EuroVelo routes in GPX! They finally did it!!

[HobbesOnTour]

I've just seen that after years of filling their website with waffle that the EV people have added downloadable gpx tracks

https://en.eurovelo.com/#routes-and-countries

Not all the routes are complete (and anyone would still need to be careful to distinguish between actual, planned and "in development") but this could be a real boon for people for planning or just dreaming.

There are lots of versions already knocking around on the net but how many have been personalised I cannot say

RideWithGPS have a tutorial, I believe, to show how they can be personalised. Perhaps Cycle.Travel ( @Richard Fairhurst ) can use them as well.

For anyone not familiar with the concept, they're a set of European, long distance routes that are normally based on linking shorter regional (or national) routes together. From my limited experience they can be excellent (in stages) in terms of surfaces and facilities or atrocious - and everything in between!

 

[mjr]

GPX of signposted EV sections have been downloadable from https://cycling.waymarkedtrails.org for some time now, but it's good that there are official ones at last.

 

[Dogtrousers]

FWIW this is the RideWithGPS page about it. I've not watched the video. I just got an email from them about it this morning.
https://ridewithgps.com/journal/6734-customize-your-eurovelo-cycling-holiday


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diPFTXQqqZs

 

[cwskas]

FWIW this is the RideWithGPS page about it. I've not watched the video. I just got an email from them about it this morning.
https://ridewithgps.com/journal/6734-customize-your-eurovelo-cycling-holiday

Thanks for posting the link. I have customized a number of routes using RideWithGPS, but this was helpful to understand some things I had not yet discovered.

 

[dimrub]

They are available on Komoot for at least a couple of years (as well as many more regional and local routes), and Komoot is excellent for planning a trip, in my opinion. All you have to do is pick a source and destination, and most times Komoot will use the EV route to connect them, if one exists - you need to just make a pass over the resulting route and add a few intermediate points where it picks local routes instead.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

They are available on Komoot for at least a couple of years (as well as many more regional and local routes), and Komoot is excellent for planning a trip, in my opinion. All you have to do is pick a source and destination, and most times Komoot will use the EV route to connect them, if one exists - you need to just make a pass over the resulting route and add a few intermediate points where it picks local routes instead.

Yes, there are many "unofficial" routes knocking around online for years.
At least now with "official" ones I'd hope that they would be updated regularly to reflect changes and additions to the routes - not all of them are to the same standards or levels of completion.

As for Komoot, my experience is that away from popular cycling areas where there are recognised bike routes it fails badly. And sometimes dangerously. It has put me on lethal roads and led me to dead ends and walls. One notable one was directing me through a forest (no track, no road) in bear country.
They seem to be heavily focused on the Social Media side of things and have recently expanded their library of routes - most created by users. I'm sure the ones they actively promote have been well researched but I'd have my doubts about the others.
RWGPS have a useful search facility but at least I know that the routes are created by users. I'm not sure that Komoot isn't creating a false sense of security for users. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to grandparents or people with children to depend on.

I'd also add that their customer service is poor.

For planning routes in strange (to me) places CycleTravel is my go to option. It consistently chooses good, quiet and interesting routes and interestingly enough, often has to be "forced" to travel along an EV route.
An excellent bike touring planner with easy access to the guy behind it? It's a no brainer for me.

 

[dimrub]

My experience with Komoot was mostly positive, but then, we were only using it so far for our journey along EV6. Some of the features I found especially useful are multi-day tours, addition of accommodations, ease of integration with Garmin, and indeed the social features - such as the points of interest people can define that appear on the map. That's how we found out the Milchhäuschen - the little sheds with vending machines in them, selling local produce, ice cream and vending fresh milk - we would have ridden right past them haven't I noticed them on the map ahead of time.

As for their customer support, I've submitted several feature requests and a couple clarifications questions. They provided prompt answers, but the features I requested (among them - fixing the annoying bug where a name of a town sometimes fails to appear - no matter the zoom level) haven't been addressed yet, so it's a mixed bag, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm curious about CycleTravel and will definitely take a look, but I'm probably sticking to Komoot for now - if only for the ease with which a tour I've planned appears on my Garmin computer.