Any easily attended euro sportives, travel from Scotland ?

arrJimLad
arrJimLad Posts: 8
edited December 2009 in Sportives/audaxes/training rides
Hello, time and money are a bit limited but I'd like to try my hand at a nice euro sportive, just wondering if there's any that are easy to get to leaving from Scotland (Edinburgh). Could be asking a lot here but any suggestions ? I've looked at a few but travel seems to be a bit complicated most of the time.

Comments

  • pneumatic
    pneumatic Posts: 1,989
    Take the Rosyth Ferry to Zeebrugge and do something Flemish/Belgian/North French like the Paris Roubaix.

    Once you are on the continent, the train will take you to the start, if it is too far to ride.

    Fast and Bulbous
    Peregrinations
    Eddingtons: 80 (Metric); 60 (Imperial)
  • ded
    ded Posts: 120
    How complicated will you accept? And how much £££? And do you/do you not want to fly?

    I flew from Edinburgh to Geneva last year with the bike (Easyjet - fairly painless) to do the Marmotte. I hired a car in Geneva so it ended up quite expensive (tho' still miles away from some of the Etape pricing I've seen) - out on Wednesday (rode/drove up/over Galibier for some practice...), back on the Monday. And I know that there are sportives much closer to Geneva than that... I've just not done them but somebody here will have!
  • Garrigou
    Garrigou Posts: 145
    Jet2 fly Edinburgh-Toulouse (twice a week during the summer, I think). Gets you in striking range of a lot of good sportives in the Pyrenees, e.g. Ariegeoise (usually late June), Barousse-Bales (early Aug), Hubert Arbes (late June/early July), Pyreneene (mid June), Lapebie (early Sept) etc.
    Between me & Eddy Merckx we've won pretty much everything worth winning on a bike.
  • arrJimLad
    arrJimLad Posts: 8
    Thanks for the suggestions I'll take a look into all those. Flying is fine but prefer to avoid car rental although its okay and looks fairly necessary.
  • thomas123
    thomas123 Posts: 11
    do the tour of flanders sportif..did it two years ago and it was awesome!
  • mrushton
    mrushton Posts: 5,182
    Time Megeve/Mont Blanc. About an hour from Geneva and a good day out. There is one in the Morzine area but I can't remember the title.Alternately, you could go to Riccione, do the Nove Colle and make it into a holiday. If you take your partner they can have a good week in Italy as well.
    M.Rushton
  • peter_andrew
    peter_andrew Posts: 373
    I did the ariegeoise a couple of years ago (came last, got a great cheer as i crossed the line). A fantastic event.
    Flew to Carcassonne, train to Toulouse then train to Foix, cycled from Foix to start as warm up
    Think you can fly to Toulouse now from Edinburgh you can fly to Carcassonne now (i had to go to Liverpool)
    If biking from airport stay half way to foix in http://www.southfrancehols.com/cycling/Axat-Map.html

    Peter
  • londonlivvy
    londonlivvy Posts: 644
    +1 for the Time Megeve Mont Blanc... am planning to do it this year.

    Easyjet to Geneva, Minibus directly from Geneva to Megeve.
    And, to really reduce the faff factor, you can rent a carbon road bike out there for about 40 euros a day. I know it's not quite the same as your own bike but so much less hassle than bike boxes and all that stuff.
    http://minxcompendium.blogspot.com/

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