Cycling in the French mountains

Civilian_Target

Has anyone here ever tried cycling the mountain routes of the Tour deFrance? Something like this? http://www.exodus.co.uk/holidays/mwf.html

I've got a week off at the end of September, and want to do something interesting with it and this looks rather good, something to put to use all that urban cycling.

They say 63km a day there, which doesn't sound like much, but I'd imagine it's fairly steep, any idea what level of fitness it requires, and how that 63km stacks up compared to cross-Dublin kilometres?

dermot_sheehan

I'm not particulary fit on the bike but managed a cycling holiday in majorca in March. We did 60-80km jaunts with the highest hill climb being 900m over 15km (I think it was). Basically went out at 9am stopped for an hour or so for lunch, and home around 5-6, so roughly 7-8 hr trips. It was hard enough going for the first couple of days but then got used to it. 63km over 6hrs means a bit more then 10km/h which is roughly the pace you'd be going on a steep enough hill climb. Distance wise is probably similar to town to greystones and back although I suspect with the hills it will be tougher (though going downhill for makes up distance quickly)

milod

Civilian_Target wrote:

Has anyone here ever tried cycling the mountain routes of the Tour deFrance? Something like this? http://www.exodus.co.uk/holidays/mwf.html

I've got a week off at the end of September, and want to do something interesting with it and this looks rather good, something to put to use all that urban cycling.

They say 63km a day there, which doesn't sound like much, but I'd imagine it's fairly steep, any idea what level of fitness it requires, and how that 63km stacks up compared to cross-Dublin kilometres?

A lot depends on your age and existing fitness level. Looks like you'd need a fair degree of fitness for that sort of holiday. Unless you're used to continuous activity, you'd need to train up for this one. Unless you cycle decent distances several times per week, you're going to be exercising your hip/knee/ankle joints far in excess of the norm.

As for comparitive distances, I do a 33.5K (21 mile) cycle sometimes which takes me from Inchicore, down by Islandbridge, back up toward Chapelizod, up Knockmaroon hill, down Strawberry beds, up to Lucan fort, past Luttrelstown, then Blanchardstown, Castleknock, Islandbridge, and back to Inchicore.

I'm 41, reasonably fit, but carrying 10kg over fighting weight, i.e. past it... but that distance took me 1hr 13mins last week, so only you can judge!

Civilian_Target

Well, I'm a commuter cyclist and I average 60-100 miles, a week, in Dublin's stop-start traffic, on a hybrid with a pannier bag. I was actually wondering if 63k a day might not really be that challenging, but I guess it depends how steep those hills are!

I would consider cycling Belfast's outer ring road to be a challenging cycle that takes me about 2 hours (it includes cycling up and down a good series of fairly steep hills) - see map

blorg

From a quick glance that looks pretty steep and you would want to prepare. I do around 300-500k a week myself but mostly reasonably flat (around Dublin, Dublin mountains would be the steepest) and there is probably at least an order of magnitude there (e.g. for every 10k you do, count 1k up the mountain.)

I have cycled across the Pyrenees, several times, but only on either side where it is pretty flat ;-) - completely flat on the west Irun/Hendaye side, and only a bit of a mountain on the east side.