The starting point of our journey is the Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh; the finishing point is the piazza in Picinisco. Between the two we will cover an estimated distance of at least 2,000 miles, falling just short of the overall distance covered in this year’s Tour de France. We hope to do this in roughly 21 days, allowing for one rest day and two light days, covering an average daily distance of around 100 miles.
Through Britain we will follow Route 1 of the National Cycle Network, which hugs the east coast, as far as London. This will be our first major milestone as we will drop in and visit the London Maggie’s Centre. Then we will travel the relatively short distance to Dover where we will make the 90 minute ferry crossing to Calais (the only part of our journey not on the bike).
In France we will head south for Paris where we will make a brief stop to visit the Eiffel Tower and other sights before continuing south-east through the Burgundy region and on to Pontarlier, near the Swiss border. From there we will cross the Alps, following the route of the entire 15th stage and the first half of the 16th stage of this year’s Tour de France. This will include the Col du Grand Saint-Bernard - a 19 mile climb to a height of 2,469 metres above sea level - which is the highest climb of the Tour de France.
We will emerge into Italy at Aosta and head south to meet the west coast near Genoa. From there we will continue along the coast as we head south-east through Liguria and Tuscany, stopping to visit the Leaning Tower in Pisa. Sticking to the coast we will then meet Rome where we will visit the Colosseum and St. Peter’s before heading inland towards Picinisco: the finish line of the Eurocycle 2009.
During the trip we will stop overnight in hostels and hotels that we find along our route and we will aim to set off every morning no later than 8.00am to give us a good four hours’ cycling before lunch. Each day will end between around 5.00 and 7.00pm depending on the progress that we are making and the difficulty of the terrain.
To track our progress along the route you can visit our Blog where we will be posting daily updates from the road.
© Copyright Eurocycle 2009 - This Site was last updated on Saturday, 06 June 2009