De organisatie is dus in volle gang. Leuk een toertocht voor velomobielen dus met een duidelijke bestemming en mooi doel. Door het internationale karakter van de samenwerking valt te verwachten dat er deelnemers uit meerdere landen toe zullen stromen. Zodra inschrijving mogelijk is of er meer nieuws is brengen we jullie natuurlijk op de hoogte. Tot nu toe is vanuit de organisatie onderstaande tekst verspreid:
Looking for Velomobil riders for “Cycle Velo City 2015” (Nantes, F)

Velo City is the world’s biggest cycling conference with a participants numbering over 1500 delegates from all over the world each year. The Velo City series has been in existence for 25 years now and is hosted in different cities i.e. 2015 Nantes; 2016 Taipei City, 2017 Arnhem/Nijmegen. Its organization is hosted by ECF (European Cyclists’ Federation www.ecf.com). This year Nantes in France will host Velo City from June 2 – 5. As you all might know, the three recumbent clubs Future Bike (CH), NVHPV (NL) and HPV Germany are members of ECF. This year we submit together with the French HPV organization seven papers for the conference. We think it is important that we try to bring the topic “recumbents” to a broader (professional-) public. Velo City will be a good option for that.

Even if 1500 delegates have a lot of cycling expertise and knowledge it’s clear from the last Velo City in Vienna where HPV Germany and Future Bike CH already presented the topic “Velomobiles”, that the issue of “recumbents” get scant attention within this conference. It is important that we make future related vehicles more common. Therefore we need attention (i.e. media) which we would have during the worlds biggest cycling-related conference. This makes a Velomobile tour to Nantes a unique possibility.

The French HPV has already organized riders which will start 1st of June from Angers and head to Nantes. The idea is to be present on 2nd of June (conference opening) in Nantes. So we are looking for someone or a group which will organize not only a suitable route to Angers but also a team which will involve as many riders as possible from Germany, NL, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. A route could start, for example, from the region of Aachen (Germany) over Arnhem/Nijmegen( NL) and further on to Belgium and France. From Aachen to Nantes it is a distance of about 850 km one way. Moreover, campgrounds are another point which needs to be organized in advance.

What is now needed? A team (a person) which can manage not only to set up a web-page but also doing the collection of the different contributions and information from each country which will help to gather interested riders. Contents like description of the route, camp sides, riders, meeting points etc. must be delivered. Of course support from each country organization must be guaranteed come. For example, Leonardi Datza from Germany mentioned that he could work out a route and lead the group from the region round Aachen heading towards Paris. But he would not able to do the whole bit up to Angers. From there someone else should be responsible. An ideal situation would be if two or three persons could be responsible for the whole organization. Daily stages should be/could be 150-180km. Also, people from Switzerland could be integrated over another option: the route between Basel-Nantes is about 800 km of cycling along EUROVELO route 6 – mega-super-ideal for recumbents which would mean the integration of another group.

After the conference opening on June 2nd, the tour could begin heading back to their starting points. Here again someone and/or a team could feel responsible to organize the return tour with suitable campgrounds. There is a chance that a Velomobile retailer from Germany might do a return transport of Velomobiles for those who have not the time for longer holidays.

If someone is / if a group of people is interested don’t hesitate to contact:
info@hpv.org