Cycle tour in Alps

[pfm401]

All

I'm looking for some inspiration / practical tips! Myself and 3 friends are looking to do a cycle trip to France, taking in some famous climbs e.g. Alpe d'Huez. It's hard to know where to start working out how to do it / what to do, so I'm hoping someone has some recommendations! Key requirements:
1. Travel from North Yorkshire - not sure if it's easier / cheaper to fly and hire car / bikes, drive, or even get the train (can change at King's Cross for Eurostar). Obviously driving we could take our own bikes, but not sure about the train
2. We'd go for about 4 - 5 days; not sure if it would be easier to do a "long tour", with assistance moving gear from place to place (or just carry packs and travel light - personally I'd rather go on my road bike and have the stuff shifted), or have a "base" i.e. stay in one place and do different rides every day. Obviously if we had a car we could travel to different bases every day. Depends on what each route looks like.
3. Budget - as cheap as possible!

I've mentioned Alpe d'Huez just as an example, if anyone has been on a particularly fantastic trip let me know!

Thanks is advance - hope this isn't too vague but after some internet research I'm less sure where to start than I was in the first place as so many options!

Thanks, Paul.

 

[gavroche]

If you go for just 4 -5 days, travel light. Fly to Grenoble or any other airport close to your destination, hire a gite as your base and hire the bikes when you get there. That way, you won't waste days getting there and back by car. Cost wise, it will probably be cheaper too.

 

[mjr]

Bike by train info http://seat61.com/bike-by-train.htm

Fly [...] That way, you won't waste days getting there and back by car.

No, you'll just waste days getting to/from an airport, being groped through security, herded like cattle and not fed much better! At least travelling over land, you'd get to see some of la belle France!

I'd probably hire bikes for such a short trip, too, but it probably won't be particularly cheap for good bikes maintained well and set up right, plus I'd still be taking a few tools rather than having to rely on the hire company mechanic's van as the only solution.

 

[steveindenmark]

Bike by train info http://seat61.com/bike-by-train.htm


No, you'll just waste days getting to/from an airport, being groped through security, herded like cattle and not fed much better! At least travelling over land, you'd get to see some of la belle France!

I'd probably hire bikes for such a short trip, too, but it probably won't be particularly cheap for good bikes maintained well and set up right, plus I'd still be taking a few tools rather than having to rely on the hire company mechanic's van as the only solution.

What a lot of tosh. Ive never been groped at the airport. I am quite happy to feed myself and Ive never been herded. Flying with a bike is simple.

How can you waste days going to and from the airport? I would imagine the op would fly from Leeds or Manchester. A far better option than getting the ferry from Hull to Holland or driving all the way to the South coast and then across France.

 

[mjr]

Ive never been groped at the airport.

With respect, I think you're older than me, you look a bit like a policeman and probably don't carry as many drugs.

I am quite happy to feed myself

There's no good food to be had in most airports, so do you take a picnic?

and Ive never been herded.

What, never? Do you only fly at weird times, then?

How can you waste days going to and from the airport? I would imagine the op would fly from Leeds or Manchester.

So they live in North Yorkshire. At random, I picked Bedale. To get to Leeds airport, that's either over two hours on two buses and a train, or pay a chunk to park or for a taxi - and then flying to Grenoble is at least one change at Amsterdam or Dublin, or you can fly somewhere else and have another long transfer on the other end. To get to Manchester is over three, but one bus and two trains, but you can fly two hours to Grenoble, although that's still an hour coach transfer or two and a half hour ride.... so adding it up: 3.5h to Manchester airport, at least 1h check-in, 2h flight, at least 30mins hanging around for bags, 1h coach transfer, so 8h - in short, even without bikes, you're still going to lose over a day getting to/from airports.

Alternatively, about three hours (one bus, one train) would put you in King's Cross for lunch, then trains to Grenoble get you there for the evening. All the while, you have much more space to walk around, there's better food choices at St Pancras and Lille (Lyon was a bit limited last time I was there), plus you step off the train in the heart of Grenoble, luggage in hand. Yes, it's a couple of hours slower, but still within a day and it's much more relaxed, leaving you fresher for the ride.

Of course, the ideal would have been if Nightstar had launched: by now, we might be able to go to sleep up north and wake up among the Alps!

 

[graham bowers]

I used to do ski trips with 3 pals from Teeside. We used to drive, all 4 on the insurance, so only stopping for pit stops. Left after work on Friday evening, on the planks Sat afternoon. It was a good while ago, so no idea what's cheapest.

 

[lavieenvelo]

Let me know if I'm out of order for posting something commercial in nature, but we take groups all over France from the UK without their bikes going anywhere near an airport (we have posh van & custom-fitted trailer for 8 riders and their bikes), and riders can jump in with us or we can pick them up from their flights with their bikes ready to go. We do 4 day fully-supported weekends on/around Mt Ventoux, Alps & Pyrenees, and lots of other places. It becomes less advantageous if you're coming from Yorkshire, makes a lot of sense from the geographically adjacent south-east, but it's doable.

 

[Big T]

Rather than doing a moving on tour, I would base yourself in or near Bourg D'Oisans and do day rides. We stayed in a campsite near Allemond which is 5 miles from the bottom of Alpe dHuez. You can also do Galibier, Deux Alpes, Croix de Fer and a few of the minor climbs such as Vaujany, Col d'Ornon. All start a few miles from Bourg D'Oisans. We drove down from Nottingham in just over a day each way.

 

[Brains]

Take a look at European Bike Express to get there and back

http://www.bike-express.co.uk/

 

[pfm401]

Thanks all, I'll look into the suggestions provided.

Happy Christmas,
Paul.