EURO TOUR 2013

[crash-quest-dummy]

anders zijn die dagelijkse 100km veel te snel om ...

[highway_patrol]

Misschien van Antwerpen naar Mechelen en dan via Willebroek, Dendermonde en Zele naar Gent? Ik ken de laatste stand niet meer van het stuk tussen Willebroek en Baasrode. Als ik het me goed herinner is het op sommige plaatsen niet zo velomobielvriendelijk. Ook het binnenkomen van Dendermonde is niet alles tenzij dit al opgelost is.

Willebroek - Dendermonde kan je volledig afleggen over een prachtig stuk scheldedijk.

Zoals men me onlangs in Sint-Amands zei: "vooral NIET proberen in het weekend. Dan is er geen doorkomen aan." Ik reed er maandag en op een verdwaalde wielertoerist na was de dijk leeg. En ja: de dijk is redelijk breed en goed berijdbaar. Afhankelijk van het moment dus.

Er zijn twee kanten aan, maar dit is meer een keuze voor de organisatie: je kunt doorrijden over de dijk tot in Gent. Dat gaat vlot, maar bijna niemand zal je zien. Wil je velomobielen promoten, dan moet je af en toe wel eens een stad(je) doorkruisen. Dat rijdt minder vlot, maar je wordt wel gezien !

Ging ik nog even toevoegen ter info: Vorige week na de wedstrijd afgekomen via de dijk, prachtig weer, late namiddag en er was heel weinig verkeer. Het zal inderdaad een beetje afhangen van de moment, maar wel plezant rijden.

[PatRecumbent]

Willebroek - Dendermonde kan je volledig afleggen over een prachtig stuk scheldedijk.

Al het goede dat ik lees over dit jaagpad overtuigt me om dit op te nemen in de route. Als ik zie wie er naar het ligfietstreffen komt dan weet ik dat ik daar genoeg praktische informatie kan krijgen. Het traject van Straelen naar Gent komt dus in orde. Bedankt voor de input Vermoedelijk kan ik dat stuk van de route volgend jaar uitproberen als het treffen van 2013 in West-Vlaanderen is.

Ondertussen heb ik de organisator aangeraden Brussel links te laten liggen en dus van Gent naar Saint-Quentain te rijden. Het jaagpad langs de Schelde van Gent naar Oudenaarde lijkt me OK. Zijn er nog tips verder naar het zuiden? Is er een degelijk jaagpad? Hoe zit het in Noord-Frankrijk (regio Valenciennes)?

[crash-quest-dummy]

tja, als de binnenvaartschepen van Zeebrugge naar Parijs kunnen varen, dan moeten er ook jaagpaden zijn, niet ?

[NL-ligger]

tja, als de binnenvaartschepen van Zeebrugge naar Parijs kunnen varen, dan moeten er ook jaagpaden zijn, niet ?

Trekschuiten bedoel je..dat is alweer een tijdje achterhaald

[PatRecumbent]

tja, als de binnenvaartschepen van Zeebrugge naar Parijs kunnen varen, dan moeten er ook jaagpaden zijn, niet ?

Trekschuiten bedoel je..dat is alweer een tijdje achterhaald

De jaagpaden hebben hun oorspronkelijke functie (pad voor de paarden die trekschuiten trekken) verloren. Vandaag is de functie eerder toegang verlenen tot diensten van de uitbater van het kanaal en nooddiensten. Hiervoor moet het jaagpad niet per se verhard zijn. Vandaar de vraag naar ervaring met de jaagpaden van deze kanalen en waterlopen om te zien of ze bruikbaar zijn voor EURO TOUR 2013. Als ik zelf moet gaan kijken ben ik een paar dagen onderweg.

[Sean.Havins]

Hello everyone!

Here is the latest news of the Euro Tour 2013:

The initial flood of rider registrations has tapered to a trickle. As of this writing, we have 83 riders and 4 support volunteers. By this time next year I think the final number of participants will be somewhere near 100.

As the number of riders grows things get more complicated. To keep things running smoothly, I have decided to ask for volunteers in each country to act as tour coordinators in their country. These country coordinators will look after the details that are unique to their country and will help with communication with participants and others in country. It is my great pleasure to announce that Michael Lippens has volunteered to be the Country Coordinator for Belgium. Thank you Michael! I will be making the same request for other countries soon.

Volunteers have been stepping forward to take ownership of major sections of the tour’s route. Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland are now completely covered or nearly so. Germany has one small section remaining unclaimed and half of the route through France is available for someone to show the world their favorite roads. We are still over a year from the start date so I am not worried, yet.

The sponsorship team has been formed and is currently composed of Luc Fournier, Steve Wood and myself. The team had its first meeting via Skype where we laid out the basics of our target levels and near term goals. We have lots to do...

Heike Bunte, the Chairwoman of the HPV Germany e.V, has presented the Tour to the Mayor of Leer. I am told the meeting went well and he has confirmed his support.

I have begun contacting media to gauge interest in running stories on the tour. No responses yet.

That’s all for now.

[Sean.Havins]

It is with great pleasure that I announce that our 90th registered participant is none other than the father of the modern velomobile, Carl Georg Rasmussen!
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2011/11/da ... georg.html
With all of the knowledge and history embodied in the riders of this tour, the conversations around the campfires and in the pubs are going to be so interesting I don’t know how I’m going to get enough sleep.

[dmd]

Who plans the route between Dronten and Ghent? As some of you know, I crashed a week ago with my Quest. In a couple of weeks, if repair is finished I plan to collect him going by train/bus and than return by cycling.
Because i live in Ghent, I can "test"the Eurotour route between Dronten and Ghent if someone is interested...

[PatRecumbent]

Who plans the route between Dronten and Ghent? As some of you know, I crashed a week ago with my Quest. In a couple of weeks, if repair is finished I plan to collect him going by train/bus and than return by cycling.
Because i live in Ghent, I can "test"the Eurotour route between Dronten and Ghent if someone is interested...

Hello Bert,

You know the person because it's me . The current plan for the route is to go via Straelen so I guess this does not fit into your plans. The advice for the route from Dronten to Ghent is to enter Belgium with the Bels Lijntje from Tilburg to Turnhout. Then you can choose either to follow the channel to Wijnegem and Antwerp via Sportapleis to the Kaaien. Otherwise you can go more south and link to the route you took from Ghent to Vorst.

[dmd]

Patrick, I should know that I had to ask it to you

Straelen is indeed rather a detour for me, but anyway thanks already for the tips such as ""Bels Lijntje.

[PatRecumbent]

The route of Bels lijntje can be found here http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Tu ... lway-track" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Sean.Havins]

Statistics

Days until Start; 420
Riders; 101
Volunteers; 6
Total participants; 106
Countries represented; 15
Models of velomobiles on tour; 34

As you can see from the statistics, we now have 101 riders and 6 SAG crew that will be participating in the EuroTour 2013. I think it will soon be time to plan how we are going to keep our impact on the towns and villages we pass through to a minimum. We may have to camp in two locations each night. I need to get more input from the locals in each country to know how we can best be able to accommodate 106 campers nightly.

Sponsorship

We have not started our big push for sponsors yet but there are already three sets of active inquiries in progress;

Heike Bunte has been wonderful about donating her time to represent the tour to the Mayor of Leer, Germany. The Mayor will be doing what he can to persuade his local shipping companies to provide shipping for the North American velomobiles to and from the event. The possibility of accommodations in Leer has also been mentioned.


One of our riders works at a satellite communications company and is actively pursuing the possibility of sponsorship from his company.

I recently had lunch with the regional sales manager of the enterprise tape backup company that we do business with. During the meal, the tour was mentioned and his first words after seeing pictures of velomobiles were “wouldn’t our logo look so cool on one of those!” “Well, that can be arranged” says I. He promised to talk to the president of the company during a retreat this week.

Volunteers

Tour Photographer:
Klaus Binder, one of our Swiss riders, has volunteered to be the Tour Photographer. His fine work can be seen on his blog http://www.klausbinder.com/wpress/.

Sponsorship team:
At the moment, the sponsorship team consists of Sean Havins (me), Luc Fournier and Steve Wood. We are working on brainstorming ideas to target and approach sponsors. First we need to finish a projected budget for the tour. We have already completed a small brochure that was delivered to the Mayor of Leer by Heike Bunte during their initial meetings. Within the next couple of weeks we will begin expanding our efforts to secure sponsors.

SAG:
I was worried at fist that we would not have enough support and gear (SAG) volunteers to keep this adventure running. I was wrong. As the registration progressed, volunteers appeared. at the time of this writing, we have 6 SAG volunteers. They are:

Volunteer / Country
Angelika Leipold / Germany
Ann Mühlenbruch / Germany
Jan Bain / Canada
Jean-Kathryn Fournier / Canada
Nancy Sanford / USA
Vicky Johnsen / USA

Without these people, the tour will not happen. I don’t have the words to thank them properly for volunteering to support our tour.
Ann Mühlenbruch has also volunteered to be SAG captain for the German portion of the tour. She has volunteered to organize the SAG team and help our tour succeed in Germany. It will be nice to put some of the logistical worries on her shoulders. Thanks Ann!

Route definition:
The following people have taken ownership of sections of the route to choose the best roads and paths for the tour to use.

Volunteer(s) / Section
Harry Lieben, Patrick Debal / Leer Germany Through Netherlands and Belgium to the French border
thibaut (From the French forum) / Troyes, France to Dijon, France
Klaus Binder / Dijon, France to Basel, Switzerland
Micke (From the French forum) / Basel, Switzerland to Karlsruhe, Germany
Josef Janning, Nina Mohrmann / Mannheim, Germany to Leer, Germany

I Will be contacting each of the route volunteers to get individual status soon.

Country Coordinators:
There are many tasks that require someone in each country that knows the local regulations of the countries we will pass through and speaks the language. At the moment, we only have one volunteer Country Coordinator. I am looking for more.

Coordinator / Country
Michael Lippens / Belgium
Needed / Netherlands
Needed / France
Needed / Switzerland
Needed / Germany


That is all I have for now.

Thank you.

[Evelien van Jeroen]

Hi Sean,

in West-Vlaanderen, the most western province of Belgium, next to the French border, there is a magazine issues by the touristic service, which makes great cover stories about cycling and hiking in West-Vlaanderen. My familiy and I will be covered eg for our participation in a cycle tour to three breweries in the 'neighbourhood' which we succesfully finished with our WaW and cargobike.
I have contacts with the magazine and I think they will be really interested in covering the Tour IF is passes through our province.


Patrick,

if you could confirm me the route the Tour will make and if it passes through West-Vlaanderen, I will be happy to contact the guy from Leiemagazine and assure the Tour riders of a cover story.
If needed, I can help you look for places to have the campers settled for the night.

PS: if we have a velomobile by then, we will be happy to participate!!

[PatRecumbent]

if you could confirm me the route the Tour will make and if it passes through West-Vlaanderen ... If needed, I can help you look for places to have the campers settled for the night.

Dear Evelien,

The current plan is to travel south from Ghent, more or less straight to Valenciennes.

The plan may need to change if we have difficulties to find camp sites that are willing to accept a group of this size (approx. 100). Also, a good brewery may exert an unresistable force on the steering system that makes us pass through West-Vlaanderen.

Kind regards,

Patrick