Cycling weekend in France

tSeacha

Hi everyone,
Looking to head to France in May with 4 others for a long weekend and would hope to get in 2 days of cycling, ideally around one of the mountain stages of this years TDF.

Has anyone done this before and if so what would they recommend ar regards

• Flights (as close to destination as possible)
• Car Hir
• Accomodation (again a hotel at the bottom of Alp D'huez would be ideal as we would not have to try and load bikes into/onto a hire car.
• Bikes (is it better to bring your own or hire them out there, if hiring any good shops to hire from. If we are bringing our own bikes do we need to hire a van instead of a car.

I guess what I am lookiing for is people who have done this before and what has worked for them.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

tSeacha

Oops, can a mod please move this thread to the general section.

blorg

Grenoble is nearest to Alpe d'Huez; I have also used Geneva. The Alpe itself is not a particularly attractive climb but it is iconic and there are plenty of others in the immediate viscinity. The car rental is a problem. Every time we did it the rental companies gave us something smaller than we asked. Renting two smallish cars, probably even three will be cheaper than a van. Your issue then is bike boxes which take up a hell of a lot of room- if you dont have carbon and just bring the bikes this is not such a major problem. IIRC threre is a shop in Bourg d'Oisans that does rentals but I always had my own bike.

Captain Havoc

We've hired a Renault twingo for €55 in July for the day, a car was €120.

tSeacha

Thanks everyone,
At the moment it is looking like flying Dublin to Lyon which I think is 240K from the start of the stage. As we are heading for a long weekend only, I would prefer a shorter drive.
As regards accomodation, has anyone got any recommendations? Are there any cycle friendly hotels in the area?
Is there a better option for some of the mountain stages in the Pyreneese?

killalanerr

have you considered camping in a mobile-home,their are very good sites all over France im sure their is one close to where you want to be,http://www.france-voyage.com/en/

andy69

I'm heading over at the beginning of June for an extended weekend.
Thanks to the help of some of the guys on the forum I found this place...

Camping Alpes Dauphiné
Route Napoléon
05000 GAP France
Tel : 00.33.492.512.995
Fax : 00.33.492.535.842
e-mail : alpes.dauph@wanadoo.fr.
Web : www.alpesdauphine.com

....it is in the town of Gap, which i picked because it was kinda equi-distance(?) from the climbs I wanted to do, but I will have to load the bike in each morning and drive.
Ye can get Chalets and Bungalow's and Gites from them, and cheap enough too.

I'm flying to Geneva, and picking up an estate car there (Hertz, 250eur, Thurs to Mon), and I'm bringing my own bike, so hopefully the polaris bike-pod will survive the baggage handling. I spoke to Aer Lingus and because the bike+pod are under the 20kg, I don't need to 'declare' it as a bike, it is just a large case really (hopefully that's the case on the day itself, but yerwoman said it'd be fine).
Spoke also to Hertz and they confirmed it'd be the car I asked for (astra/focus/megane estate...which ever they have). I've rented abroad before from cheaper companies and ye can get any auld car, and often not what you were looking for, but I've never had issues with hertz...more expensive probably though :-(

Are u heading early in May? Might there still be some snow around then? (I was gonna head earlier than June, but thought I might need ski-gear)

2 Wheels Good

blorg wrote: »

Grenoble is nearest to Alpe d'Huez; I have also used Geneva. The Alpe itself is not a particularly attractive climb but it is iconic and there are plenty of others in the immediate viscinity. The car rental is a problem. Every time we did it the rental companies gave us something smaller than we asked. Renting two smallish cars, probably even three will be cheaper than a van. Your issue then is bike boxes which take up a hell of a lot of room- if you dont have carbon this is not such a major problem. IIRC threre is a shop in Bourg d'Oisans that does rentals but I always had my own bike.

Would you be concerned bringing carbon on flights? Or would you just need a bigger box?

tSeacha

Probably head mid to end of May and was more hoping to have to bring sun screen rather than ski gear.
It seems everyone posting here brought their own bike. As we will be going out on a Friday and coming back on a Monday I'm not sure if it is worth the hassle, however if the bike is free on Aer Lingus then thats a different story altogether.
Hoping to upgrade from my trusty aluminium frame to carbon in the next week or 2 so I'mslightly worried about the previous posts regarding carbon and baggage handlers.. I know surfers fill their surfboard carry case with their clothes to help protect the board. Is there a similiar solution for bikes?

blorg

Carbon bike I always carry in a hard case which is 9.5kg on its own and enormous. Ti and alu tourers I just bring as is, no packing whatsoever. The issue with a hard case is what you do with it on the other end- they are HUGE and difficult to get into a car. You can fit three bikes and three people into a Mercedes A class- but three boxes you wont even get into a seven seater MPV.

I would be wary of using a soft bag with a carbon bike. Semi-hard like the Polaris pod should be fine, but it is still enormous and doesnt fold at all so wont help with the car... It is just a bit lighter.

Regarding the free bike, I would get that in writing and a name on it; my boxed bike is 18.5kg but I have always had to pay with Aer Lingus.

kerryscoob

Was going to buy Polaris Bike Pod x 2, and also hire a Renault Espace 7 seater, reading your post Blorg I'm in trouble room wise.

Adding to this, 5 passengers with luggage.

blorg

We have hired an Espace in the past; the issue with them is the extra row of seats in the back. With the seats there actually isn't very much luggage room in them at all. If you could remove the third row of seats (and you are five people total including the driver) I reckon you would get two bike boxes in. The problem we had is the hire company would not let us remove the third row of seats (nowhere to store them.)

kerryscoob

I was planning to do the same by dropping the row of seats, that's thrown a spanner in the works.

tSeacha

I see wiggle have a bike box which seems to have gotten good reviews http://www.wiggle.co.uk/dhb-elsted-bike-box/
Also Hertz seem to have a 9 seater in some areas. I imagine there would be loads of room for bike boxes and passengers there

kerryscoob

tSeacha wrote: »

I see wiggle have a bike box which seems to have gotten good reviews http://www.wiggle.co.uk/dhb-elsted-bike-box/
Also Hertz seem to have a 9 seater in some areas. I imagine there would be loads of room for bike boxes and passengers there

Had looked at that box but weighing in at 13.5kgs, turned me against it.

blorg

I have owned two of those dhb boxes and would not recommend. Both broke very quickly; indeed one was broken from the postal journey from Wiggle to me. Also very heavy, very difficult to pack and a bad shape for packing.

freewheeling

Re accommodation and car hire, you should book as early as possible as the Alp mtn stages will be busy this year. There's no Mont Ventoux, so Alpe d'Huez and the Galibier will be particularly busy.