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Most of the routes from La Clusaz on were downloaded from the Grandes Routes des Alpes website and edited a bit—to make them shorter in many cases because we’ll be loaded and we aren’t as young as we once were.
9 hours agoWow. That’s absurdly small. The airlines allow 120 cm. That’s a good fact to know in planning future tours.
18 hours agoReally looking forward to following along your planned ride. The Route Des Grandes Alpes has always intrigued us. We did the a portion of it in 2019 from Cluses to Thonen Les Bains. Should be a great ride - hopefully the weather cooperates.
21 hours agoLooking forward to reading this tour. We've also been thinking about heading back to the Alps and have drawn up a route very similar to yours, coincidentally.
22 hours agoDHL has a maximum package dimension of 120 cm. I looked at that one too. I am just flabbergasted. Lyon is a big city and France is a first-world country!
22 hours agoI’m surprised to find that the Mailboxes shipping policy is different between countries. Another option we’ve used you might explore is DSL.
23 hours agoWe always get at least one day of really bad weather. However, we are planning to skew the trip to come home as late as we can to still meet our July commitments, so we can hope!
2 weeks agoSounds like a great tour! I’ll be crossing my fingers for you that the weather cooperates.
2 weeks agoWe would love to hear about which towns/villages would be most interesting for rest days. We are unsure whether to prebook everything, knowing we have a place to stay vs freedom to change plans, since here at home, if you don’t book months in advance, you run a big risk of having nowhere to stay or nowhere reasonably priced.
As for timing, we need to be home by the end of June so we will plan our trip to be as late as possible.
OK. I found the event link I overlooked the first time and have swum through the whole thing now. I think this looks like an outstanding route, top to bottom. It makes me envious and wish TA could go back ten years and do it all again. I’ve only got a couple of comments to chip in.
First, I wouldn’t want to climb up D925 between Beaufort and Roselend. We dropped down the other direction, me thinking the whole way how glad I was we weren’t coming up the other way. I’d look at that alternate route up over Col du Pre, but I don’t have any first hand experience on that one.
I agree with everything Tracy has suggested, including the recommendation that you get lucky on weather with Galibier. We crossed on June 15, and they were still plowing the road at the summit when we crosse through so it was astonishing. If I could relive just one pass climbing day, that would be the one.
And I agree about Guillestre and what a good layover it would make, although we just stayed one night there, we went that way because it was too wet and cold to take the high road, but I wish we’d have seen Var also.
Multiday stays: Brioncon and Barcelonette of course, and probably Annecy. And Menton on the coast. Hopefully it won’t be too busy when you get there though. We’ve always come rheough during rhe low season and I love the place. And like I said in an email, I wouldn’t go east into Italy on the coast on this tour anyway.
And when do you expect to be in Chambery and Annecy? I’m starting to think there’s a six-headed CB meetup to be had in late May.
Excellent place to stay is Guillestre...can stay after Briançon and ascent/ descent of Izoard. From there can ascend/ descend Col Agnel (really hard) in a day a put a foot in Italy ( as you want) ...and have another day where you do Col du Vars. Guillestre is pretty too.
2 weeks agoIf you stay a couple of days in Briançon you can ride up the stunning Vallee de Clarée (which is not that challenging at all) and descend into a a village in Italy for super coffee and then ride back...and a day spent in and around Briançon itself on foot is lovely plus it has the train if you want to go to any of the other places like the fort at Mont Dauphin etc. You can go over into Italy from there but it is the main road....have a sortie via the beautiful vallée de Clarée
2 weeks agoOne of my first thoughts is that they may struggle with some of the high climbs in May...Galibier etc struggled to get opened for the Marmotte and TDF at end of June last year and unusually wet conditions in the Alps in the last 2 springs have caused major landslides and on significant roads. You always need a plan B unless it is July / Aug and even then there are thunderstorms!. PS. I am not claiming to know everything and have quite localised knowledge but spend/ have spent a lot of time in S Alps so can give a few tips of what to see and where to stay that you may not of thought of...
2 weeks agoWe're cramming everything into a single trip. I'm so envious of people who live in Europe or the UK who can just go for a week or two and return again and again. I suppose we could, but not when it takes a week just to get over the jet lag and general exhaustion from all those hours in planes and airports--each way.
2 weeks ago
I’m hoping the weather is decent! As I mentioned in the next entry, we’ve prebooked everything because we find we’d rather have to travel on a bad day to a warm dry lodging than end up travelling on a bad day and be unable to find anything. That last scenario has happened more than once.
9 hours ago