For many Indian riders, the first big ride abroad is not a tour. It is an event: a closed-road sportive with thousands of other riders, a number on the bike and a cut-off time. Europe has hundreds of them. Two stand out, for completely different reasons, and both run on roads we ride.
Everything below was checked on 1 October 2026. Event dates and entry rules change, so confirm them on the official sites before you commit to anything.
Mallorca 312
What it is: a lap of Mallorca, starting and finishing at Playa de Muro on the island's north-east coast, on roads closed to traffic. The long route is 312 km, hence the name, with around 5,000 metres of climbing through the Serra de Tramuntana. There are shorter options too, of roughly 225 km and 167 km. You choose a distance when you register, but the routes split on the day, so you are not locked in. The organisers expect around 8,500 riders.
When: the 2027 edition is on Saturday 24 April 2027.
The catch: getting in. General registration for 2027 opens on 6 October 2026, and entries have been reported to sell out within moments of opening. If you miss it, tour operators sell guaranteed entries as part of packages, at a considerable premium, and there is usually a waiting list for cancellations.
What it asks of you: the long route is a very long day. Riders talk about it in hours rather than kilometres; the cut-off is in the region of fourteen hours. Even the shortest option is a full day of riding with serious climbing. Training for it is closer to training for the hardest day of a tour, ridden once, than to anything most riders do at home.
L'Eroica
What it is: something else entirely. L'Eroica starts and finishes in Gaiole in Chianti, in Tuscany, and takes riders over the strade bianche, the white gravel roads of Chianti and the hills south towards Siena. It was founded in 1997 by Giancarlo Brocci partly to protect those roads from being paved over, and it has worked.
The rules: this is the important part. L'Eroica is for vintage bikes: road racing bicycles built in 1987 or earlier, or faithful replicas, with steel frames, down-tube gear shifters and toe clips. Riders are expected to dress the part too, and bikes are checked. It is not a race, though the long routes are hard, and the gravel and the old bikes make every kilometre count.
Routes and dates: routes range from roughly 45 km to over 200 km. The event is held on the first weekend of October; the 2026 edition is on 3 and 4 October in Gaiole. The 2027 date had not been confirmed at the time of writing.
The Indian rider's problem: you almost certainly do not own a pre-1987 steel road bike, and flying one from India is a serious undertaking. Vintage bikes and clothing can be hired or borrowed in Europe, and that is how many first-time riders do it. Sort the bike before anything else.
Girona
Girona hosts its own gran fondo, which uses the climb to Els Àngels, the road to the chapel where Dalí married, as a timed hill climb. We have written about Girona's classic climbs, including that one.
The Indian rider's checklist
Visa before everything. All three events are in the Schengen area. Our Schengen timeline suggests committing to a European trip about three months before you travel. For a late-April event, that means flights and accommodation booked by around January.
Entries come before visas. This is the awkward bit. Popular events open registration months before you can usefully apply for a visa. Mallorca 312 entries open in October for an April event. Before you buy an entry, read its cancellation and transfer terms carefully, because your visa will not be decided until a few weeks before the event.
Have your passport ready to register. Event registrations commonly ask for a passport or ID number at the point of entry. Make sure yours is valid well beyond the event date before the registration window opens.
Arrive early. Give yourself at least two or three days before the event to rebuild your bike, ride the first or last part of the course, and get used to the heat, the roads and the time difference. A long-haul flight and a 312 km ride on consecutive days is a bad plan.
Think about the week around it. An event is one day. Many riders build a week of riding around it on the same island or in the same region, which makes the flight, the visa and the bike transport worth it. We run tours on Mallorca and in Tuscany. A week on the island can take in Sa Calobra, and our week in Tuscany rides into Gaiole itself.
Written by Barnowl Adventures.
