Classique du Fer - Jernbaneklassikeren

Classique du Fer, the Railway Classic, grows out of the legendary railway cycling world championship created by Per Hansen and Vejle Styrprop Fabrik, and it sets out to open the Danish spring season with a long day on gravel. Riders leave from the old station building in Brædstrup, where the history of the railway still lingers, and follow disused lines where steel and gravel meet.

The route runs along Den Skæve Bane and the Bryrupbanen and crosses Den Genfundne Bro, a piece of living Danish history where veteran locomotives once steamed over the valleys of central Jutland. The organisers describe it as a journey through nature and history, through sweat, laughter and gravel.

It is explicitly not about podiums or prizes but a tribute to steel, in the rails, in the bikes and in the riders themselves, and it belongs to the Gravel Brevet Series. Behind it is Polkadot Cycling, the Danish cycling magazine and community that also runs the Polkadot Gravel Cup and the Polkadot Plus festival.