Vintage rides - Festivals in Europe?

[PerB]

We are a group of about 6 friends, some keen vintage cyclist and collectors, some just have one bike and participates just for the tour and the party. The last two years we have gone to Eroica Britannia, but now we are considering something else as the English Eroica seems to be more a family festival and less a cycling event.
I have scanned the net for Vintage/Classic cycling events and have so far come up with the following:
Bergskønig in Switzerland
Eroica Limburg, Nederlands
L'Eroica, Gaiole, Italy
Velo Classico, Germany
Anjou Velo Vintage, France

Is there anything else we should consider? Any experience from any of the above events?

 

[stevevw]

Anjou Velo Vintage

I have ridden this once with my wife on the short route, was great fun to actually get her on a bike and riding. Well run cycling event with massive jumble and free entertainment if you want it. Entry to the rides are very cheap in comparison to Eroica Britannia.

This year I organised the trip for our village club, I could not make it unfortunately but they had a great time riding the long route on the Saturday and then a shorter ride with wives and girlfriends on the Sunday. worked out well. I will be going again in 2018 for a full week, great place to cycle.

 

[dirttorpedo]

Re:

Don't forget:

Eroica Hispania

retro ronde van vlaanderen

 

[Ideale]

Re:

Anjou Velo vintage has grown much bigger over the years but is a great weekend
Also recommend Retroronde and La Savoreuse in Belgium

 

[Jingle Jangle]

Re:

I go to L'eroica in Gaiolie every year. I love it, but it has become a bit Disney-fied.

A few years ago, I went to this:

http://www.etruscaciclostorica.it/

It's a bit more home-spun, in a lovely part of Italy.

Talking of lovely parts of Italy, there's also the Colnago festival on Lake Garda:


http://www.colnagocyclingfestival.com/en/


I believe they do a vintage ride as part of this. Went a few years ago, and Ernesto himself was hanging about.

 

[PerB]

Re:

Thanks so far I made a comparison sheet for easier understanding the differences.
I am making a comparison between the following:
Bergskønig-Gstaad, Switserland
Eroica England-Peak District, England
Eroica Limburg-Valkenburg, Netherland
L'Eroica-Gaiole-Tuscany,Italiy
Velo Classico- Ludvikslust, Germany
Anjou Velo Vintage-Saumur, France
L'Etrusca ciclostorica- Bolgheri Toscana, Italy
L'Eroica Spain-Cenicero, Spain
Retroronde van Flaanderen, Oudenaarde- Belgium
La Savoureuse, Ciney - Belgium
For some of this smaller rides is difficult to find good understandable information as their web sites is only in local languages.

The large number of participants are in L'Eroica England and Italy; and in the Anjou Velo Vintage in France, all with several thousands participants. They all also host large festivals at the same time. L'Eroica in Spain and Netherlands seems to be in a middle category with maybe up to 1000 riders, all the others seems to be smaller with around 200 riders.
The hardest rides is in the Bergskonig and L'Eroica Gaiole and L'Eroica Spain while Eroica England is also rather hard. The Gaiole and Spanish event has long rides with a lot of climbing, while the Bergskønig is rather short (100 km), but with a lot of climbs. The easiest rides seems to be in France and Germany, flat and easy, suits the older bike where it's difficult to change the gearing.

It seems like Eroica Limburg is the place for us, fairly easy rides, a good medium sized festival and not to busy. But if we want to bring out our older bikes we might end up in Germany or France.

 

[DSH]

Re: Re:

It seems like Eroica Limburg is the place for us, fairly easy rides, a good medium sized festival and not to busy. But if we want to bring out our older bikes we might end up in Germany or France.

I would have suggested Limburg. I've ridden it the last two years and had great fun. However,be careful about classing the rides as "fairly easy". Distance and climbing are important considerations and here Limburg is a bit harder than it looks as the height gain is usually short sharp and steep, lets not forget the first climb of the day is the Cauberg!

The biggest issue is the quality of the surface. Limburg dialed this down last year and with good reason: the first edition was simply brutal with a great many mechanicals. Last year was a bit easier but there were still some tough unpaved sections and a huge number of punctures: to the extent that support service had to organise a run to the nearest bike shop to pick up extra spares (tubs in particular). Moreover, it was was pretty wet which made some of the sections "interesting" for those on 23mm slicks.

This is not to put you off, as I have said it is great fun, the festival site has enough beer and frites to make an evening of it and it's close enough to the UK for a not too difficult weekend, just to be aware that it does have a bit of bite.