The DANUBE ROAD RANDONNEUR is the BRM1200+ endurance cycling super brevet, organized in Romania by Randonneurs Romania together with the organization Adevaratii VeloPrieteni Romania, licensed by Randonneurs Mondiaux.
The route, with a total length of 1440 km and an elevation gain of nearly 7600 meters, is mostly through the roads on the Romanian shore of the Danube, running through what is known as EUROVELO on the European cycle route network, established by the European Cyclists’ Federation, specifically EuroVelo 6 – From the Atlantic to the Black Sea (running alongside three of the largest European Rivers: the Loire, the Rhine and the Danube), and EuroVelo 13 – The Iron Curtain Trail (following the border between the Eastern and the Western blocs established during the Cold War).
The start and finish are set in the capital city of Romania, Bucharest, and the turning point will be in the city of Oravita, a significant part of the Banat mountains’ region, the city where the first mountain train station in the country was built, and, shortly after, the famous “Semmering of Banat”, a mountain railway similar to the one in Austria, sorely needed for the transportation of coal to the vicinity of the Danube shipyards, and, last but not least, the place where the great national poet, Mihai Eminescu, performed alongside his crew in 1868 at the theatre that is currently bearing his name and that celebrated 200 years of existence in the Romanian cultural space in 2017.
Taking after other super brevets with a long-lasting tradition, The DANUBE ROAD RANDONNEUR will be held every 4 years, planned in the years when neither of the other three super brevets takes place: Paris-Brest-Paris (with the next edition in 2019), 1001 Miglia Italia (with the next edition in 2020) and London-Edinburgh-London (with its next edition in 2021).
The first edition of the DANUBE ROAD RANDONNEUR will be held this year, in 2018, the year Great Union Centenary, thus initiating the 4-year cycle of a new European endurance cycling super brevet.