French Alps Classic - General
Info
July 14-28, 2004
Single Bikes16 days, 15 nights
Challenging route with long climbs and descents
60-90 miles per day/8000 ft per day average
Start/Finish in Geneva, Switzerland
$2900 per person based on double occupancy
$500 single supplement
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2004 could be a very historic year for the
Tour de France. Lance Armstrong will be racing for his sixth
straight Tour victory, more wins than any of the other great
legends of this epic race. Our Alps tour will also be very
special with two days of Tour watching. We will be in Bourg
d'Oisans for the first ever Time Trial up l'Alpe d’Huez, and the
next day we can watch either the start or the climb up the Col
du Glandon on the 17th stage, Bourg d’Oisans to Le Grand Bornand.
This will truly be an historic event. To ride the roads that
have contributed to this history and to see the action in person
will be an unforgettable experience. Not only will we climb all
of the cols in the Alps of this year’s Tour, we will ride
countless small, incredibly scenic roads that are seldom if ever
part of the Tour de France.
The Tour de
France and “Les Alpes”; it is impossible to think of one without
the other. L’Alpe d’Huez, Col de la Croix de Fer, Col de
Madeleine, Col du Galibier, the list goes on and on. These are
the passes on which the Tour de France is contested, the roads
where champions are made. Our tour is where any cyclist can
imagine riding in the peloton of their heroes. Yet this tour is
even more than the Tour de France; it is a cycling experience
unmatched anywhere in the world. This is a tour of breathtaking
vistas of mountains, meadows, and lakes; the cliffs and gorges
of the Vercors; the mountain villages with their festive
markets, friendly hotels, and delicious food and wine. And,
ultimately, this is a tour of roads - France’s special gift to
the cyclist; roads laid down like a carelessly strewn ribbon,
narrow roads painstakingly chiseled into the sides of vertical
cliffs, roads virtually devoid of cars, roads plastered with the
names of cycling legends, roads climbing steeply and
relentlessly toward heart throbbing heights, and of course roads
plummeting downwards in rim-searing, thrilling, twisty descents
to distant villages below.
This tour will offer all the long hard routes
visited by the 2004 Tour de France; enough riding, climbing and
descending to satisfy the most voracious appetite of any
well-trained cyclist At the end of the day’s riding we’ll
enjoy well-deserved relaxation in the peaceful setting of the
small villages selected for our tour, quite possibly in front of
the TV watching ‘live’ the day’s stage finish of the Tour. |
