European Sportives before 30 June 2013

mabarbie

Hi All.

I recently had the misfortune of smashing my collarbone in four pieces while on my last training event for the Pyreneen Raid this year, I should actually be there now, and seeing the Tour go through those mountains last week, I am mightily pissed off at missing out. Anyway, the collarbone won't be healed properly for anything this year, even if there were spaces, so, I'm looking at doing something next year. 30 June is the cut off because that when my leave year ends at work. Would prefer mountains, Alps or Pyrenees, any pointers, ideas?

Thanks

js14

Bad luck; I wish you a speedy and full recovery.

The site http://www.velo101.com/cyclosport/calendrier (in French) has a fairly comprehensive listing of French sportives, although only for 2012. Most of them are annual events so they will take place at more or less the same time in 2013. You might find the exact dates in 2013 by following the links to the organisers' sites. The results will give you a good idea of how popular each event is and what the standard of the riders was.

bigpikle

There was a good post here a few weeks ago that pulled together a long list of Sportives in Europe with links, so a quick search will reveal plenty that meet your needs.

DavidCr

The Time Megeve is a well organised sportive that takes place early-mid June. It usually attracts around 2500 riders and has 3 distances. The timing chip system allows you to choose the course/distance on the day of the event. Last year climbs included Aravis, Croix Fry and Saisie.
The distances covered are shorter than in the big events like the Marmotte but it makes a good build up to these sportives later in the Summer.
You can get more details on the website http://www.csportsmegeve.com however it is not normally updated until the Winter.

mabarbie

Thanks guys for the replies. Bigpikle, found the thread you were talking about, some very interesting stuff there. All I need to do is convince the better half that since I missed out 'cos of my own bad judgement, I should be allowed to go out again and give some of these a go.