Welcome to the pages on this website dedicated to the Eurovelo 5 long-distance cycle route.
In summer 2010, after much planning – the original idea came to me while sat on the sofa watching the Beijing Olympics in Augsut 2008 – I set off on an adventure along the route. It took me and my faithful steed Reggie (my bike) from our home town of Reading all the way to Brindisi in the heel of Italy. As I cycled, I blogged…. and I am now in the process of turning my musings into a book with the hope of publishing it in late 2011. You can read some of the chapters by here. And if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. You can contact me by clicking here. I always reply to people who have been to take an interest in me and my little trip… Thanks for visiting and enjoy!
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Hi Andrew
Purchased your book from Amazon and am now about half way through (you and Reggie are in Milan). Really enjoyable read and will put comments on Amazon when finished. Good luck with your EuroVelo 8 trip and if you get a real hankering to do more EuroVelo trips and select Route 4 you can contact me as I live near Brno, Czech Republic (I’m a Yorkshireman abroad
)
Best Wishes
Lee
Hi Lee
And delighted you are enjoying the book. Just looked up Eurovelo 4. It seems to be one of the other neglected routes of the network; you could become its champion. Or, of course number 9… At some point soon I’ll have to start thinking about the Eurovelo 8 trip. I seem to be spending far too much time at present living off my past glory along Eurovelo 5. Biggest problem will be persuading my employer to give me a few weeks off work just before the summer holidays to make it possible in one 9-10 week cycle. Otherwise it might be a 2013 and 2014 adventure! Keep following the blog and spread the word in the Czech Republic about the book. You can’t be the only Yorkshireman in town!
Great to hear from a fellow Tyke!
Cheers
Andrew
Hi Andrew
I’ve written a review and this is now on amazon.co.uk (5 stars).
I’ve also looked at EV9 and that is a possibility for me as Brno is midway between Gdansk, Poland and Pula, Croatia. I’ll be in touch
Cheers
Lee
Hi again Andrew,
I emailed you earlier in the year in regard to the route.
I have booked the flight now but am thinking of doing it backwards. I just had few questions about the trip itself: I’m planning to do the trip independently and wandered if you ever wild camped? If so, do you have any tips ( best places, where it is legal, did you put bike in tent, how to keep it secure) if not other options?
When going through Italy did you encounter any toll roads? How did you face these? Do you pay the normal fee?
In regards to getting a hold of water and food – I’m doing the trip in July, so it is going to be extremely hot, hence I will probably be drinking 4-6 litres day if not more. Is it quite easy to get water, did you just buy it from a shop etc?
Please excuse any silly questions; I’m quite new to the whole idea of touring but can’t wait to get out there.
Tom
Hi Tom.
I’ve just answered your questions in a new post on the homepage. If you need any further info, don’t hesitate to get in touch again & good luck with your trip! See the post here: http://apsykes.com/2011/05/21/the-alps-security-water-the-ciclopista-del-sole/
Best wishes
Andrew
Hi
Im contacted you a view months ago in regards to a charity run to rome from canterbury. I have planned a route roughly in line with the euro velo 5, but heading into Geneva and into Torino rather then Bern. I have only visited France for holidays and all I remember of it is long motorways and lots of fields! As I will be running I will need a source of food/water/accomodation every 25 miles or so.
If I stray of the Eurovelo route in favour for my own personal route will this effect this condition? I assume the route is biker friendly so would have hotel/food outlets every 25-50 miles. Is this the same scenario with Italy?
Thanks again.
Hi James
Yes, I remember you getting in contact. I hope I replied at the time – I try to reply to anyone who expresses an interest in the route. I think you’ll be absolutely fine. Even the the most remote parts of Western Europe are never very far from civilisation so I don’t think you’ll ever get to a point where you won’t be within a days run of anything else, certainly every 25 miles. If you are fairly confident as to how many miles you are going to run per day then you could plan a route that put you at a particular hotel on a particular day but I have to say that I quite liked the flexibility (and sometimes the scaryness) of not knowing where I was going to be on the evening of the day when I set off. That said, with a bike you are more flexible than on foot.
Sounds an amazing challenge. Let me know how you get on. Happy to post about you and your charity on the blog when you set off.
Good luck!
Andrew
Hi,
Planning to do the Eurovelo 5 in the summer, and I was wandering if anybody who has done or planning to do it, has mapped it out on a Garmin as a track? on http://www.gpsies.com or something like that?
Tom
Hi. Thanks for passing by. If you Google George Jemmot he has a website where he attempted to map a route from Milan to Belgium. I have to say that in the end I quite liked not having a detailed route to follow; I ended up picking my way from town to town across the continent and the journey was all the better for taking that approach. Good luck with your trip and let me know how you get on
Andrew
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