Event thread: 🇫🇷 European Championship (road) 2025, Oct 1–5

edit: added profile of the circuits' climbs at the bottom.

(The website seems to be only in French?)

The TT race shares a little bit of the Boucles de la Drôme race: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/la-drome-classic/2025

The mass start races have a lot in common with the Boucle de l'Ardèche race: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/faun-ardeche-classic/2025

Calendar:

The program is more compact than on the World Championship. For example, all 6 categories of ITT are on the same day, starting one after another.

It starts with Time Trials:

• Wednesday 1, morning: Junior Women (12 km), then Men (24 km)
• Wednesday 1, noonish: U23 Women (24 km), then Men (24 km)
• Wednesday 1, afternoon: Elite Women (24 km), then Men (24 km)
• Thursday 2, morning: Junior mixed relay (2×20 km)
• Thursday 2, afternoon: Junior mixed relay (2×20 km)

Then come the mass start races:

• Friday 3, morning: U23 Women (86 km)
• Friday 3, afternoon: Junior Women (63 km), then Men (103 km)
• Saturday 4, morning: U23 Men (121 km)
• Saturday 4, afternoon: Elite Women (116 km)
• Sunday 5: Elite Men (202 km)

Here is the ITT map & profile, the same for everyone (only junior women start halfway, from Allex):

The mixed relay loops, with the same second half:

Here is the map and profile for the main Men race:

The women race has the same first part (deep blue), but then it does only 1 small yellow circuit + 1 blue circuit + 1 last small yellow circuit.

As you can see, the start of those two races is given in a climb!

Races for younger riders do not present the first part, only various combinations of the blue and yellow circuits.

The Wall of Cornas, extended by the irregular climb of St-Romain de Lerps, is located on the blue circuit. I can't tell why, but it sometimes reminds me of the climb in Imola (WC 2020) or one of the climbs in Liège–Bastogne–Liège.

On both the blue and the yellow circuit stand the Val d'Enfer (Hell's vale). It is short, yet when you believe you are done with it as you go through what looks like a pass, there is still 500 m to go.

Both (but especially the beginning and the end of the main one) usually offer spectacular views. I hope that the broadcast will be more reliable than on the TTs (but given the fact that the landscape will be way more steep than the TTs' plains, I fear it will be worse).