Anjou Velo Vintage cyling festival 2025

Anjou Velo Vintage cycling festival, 2025 – Saumur, France…
Blimey, well Anjou Velo Vintage sure is a ton of fun both on and off the bike – held in Saumur, France in June, we rode the long Authentic route on the Sunday and one of the short routes on the Sunday and for sure, we joined in a lot of the fun to be had in the Vintage village – its just one big party!
The cycling routes are really gentle (if super hot this year so plenty of water between glasses of Rose) and the shorter rides can be tackled by riders of any ability – or no ability. Loads of bands and dancing (especially swing dance) in the vintage village – Anjou Velo Vintage is a super fun festival that everyone should attend, maybe on a Tandem next year..

www.vintage-velo.org

#anjouvelovintage

Mojo me. I’m Dan at vintagevel.org and today we are here uh at the Anu Vintage Festival. Um this is in like uh we’re near we’re in SA uh in mid part of France towards the coast. Um and it’s a colossal vintage bike weekend. Um got here yesterday. Um straight up confessions. It’s a really gorgeous weekend. Um far too many preparational beers. Rosé pastis was consumed yesterday. Uh and yes, this morning bright and early uh is just suffering a little bit uh in the hidden mallet as we like to call it here in France. But um today we are doing the authentic ride. Uh that’s the I it’s 110 km. Um, and we are going to be doing it on the French Vell Devil uh that we built up um just before Christmas, ready and waiting for this ride. Um, I’m I’ll be honest with you, that’s not a particularly uh impressive bike to ride, but it is very very apt and period spoton for this event. To be fair, this is not like a really super hardcore uh whining event. Um the majority of the routes are 30, 40, 50 km, that kind of thing. And it’s fairly gentle under undulating terrain. But this is all about the party and the vintage. Um the uh the bands last night were hysterical. Uh there loads and loads of dancing. Uh vintage stands everywhere. Um a lot of the dress up is spoton. Um, so it’s much more just a kind of completely indulge yourself uh in that classic vintage uh riding lifestyle. Um, and also I can’t help but notice I think I’ve got four or five um food stops, but actually uh according to the map they’re all deast um as we go around. So, I’ve got a feeling it’s just going to be a bit messy by the end of this, but we’ll find out in a bit. Uh, everyone now is leaving the breakfast area. Uh, and we’re about to uh to get on out there for the start.
Okay. I’m here at the start with my new friend Antoine. And you’ve done this before.
Actually, it’s my third time.
Your third time? Fortunately, today we have the sun. Last time it was raining like hell. So,
I hear last year was bad. Real bad. And there’s a little bit of gravel as well. Yeah, there’s a little bit of gravel. Not too much. It’s quite accessible for anyone. Okay.
Everyone should do it. Excellent. And the the rest stops are Yeah. more wine tasting. Dustaceios rather than rest stops are they?
You mean the climbings?
Yeah. Yeah.
But there’s not too much there. It’s really accessible. Yes, the last one to the to the castle is a little bit hard because it’s at the end.
Okay. Right.
But anyway,
and remember, no shame if we get off and walk. Obviously, getting the excuse in early. Good luck. We’re a few kilometers in now and you know so far so good. Uh the riding position on this 1930s French fellow Deville. Um I was just chatting with Anthony about it. It’s basically designed for drunken old men. I think to get back from the bar after too many pasties. Um, it’s incredibly it’s incredibly upright. Um, and the swept back bars are really not good uh for going in a straight line for steering geometry. The bike itself tracks fine. It’s no problem. Um, it’s just these narrow rearfacing bars are a bit of a pain. Probably to be fair, it’s because I want to, you know, be down in a proper racing position and this certainly isn’t that. Ah. Okay. So, I’ll turn on some of the gravel and uh yeah, I mean, I didn’t know I was going to be awake, but we were on gravel. Uh and uh yeah, um the responsiveness of this French fellow Deville is not, and I repeat, is not suited to gravel. I mean, fine on road really. Once you get a little bit of a rhythm up, there’s kind of pace and a feel you get for it, that’s all fine. But this Yeah, I’m paying a little bit of attention. Okay, just here at the uh the first fee stop. My new buddy here, Trevor, I thought you’d introduce you to he is riding. We should get you in close here. A very very nice uh turn of the uh century. What mate was it?
Probably a James.
James uh single speed fixed. Yeah, very very cool. We were riding along for a fair bit. That thing uh it handles the gravel really well. But being fixed, he has to kind he has to keep pedaling as he goes around the gravel corners and uh it gets a little dicey there. So, we like that. But we were just chatting. You you were organized Dance out of Guilford. Absolutely. So, we got a nice group um called Ve Downs out of Guilford. If you join us on Facebook, you can find us.
Um we ride four rides a year.
Excellent. What kind of periods? Uh sort of most people from the 60s60s 1960s up to No 19 1960s up to 199 99. Okay. So we have we quite we’re quite an open bunch.
And we ride the rides as a sort of group ride but no one’s left behind.
Hey, that is what we like and also a fair bit of oraxing as well.
Enjoy my woodaxxing. For those of you who don’t really know much about oraxing, that’s like long distance pointtooint, but there’s no real route. you figure it out and you self-support as you go. Uh, and yeah, you can get some pretty mammoth orex. Yeah. So, if you want to, you know, follow us or UK,
there we are.
Great group to follow and great group to join. Excellent. Well, thank you very much. Let’s go. Go get some wine. There’s a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it. Not don’t worry. Very cool. Now we’re doing this year’s as you vintage uh on the uh the French fellow Deville. I’ll just get you in here. Uh some of the details. I really really like the original light here and the bar setup. I mean, yeah, it’s not very nice to ride like that, but it does look super cool. Uh the lug works. And if you remember, uh we’ve got the original registration plate uh from the guy in Antinine that owned it back in the ‘ 40s, which is pretty cool. Um, we did go ahead and fit uh a Sturi Archer uh rear. If you remember, we did a little test video just around the turn of Christmas this year and the rear hub completely let go. Um, so I’ve had to change that out, but now we seem to be good. I’ve also straightened the pedal uh that was having a couple of issues in the test ride, so that’s good. And of course, the pickic basket uh yeah is doing its thing, but so far so good. [Music] Now, any of you that did watch the uh the test video this just after Christmas, I did say I was going to have a dirty great big fake mustache for this. And I must uh point out in my defense, I did actually get a real hair fake mustache to be worn today. Um but uh this morning um despite buying the correct um gum uh to put the fake mustache on with it just would not stick off. Uh so uh yeah I had to bail out on the fake mustache. People kiss. [Music] And yeah, I got to be honest. It turns out there are 20, get this, 20 sections of gravel on this route. And uh yeah, this one is a good one. Yeah. [Music] Found of the channel. Oh, that makes a fine fishing down there. Oh wow, look at what those massive I can see them from here. [Applause] [Music] Now, I mentioned earlier uh about a little deal I might be doing, and uh obviously this uh this rather fine little beasty next to me here is something you’re going to be meeting a bit more of, but just uh for the moment, I’ll get you in here. [Music] 1938 Barra aluminum with full internal cabling. There’s some detail to go through here, but more on that on a later date. [Applause] [Applause] All [Music] [Music] right. So, you join me now on the Sunday here at the Anju Velintage Festival. And yeah, boy, they are a lot more wides. The roots today are all shorter. They’re all like 30 40 50 60s I think. Um and uh yeah, it is an awful lot of people just dressed up uh to have fun and a picnic and a lot of wine. It’s pretty cool actually. Um don’t think this is one for setting any records. It’s just a sit back uh enjoy the sunshine, the scenery, and uh uh lots of cool vintage stuff. I think Well, what this route definitely lacks in speed, and I mean really lacks in speed, uh it makes up for uh in fun. Now, for today’s little excursion, we’ve gone for a bit of a kit change. Obviously, uh something nice and bright for today, but also I am on the uh English 3-speed, the Russ late 20s uh with the the 3-speed uh Sturi Archer on the back. Um I kind of wanted to get this out just to give it a little try out before. Um I did uh the short 50 or 60k route on it last year just to check it. It might have been the 100k, I can’t remember now. Um, and it coped that really well. But I thought I’d just take it for a little spin. And I’ve just noticed there’s something up uh as ever uh with the Sturi Archer, I think. Oh, I’ve dropped bearing somewhere. Um, we’ll find out. I’ll have to pull it apart, but I can just feel something’s a little wrong with the chain line, but we’ll worry about that later. Um, overall here today, I mean, just ride anything you want as long as it’s old. a number of mixed and step throughs and you know you know old bikes I’ve skipped without a doubt uh they are prevalent today. Uh as long as you kind of look cool and you’re joining in the atmosphere then nothing else really matters. And just when you thought, you know, everything’s cool. Guy on a BMX MBK trophy. Excellent. B shorts. Mure. That’s a hard no. So don’t stop. All right. [Music] Now regular viewers of the channel will know that basically we have uh two uh guiding principles on this channel. Often first is that the frame is too small and but today hey this is not a problem. Frame is fine. Uh the second is that we often get lost and uh yeah I’m afraid on that one that is what happened. Um, I kind of clipped off the front of the pack, um, thinking that I could stretch my legs and kind of bridge across to another group. Unfortunately, that another group didn’t exist. And, uh, for some time now, I haven’t seen a single arrow sign or anything. Um, and I am just uh kind of doing a a few kilometers here of really stunning roads and scenery. Um, so hey, I mean, there’s nothing not to like. I just don’t know where I am. gonna figure it out. There’ll be a big chat or sign somewhere and maybe Google Maps will get me back. Now, I backtracked a little bit, took a couple of turnings. I’m back on track to where I want to be. Somewhere is only up there. So, I thought I would sign off from here in the stunning Lir River. Uh literally, uh because uh you know, thought I’d just uh cool off my warm feet a little bit. Um, now Vevel Vintage, would I recommend? Yeah, it’s a brilliant event. It’s super gentle. It’s super cool. Um, yeah, you can ride this on anything. Um, you know, a junk store, fine, a cool bike, anything you want. Anything goes here. As long as you’re into the spirit of it, it’s all great. And in fact, it’s so gentle. I think might just dip my toes, so to speak, into the world of tandem next year. Uh, vintage tandem writing. We’ll see. I I’m offer no guarantees there, but we’ll see what happens. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that video and this little trip here uh out to the mid part of France in the stunning uh Lir landscape. But do like and subscribe for anything else that’s cool to do with vintage bikes. Thanks a lot.