Published by Lyn on 1 March 2021
The Nature Is Bike Festival, organised by the bike-friendly city of Angers in the Loire, is designed to put the marriage of cycling and nature front and centre.
The new Nature Is Bike Festival, to be held in Angers in the Loire from June 25-27, 2021, is billed as a gravel festival but it should appeal to cyclists of all stripes.
Born out of a desire to promote gravel riding by combining a sporting challenge with the cyclist's desire to connect with nature, the Nature Is Bike Festival is being organised by local tourism authorities in Angers – one of the most bike-friendly cities in France.
The bike routes around Angers are delightful for off-road cyclists but also more than manageable on a sturdy touring bike or light-weight MTB.
The festival will include:
- a gravel and bikepacking expo
- a night gravel ride on June 26: 64km on routes around Angers (4 laps) from 9.30pm for teams and solo riders
- "Gravel 50" and "Gravel 100" sportive rides
- various other gravel rides for all abilities (including family rides)
- an onsite camp with food and entertainment
- AND the "big" drawcard event: a 278km long-distance "Gravel Of Legend" ride linking Gold Beach (the "British" invasion beach) on the D-Day peninsula to Angers. It will connect 4 departments of France from Arromanches to Angers (Calvados, Orne, Mayenne and Maine-et-Loire) and link 2 regions (Normandy and the Loire). It will also partly follow the Vélo Francette route. The ride will leave Arromanches at 6.30am, arriving in Angers at 4pm (35km/h), 5.30pm (30km/h), 7.30pm (25km/h) or 10pm (20km/h). It will be fully supported and marshalled and include 2 main refuelling stops. Entries for this are now open on the official website. (See here for medical certificate info if you are not a registered club rider).
More information:
See the official website for more information on all of the above.
More on cycling in Angers
- See here for more on cycling in Angers – it really is a delightful city for cycling.
- See here for the north-south La Velo Francette, which passes through Angers and runs Caen to La Rochelle.
- See here for the west-east Loire bike route (EuroVelo 6), which also features Angers.
Bike routes around or through Angers
Images courtesy of Laurent Perry, Leonard de Serre and Tourism Angers