Tour de France DIY Holiday

Sewinman

I have this urge to watch the TDF live and am thinking of heading over in my car with a tent, beers and a bike and following it around for a week or so. Is it feasible? Will I find camp sites? Can you get anywhere near the stages?

Very vague plan is to get Ferry to St. Malo around the 11th and follow the tour to Ventoux.

Any thoughts/links greatly appreciated.

sketchley

You need a way to follow the race. All the radio stations are in French so you need to take something with you. You could sit by the road (like I did once) for many hours know nothing about what is going on, see the whole peleton come by in a few seconds then not know anything until you get back to your hotel / campsite later in the evening, at which point all the TV is in French and the other people in the campsite want to watch the football.... Next day all the papers are in french but at least you can see the results. Now in the days of internet on phone it's much improved just make sure you had a good data bundle and a subscription to somethnig like eurosport player so you can watch, make sure the subcription works in france. Another option is to find some freindly Dutchmen with a motorhome who are much better prepared and have an 42inch TV hung on the outside of the vehicle, tables and chairs, food a fridge and cold beer, just buy them some beer and it'll all be fine. Plus they can all translate anything to anything for you should you need. I like the Dutch....

mtb-idle

I’ve done this for the past two years and am going back again this year. I take my two boys (aged 22 and 20) and we all love it.

I’m too old and grumpy to sleep in a tent so we book a cheap hotel somewhere near the stage (could be anywhere up to 50k away if you have a car, you don’t need to stay in the Ville d’etape). The further away, the cheaper the hotel

I only go for the mountain stages as you get to see the riders riding a) slightly slower, b) strung out over about 40 minutes and c) the best of all you get to ride the mountain yourself. I always compare it to going to see a match at Wembley and having a kickabout on the pitch beforehand.

So we have a nice nights sleep in the hotel, a decent breakfast and then set out in the car to drive as close as we can get to the final mountain. Once we get close we park up (parking rules are pretty relaxed en Francais) get the bikes off the back and then start climbing.

For example, in 2011 we were staying in Montgenevre.

Day 1, the tour came through Montgenevre so we went for a little ride, then rode to the bottom of the mountain and then rode most of the way back up it and waited at the roadside

Day 2, was the Galibier. So we drove through Briancon and towards Col du Lauteret. We got to about 10k away and the road was closed. So we parked up and rode 25k from the car up the Lauteret. The Galibier was closed by then but the top of the Lauteret was still great fun.

Day 3 was Alpe d’huez so we drove through Briancon and over the Lauteret and towards Bourg d’oisins and parked up on the side of the road about 3k away from the foot of the climb. Rode up to the top, found somewhere to stand and then waited for the tour to come through.

They are long days but they are great fun.

daviesee

Lots and lots of people do this so campsites may be very busy.

I would take Sketchley's advice and follow the Dutch. They know how to do it right!

Kieran_Burns

MTB-Idle wrote:

I’ve done this for the past two years and am going back again this year. I take my two boys (aged 22 and 20) and we all love it.

I’m too old and grumpy to sleep in a tent so we book a cheap hotel somewhere near the stage (could be anywhere up to 50k away if you have a car, you don’t need to stay in the Ville d’etape). The further away, the cheaper the hotel

I only go for the mountain stages as you get to see the riders riding a) slightly slower, b) strung out over about 40 minutes and c) the best of all you get to ride the mountain yourself. I always compare it to going to see a match at Wembley and having a kickabout on the pitch beforehand.

So we have a nice nights sleep in the hotel, a decent breakfast and then set out in the car to drive as close as we can get to the final mountain. Once we get close we park up (parking rules are pretty relaxed en Francais) get the bikes off the back and then start climbing.

For example, in 2011 we were staying in Montgenevre.

Day 1, the tour came through Montgenevre so we went for a little ride, then rode to the bottom of the mountain and then rode most of the way back up it and waited at the roadside

Day 2, was the Galibier. So we drove through Briancon and towards Col du Lauteret. We got to about 10k away and the road was closed. So we parked up and rode 25k from the car up the Lauteret. The Galibier was closed by then but the top of the Lauteret was still great fun.

Day 3 was Alpe d’huez so we drove through Briancon and over the Lauteret and towards Bourg d’oisins and parked up on the side of the road about 3k away from the foot of the climb. Rode up to the top, found somewhere to stand and then waited for the tour to come through.

They are long days but they are great fun.

Go with him.

CiB

I'm off for a few days when it hits the NW France area. Got the camp site booked and can ride down to Tuesday's run in to St Malo, make my over to the time trial to Mont St Michel the day after and on the Thursday see them off from the start just down the road. The rest of the week is mine to enjoy, taking in some local eateries and sampling any wines I might come across.

I'm not that bothered about knowing exactly who's winning tbh - I'll be able to get onto UK websites when I need to but the attraction of a bit of sun, decent restaurants and a couple of days where I can take off on the bike and see where it takes me is enticing enough.

Just need the route to become publicly available - so far any detail beyond stage starts & finishes is a bit elusive.

YIMan

I'm going over to Alpe D'huez to watch and ride....very much looking forward to fulfilling two lifelong ambition, just need to build up enough fitness to be able to ride the mountains! I'm going over in my VW camper so will be looking to camp somewhere near Bourg, hopefully.

Sewinman

Thanks for the replies, inspiring!

mrc1

You'll have a great time im sure.

The biggest PITA are the road closures as they operate seemingly at random (ie they'll have signs up for weeks saying a road will close at midday then on the day they will close it at 9am despite the tour not coming through until 3pm for example) along the route. So the best thing to do if you have a vehicle is dump it somewhere close by and then ride to the route itself on your bikes.

If you choose fairly plain vanilla spots along a stage then you'll be suprised how easy it is to find a spot for a vehicle if you get there early in the morning on the day, however, if you are looking at watching a montain stage then you'll be looking at a vehicle dump and then riding up the mountain.

Good spots to choose are between climbs. For example last year we had guests ride out to the Aspin early in the morning to grab a spot whereas Laura and I just popped out from our chalet and rode 20 mins down the road to the base of the Peyresourde just as the caravan was arriving. We had a great spot (nasty ramp so the riders didn't just fly past) and there were only a few hundred other people along the same few hundred meter stretch as us so we got great views.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ledomtours/sets/72157631192154286/with/7838237958/

The longer waits can be pretty boring as you generally have a couple of hours with nothing happening, an hour or so of the caravan coming through (like a whacky parade of advertiser floats), the excitement as you spot the first helicopter and then the breakaway, peleton and stragglers. If you pick a flat spot then everyone can pass by in as little as 10-30 seconds but if you pick a spot with a bit of an incline or a feature then you'll get more bang for your buck.

The other option is stage finishes. We took guests over to Pau for the sprint finish prior to the mountain stages last year and they had a great time - watched the race on a big screen and then managed to chat to some of the riders and get pics of them and Yates together. Some of the less obvious stage finishes are suprisingly basic in set up so you get a great experience.

Finding out what is going on is a bit of an issue so I would suggest finding a friendly motorhomer with a tv or getting a radio, but if you aren't that bothered then just enjoy yourself.