Most accessible TDF or GIRO mountain stage by TRAIN

bigbeezer67
bigbeezer67 Posts: 24
edited June 2015 in Road general
What would be the easiest to get to iconic climb in either of these 2 races by train from london? [it's a long story]

by easiest i mean shortest travel to the climb from the final train station.

have a long weekend in aug and really wanna do one of these climbs.

Cheers

Comments

  • sloppyschleckonds
    sloppyschleckonds Posts: 8,019
    St Pancreas - Nice
    Ride the Col de la Madone
    Come home.
    I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles
  • mrushton
    mrushton Posts: 5,182
    Assuming you mean big climbs you need to the Rhone Alps/Haute Savoie or the Pyrenees. Pau is often a base for the Pyrenees. Bourg St.Maurice (railway terminus) in the Isere valley is good as you have the choice of Cormet de Roselend over to Beaufort, the Petit St.Bernard to La Thuile and down to Pre St.Didier. Turn around and you've an 18km climb back to the summit and a fantastic descent back down. Or you can really bust your nuts and do the 50km to the summit of the Iseran via Vald'Isere. You'll be climbing for approx. 40km. Back down the Isere valley, you could go to Moutiers and do the climbs to Courcheval or Val Thorens or back to Albertville and the Madeleine.
    You could go down towards Nice and the Bonnette (highest paved road in Europe) or the Madone or if there is a train to Barcelonette you have the triple of Col de Cayolle (23km) then the Champs then the Allos (20+km) and the descent was the one Bardet monstered in the CdD recently then back to Barcelonette.
    M.Rushton
  • bigbeezer67
    bigbeezer67 Posts: 24
    Thanks very much mate,
    I will look into all that.

    Really excited.
  • mrushton
    mrushton Posts: 5,182
    Giro you are going to have to head out to Como (Lombardy), Trentino or SudTyrol to get up to the Dolomites. Prob a train down to Venice from Paris (Otello I think it's called then another train back up North but haven't been round there so maybe a train thro' Switzerland. Don't forget Switzerland has the Furka pass route and a few others featured in Mountain Higher, the book by D. Friebe. For me, Bourg St.Maurice packs a lot of climbing into one area. Get the Michelin map of the Isere region and you can see the routes. The climb back from Beaufort has a side road you can take to bring you back to the lake.
    M.Rushton
  • lemon63
    lemon63 Posts: 253
    train from Paris to Lourdes - ideal for Hautacam, Tourmalet, Luz Ardiden, Soulor, Aubisque.
    Argeles-Gazost or Saint Savin are both close to Lourdes and are good bases.
  • bobinski
    bobinski Posts: 570
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19636373#p19636373]mrushton[/url] wrote:
    Assuming you mean big climbs you need to the Rhone Alps/Haute Savoie or the Pyrenees. Pau is often a base for the Pyrenees. Bourg St.Maurice (railway terminus) in the Isere valley is good as you have the choice of Cormet de Roselend over to Beaufort, the Petit St.Bernard to La Thuile and down to Pre St.Didier. Turn around and you've an 18km climb back to the summit and a fantastic descent back down. Or you can really bust your nuts and do the 50km to the summit of the Iseran via Vald'Isere. You'll be climbing for approx. 40km.

    This is what i did 3 years ago and back to do the same again Next month. Lots of good places to stay in Bourg. The Iseran is a monster climb from Bourg. Roseland is a quieter climb with beautiful scenery i think best done at the end of the day with a traffic free descent back to Bourg. Overnight trains from Paris to Bourg make it easier to make the use of limited time.
  • bigbeezer67
    bigbeezer67 Posts: 24
    cheers lads,

    Looking like we are gonna head to Grenoble and do Alp D'Huez, just need to get bike hire sorted out and transfer from grenoble to the alps.
  • cc78
    cc78 Posts: 599
    Annecy would be another option for easy access to Semnoz, Colombiere, Grand Colombier and a host of smaller but no less superb climbs such as Aravis, Croix-Fry and Saisies.
  • robbo2011
    robbo2011 Posts: 1,017
    Following up on the Switzerland theme, you have Sustenpass, Grimselpass, Furkapass, Gotthard pass, Nufenen pass, Grosse Scheidegg, Männlichen all within easy reach of each other. You just need to get a train to either Göschenen, Airolo or Meiringen/Interlaken and the choice is yours.

    Taking bikes on Swiss trains is great too. They make it so easy.
  • sherer
    sherer Posts: 2,460
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19636370#p19636370]SloppySchleckonds[/url] wrote:
    St Pancreas - Nice
    Ride the Col de la Madone
    Come home.

    Nice idea about it's never featured on the TDF or Giro. Or any race for that matter.

    Col D'Eze has featured in Paris - Nice though

Categories