Blimey they don't make it easy do they. The hoops to jump through and lack of clarity look more onerous than actually riding RATN.
The bike I want to take would be set up with aerobars, rear pannier rack, chunky mudguards. I can see now some guard giving me the head shake and missing crucial connections.
What a shame, so much for progressive mainland Europe and carbon footprints. It's just going to be more reliable to fly a day early and build up the bike at the other end.
If I had more time I'd go a few days early and weave through the hurdles, but I don't want to risk missing the event. I'd happily ride a couple of hundred km of so but its 1000 km to Utrecht from our place.
Thanks for all the input and sorry its not going to work out.
I'd planned for us to ride the train to Donaueschengen via Paris from Vannes later in the Summer when we ride the Danube, but that's obviously going to need a rethink too.
I have ridden extensively in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany using the train network. My experiences to date have been nothing but positive.
Only once in France have I had an issue, when a guard asked me to move my bike - and held the train whilst I did so. I've never had an issue in Belgium.
When I did my Rhine ride from Cologne to Hoek van Holland it was easy. I cycled from the Hoek van Holland to Rotterdam. I went to the ticket office in Rotterdam Central (you can take your bike in) and a very helpful young lady sorted out a ticket (which was surprisingly cheap) from Rotterdam to Cologne. She even printed off an itinerary with the various changes, including the time between trains and which platforms I needed to change to.
Generally the trains are clearly marked as to where bikes can be stored and often the platforms will have markings for bike carriages (I found this in both the Netherlands and Germany).
I've never found train supported cycling on the continent to be as difficult as it is in the UK.