The majority of the these events are within 1-3hrs of our house. You can sign on, on the morning for most of them. They are all mass start or in waves for the really popular ones.

Here's a few of the sportif calendars:

France:
http://www.velo101.com/cyclosport/calendrier.asp

http://www.cyclosport.com/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=38

Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany
http://www.radmarathon.at/index.php?rmlang=en

L'Ardéchoise Cyclosportif

June 15th, 2009
Ardéche Region of France, SW of Lyon, 3hrs from Geneva

This can be a three day event. Sort of like the Golden Triangle except there were 13400 people signed up. The longest course is the La Meridionale-Montagne Ardéchoise: 654kms, 35 passes and 11255m of climbing !!

7700 people lined up on Saturday for 6 different courses from 66kms to 275kms with 5100m climbing.

I rode the L'Ardechoise circuit above. 216kms, 4100m climbing took me 8 1/2hrs.

Drove there the night before. The town was totally quiet. Crashed in my van. I was woken up at 6am by a constant stream of cars, bicycles and people gearing up. The start was unreal. I lined up but couldn't see the start banner in front nor the end of the line behind. The route went through dozens of towns, every one decorated with bicycles, banners, live music, people in costumes passing out cakes, cookies, cheese and drinks like it was Christmas. At the far end of the course, things thinned out slightly as different cyclists took different junctions for the various distances. At one point I was completely in the countryside, rounded a corner and entered a super small town to see a Yeti and Roman gladiators in the distance. Huh? The whole town was dressed up and on the route cheering and passing out drinks. I rode through with the biggest grin on my face. All 13000 people had to ride this final climb to the finish. There were at least 12 switchbacks. Every corner had a band or choir playing or singing traditional French songs. One corner had an electric rock band playing Loverboy, I couldn't believe it!! At the finish there was a huge lock up for bikes and a buffet for every finisher. Definitely one of THE best ride I've ever done.

Some pics I took:
View towards the start line.
Tons of "scrubbers" as my Dad would say.

View behind me (look under the blue banner)
All the villages were decorated and the residents wore costumes and handed out drinks, local cakes and cheese.

One of the many feed stations.

Can't believe buddy cut off the bike!

Here's the website:

http://www.ardechoise.com/index_en.php5

Time Megéve Cyclosportif

June 14th Megéve, France
1 hr from Geneva and very close to Chamonix.
Hot, light winds, 32 degrees
Rode the long Course 145kms with 3980m of climbing
1900 people on the start line for the short, medium and long courses.
Finished in 6.03.25, 58th of 310 that did the long route.
This one was hot !! I grovelled up the final climb in the stifling heat, probably burned it up too on the first climbs but its soooo much fun passing hundreds and hundreds of people. I always take it easy on the descents as the non-climbers try to fly by and gain time only to be passed again in the first 100m of the next climb. I am so surprised there aren't more crashes. The roads are fully open to traffic, there are always idiots who can't ride in a straight line or descend. This one started with an 8km decent, so both sides of the road was completely packed with cyclists negotiating round abouts, traffic islands, potholes etc. How the boys in the Tour could race a stage like this and get up the next day and do it again and then again is just unreal (don't think drugs)

http://www.csportsmegeve.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=86
Climbs:

Col de Aravis

Climbed both sides

From Flumet: 15kms of climbing with 760m gain, max 11.8%

From Thones: 13km of climbing with 867m gain, max 8.6%

Col de le Croix Fry

From Thones: 13kms of climbing with 825m gain, max 9.3%

Col de Saises
Up the one side, down and back up the other.
From Flumet: 15kms of climbing with 810m gain, max 11.1%
2nd side: 15km of climbing with 950m gain, max 9.6%