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  13. ↑ "EuroVelo 8". EuroVelo.com website. European Cyclists' Federation. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  14. ↑ "EuroVelo 9". EuroVelo.com website. European Cyclists' Federation. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  15. ↑ "EV10 - OpenStreetMap Wiki". Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  16. ↑ ECF - EuroVelo - The Iron Curtain Trail (EuroVelo 13)
  17. ↑ "- Eurovelo 13". Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  18. ↑ "Iron Curtain Trail - The Iron Curtain Trail - experiencing the history of Europe's division". Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  19. ↑ via France
  20. ↑ http://www.eurovelo.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Guidance-on-the-Route-Development-Process.pdf EuroVelo: Guidance on the Route Development Process
  21. ↑ "Guidance on the Route Development Process" (PDF). EuroVelo.org. European Cyclists' Federation. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
  22. ↑ "EuroVelo the European cycle route network Development Strategy 2012-2020" (PDF). EuroVelo.org website. European Cyclists' Federation. December 2011. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
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