Exciting times ahead!

mrc1

Mods - hopefully the below won’t de deemed to be a breach of the forum rules given that I am a long standing member etc but if it does there’s no hard feelings if you delete it!

I have told a few people from here about my decision, but given the recent forum “upgrades” and being really busy, I haven’t had a chance to tell the forum en masse - I have quit my job as a corporate solicitor in London and have set up a cycling tour company with my fiance - Le Domestique Tours!

This has been a long time coming and is something we have been working on for years, but for various reasons have never quite committed to making the jump. However taking part in RAAM (and all the training and planning that came with it) this year proved to be the catalyst that I needed and was the final nail in my office life (and SCR) coffin! Since then we have been hard at work firming all our past work up and have hopefully set up a business that should be of interest to you lot. We currently offer a great mix of traditional Alps and Pyrenees options and are developing some really exciting stuff that none of our competitors offer.

Though my post count may not be high (largely owing to my firm’s draconian IT policy), Bikeradar and the commuting forum in particular has seen me through many dark times, so thanks to you all for keeping me sane. Hopefully I can repay you with some awesome cycling trips in the future - I'd love to do a Commuting forum trip so we can see who can really be crowned as king and queen of the commuters!

I’ll be at the Christmas party in a few weeks time to put names to as many faces as possible, but in the meantime please check out our site and don’t book any trips elsewhere until you have spoken to me! Also, if anybody has any feedback on the site or general suggestions then please let me know - it'd be great to hear your input.

Cheers

Rob

www.ledomestiquetours.co.uk

asprilla

Yeay! Fewer lawyers, I wholeheartedly support you and hope it takes off in a big way!

Clever Pun

looks good, good luck

Choice of sandals for a photoshoot... bad

gtvlusso

Good luck dude!

mrc1

Clever Pun wrote:

looks good, good luck

Choice of sandals for a photoshoot... bad

Haha yeah need to crop that pic! In my defence I had just been swimming in the lake behind me!

clarkey cat

you should let More to Law know about this. sure that would get you some coverage.

http://www.moretolaw.com/morethanlaw

and well done!

mrc1

clarkey cat wrote:

you should let More to Law know about this. sure that would get you some coverage.

http://www.moretolaw.com/morethanlaw

and well done!

Will do - cheers

ketsbaia

That looks ace, Rob. May well be in touch shortly. The King of the Mountains tour looks like a tester.

One thing I did notice - didn't seem to be any pricing info on the site.

LeDomestiqueTours

ketsbaia wrote:

That looks ace, Rob. May well be in touch shortly. The King of the Mountains tour looks like a tester.

One thing I did notice - didn't seem to be any pricing info on the site.

Thanks for the feedback - our prices are currently on the calendar page (go to the relevant date and it should show a price - we are currently adding more dates to the diary) which isnt ideal as they are hidden away, but given that we cater to any combo of arrival/departure date, supported, unsupported and location (ie we don't just do fixed date "take it or leave it" trips) its quite tricky to set out full price lists. I will add something along the lines of prices from X for a long weekend and prices from Y for a week etc as an interim measure on each of the relevant main pages and make the calendar links more obvious until we think of a better way of doing it though.

The KOM trip will be awesome. We just need to find enough nutters to attempt it - I'll pencil you in!!

londonlivvy

I had a look at the KOM trip and one flaw is that (AFAIK) there are naff all flights to Grenoble in the summer. We ended up flying to Lyons. I'm not sure if you'd be prepared to pick people up from there?

Also, that's quite a lot of travel in one week - combined with all the cycling, I think that'd be pretty knackering and not much of a holiday. Sitting back and having a beer and enjoying the view is also part of the fun of a cycling holiday. I'd be inclined instead to organise a KOM Alps and KOM Pyrenees.

There are plenty of fantastic cols to do in the Alps alone - you could do two bases in one week. One half in (say) Taninges near Morzine, so people could do Plaine de Joux, Colombiere, Aravis, Saisies, (perhaps with mini day trips to drop people off for the interesting bits) and the other half of the week in Bourg D'Oisans, so clients could do Alpe D'Huez, Galibier, and (with day trips) the Madeleine.

I'd also make sure you knew of a great masseur locally.

ketsbaia

LeDomestiqueTours wrote:

ketsbaia wrote:

That looks ace, Rob. May well be in touch shortly. The King of the Mountains tour looks like a tester.

One thing I did notice - didn't seem to be any pricing info on the site.

Thanks for the feedback - our prices are currently on the calendar page (go to the relevant date and it should show a price - we are currently adding more dates to the diary) which isnt ideal as they are hidden away, but given that we cater to any combo of arrival/departure date, supported, unsupported and location (ie we don't just do fixed date "take it or leave it" trips) its quite tricky to set out full price lists. I will add something along the lines of prices from X for a long weekend and prices from Y for a week etc as an interim measure on each of the relevant main pages and make the calendar links more obvious until we think of a better way of doing it though.

The KOM trip will be awesome. We just need to find enough nutters to attempt it - I'll pencil you in!!

Heh. Guess which numpty didn't look at the whole site. But yeah, something on the relevant main pages would be good.

Will let you know about the KOM. Reckon I could be in good enough shape by next September to do it. But as Londonlivvy says, it's a hell of a lot to fit in a week.

LeDomestiqueTours

ketsbaia wrote:

LeDomestiqueTours wrote:

ketsbaia wrote:

That looks ace, Rob. May well be in touch shortly. The King of the Mountains tour looks like a tester.

One thing I did notice - didn't seem to be any pricing info on the site.

Thanks for the feedback - our prices are currently on the calendar page (go to the relevant date and it should show a price - we are currently adding more dates to the diary) which isnt ideal as they are hidden away, but given that we cater to any combo of arrival/departure date, supported, unsupported and location (ie we don't just do fixed date "take it or leave it" trips) its quite tricky to set out full price lists. I will add something along the lines of prices from X for a long weekend and prices from Y for a week etc as an interim measure on each of the relevant main pages and make the calendar links more obvious until we think of a better way of doing it though.

The KOM trip will be awesome. We just need to find enough nutters to attempt it - I'll pencil you in!!

Heh. Guess which numpty didn't look at the whole site. But yeah, something on the relevant main pages would be good.

Will let you know about the KOM. Reckon I could be in good enough shape by next September to do it. But as Londonlivvy says, it's a hell of a lot to fit in a week.

All good feedback and thanks Londonlivvy for your thoughts. The KOM challenge is definitely aimed at the hardcore end of the market (ie a bit of a RAAM/PBP style "challenge") rather than a holiday. Depending on how negotiations go we may look to pair with a charity to offer this as something to rival the London to Paris etc but on a much smaller scale - we'll see. If you are after a more chilled out affair or something like a Raid Pyrenean/Alps equivalent then we can definitely cater to that as well and will be more than happy to research and build bespoke trip options if people have something in mind (the Pyrenees house in particular is perfect for post ride beers)!

londonlivvy

I guess my point is less about the amount of cycling on offer - well aware that some folk are very keen and good luck to them - but more about the fact that there's a lot of transport in the week. The hard core cyclists I know are all obsessed with hard ride then food then legs horizontal so they can recover (whilst drinking recovery shakes etc) and they'd not be up for a bus (even a nice one) across France. Hence the suggestion of setting up an uber-hard core week in the Alps which challenged the hardened cyclist, but without adding in transport time.

I suppose it depends on whether you're looking to target the cash rich / time poor guys who've only got a week away with their mates and they want to cram it all in to say they did xyz?

Another option (not related to the KOM week and do forgive the unsolicited advice) might be family / partner weeks. Lots of guys I know have wives / kids who don't ride but who might be persuaded to come to the Alps for a week if there was a nice place to stay, nice pool for the kids to play in, family friendly stuff to do whilst blokes are taken off for morning rides / the Alpe D'Huez time trial on thurs mornings etc.

LeDomestiqueTours

All true and thanks for your thoughts. Wed definitely need to find the appropriate balance of bike/transfer time. The way I have it planned out means that the only significant transfer time is between the Alps/Mont Ventoux and Mont Ventoux/Pyrenees and we'd look to do that overnight. We're doing a dry run of it as soon as the weather allows next year which will confirm whether or not it is doable.

Like I said before though, we can tailor make a break for any group so if KOM Pyrenees or KOM Alps is desired then I can certainly create it. I'll add some blurb on the page to make this clear.

The couples idea is definitely something we are looking to target and Laura will be there to cater for the cycling widows! We'll probably offer a couple of set dates for these trips, so keep an eye out!

Will take this opportunity to say that although we are a new business, the research on all of this goes back a long way and we have done lots of dry runs and have in the past organised trips for clubs and mates so our customers won't be test pilots!

CiB

Could you handle a long weekend (prob first w/e of the TdF) where one party (me) wants to see a bit of the Tour and do a mountain stage (any, as long as it's up AND down), and the other party wants to spend some of her time putting up with seeing bicyclists flash past but would also like some quality time with me + shopping (knitting? cooking? Is that what they do left to their own devices?) in France? Is that even feasible?

LeDomestiqueTours

CiB wrote:

Could you handle a long weekend (prob first w/e of the TdF) where one party (me) wants to see a bit of the Tour and do a mountain stage (any, as long as it's up AND down), and the other party wants to spend some of her time putting up with seeing bicyclists flash past but would also like some quality time with me + shopping (knitting? cooking? Is that what they do left to their own devices?) in France? Is that even feasible?

PM'd

londonlivvy

Oooh and I had another thought - perhaps add in some photos of the Cols you'd be talking about doing to your website.

CiB

LeDomestiqueTours wrote:

PM'd

Ditto. Thanks.

rjsterry

CiB wrote:

Could you handle a long weekend (prob first w/e of the TdF) where one party (me) wants to see a bit of the Tour and do a mountain stage (any, as long as it's up AND down), and the other party wants to spend some of her time putting up with seeing bicyclists flash past but would also like some quality time with me + shopping (knitting? cooking? Is that what they do left to their own devices?) in France? Is that even feasible?

Cycle tours for those with non-cycling partners - now that IS a good idea.

Wrath Rob

rjsterry wrote:

CiB wrote:

Could you handle a long weekend (prob first w/e of the TdF) where one party (me) wants to see a bit of the Tour and do a mountain stage (any, as long as it's up AND down), and the other party wants to spend some of her time putting up with seeing bicyclists flash past but would also like some quality time with me + shopping (knitting? cooking? Is that what they do left to their own devices?) in France? Is that even feasible?

Cycle tours for those with non-cycling partners - now that IS a good idea.

+1 to that. With a wife and kids its taking the wee wee to disappear for a full week. However, if they could come too... Plus you can organise kiddy raced to take on some additional liability :twisted:

mrsrc1

Hi all

I'm MrsMrC1 and the other half of Le Domestique Tours!

Thanks all for the kind suggestions above. The "couples" breaks are something that I had thought of doing (being a cycling widow myself at times in the past).

With the Olympics taking over London next summer, we thought August 2012 might be an ideal time for people (those who are sans tickets!) to escape the UK either as couples or with their family in tow, but let us know if you don't think this works/there is a better time. We'll be running other couples weekends so August won't be the only time we run this trip!

The idea behind it being those that wish to cycle go out with Robert, and those that wish to take in the non-cycling delights of the Pyrenees, come out with me!

The activities on offer include things like going to the local spa, going shopping in our village or even a trip to Pau or Toulouse for the same, rafting (located in our village), paragliding, hiking, canyoning, a day trip over the border to Spain and on the days that we're tired from doing all of those, a lazy day in Saint Lary Soulan lounging in a local cafe or bar with a good book!

Then, in the evenings, we'd all get back together for tasty food, good wine and great banter on the veranda at Chateaux Le Domestique.

Would really welcome all your thoughts on whether this may be of interest and in particular what you think of an Olympic escape!

Many thanks

MrsMrC1