EuroVelo

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) was 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 back 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:

• They must be based on existing or planned national or regional routes of the involved countries.
• At least two countries must be involved.
• Route length must be at least 1,000 km (620 mi).
• Steep sections should be avoided wherever possible and for very steep sections (if unavoidable) alternative transport options (i.e. public transport or alternative routes) should be provided.^[6]
• Easy to communicate - internationally recognisable identity and name (marketing potential).
• Implementation plans in place (project plan, business plan, partners).
• Signing in accordance with the regulations of the respective nations and/or regions, continuous and in both directions.
• Signage supplemented by EuroVelo route information panels, in accordance with the recommendations of UNECE and the ECF's Signing of EuroVelo cycle routes manual.

Route infrastructure

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

• Traffic-free asphalted road: 8%
• Traffic-free non-asphalted road: 6%
• Public low-traffic, asphalted road: 56%
• Public non-asphalted road: 3%
• Public high-traffic, asphalted road: 14%

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	Cadiz - 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

EuroVelo 6 is the Rivers Route. It runs from Saint-Nazaire on the mouth of the RivLoire 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

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 Cadiz in Spain to Athens in Greece before jumping to the island-nation of Cyprus.^[16]

EuroVelo 9

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]

• 

  Sign R9 at the south-western border of Wrocław, near to Wrocław–Copernicus Airport

• 

  Signage for EuroVelo 9, Wiener Neustadt, Austria

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

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to EuroVelo.

• European long-distance paths
• List of cycling topics
• Route Verte
• United States Bicycle Route System

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to EuroVelo.

• EuroVelo — the European Cycle Route Network
• ECF European Cyclists' Federation
• Eurovelo 13: Iron Curtain Trail - Through Europe along the former Iron Curtain
• Eurovelo 15 from Andermatt to Rotterdam
• Mapping project of EuroVelo on OpenStreetMap
• Italian Greenways