€ 4559
12 Days
Challenge
20 July 2019
Small group minimum 6 riders | Private groups, any size on requested dates
Bormio, Italy
Bedoin, France
4 nights at 4-star | 7 nights at 3-star
Ten dinners; all breakfasts.
Guiding; van assistance; mobile workshop; spare bike, bars, gels and electrolytes available on purchase; group transfers from Milano airport to Bormio and from Bedoin to Marseille airport; 10% discount on bike rentals.
Flight tickets; extras in hotel, etc.; drinks during the dinner; city tax (if any); travel insurance; bike rental; individual arrival and departure transfer.
Supplement for single accommodation € 459 p.p.; bike rental.
There are places that have been stage for great sport challenges. Among them, some that touch our collective imaginary of cyclists much, are enclosed in the Italian and French Alps.
Alps have been generous or infamous to cyclists, distributing joy, pain, victory over the last hundred years of the most important stage cycling competitions: Tour de France and Giro d’Italia. On their tarmac, cycling fans have written the names of their favorite champions, and champions have written the history of our sport.
The names of these Alpine passes might be daunting to some: Stelvio, Mortirolo, Gavia, Colle delle Finestre, in Italy, Lautaret, Izoard, Galibier, Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux in France. For this reason, putting our flags on top of them is the biggest prize to us dedicated riders and will stay forever in our minds.
As a living monument to cycling, these mountains pile up more names every season. Names of active cyclists are next to legendary ones. Names like - in the modern history of Tour and Giro - Fausto Coppi, Charly Gaul, Gino Bartali, Louison Bobet, Felice Gimondi, Raymond Poulidor, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond, Miguel Indurain, Marco Pantani, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Froome.
These hall-of-fame names explain why Alps are in the bucket list of committed cyclists from around the world. These are dream roads and dream mountains, and dreams can become true. Should you be afraid of that? Do you need Froome’s legs to enjoy these special places? Not really, that’s not either the intent of this tour. Will these mountains take you out of your comfort zone? Sure they will! We’re instead committed to take you safely and comfortably out of your comfort zone, so you get only the best out of this tour.
This is not a tour for fanatics and it requires a medium fitness level. Detailed briefings, constant contact with our skilled guides, planned food stops, the van always there, perfect Canyon rental bikes make for a safe and enjoyable daily riding. Choice of hotels and restaurants is made with care and with deep knowledge of the places.
Passo Gavia, the final and main climb of the day, is a very challenging climb: first of all because it’s quite long, about 17 kms, then because it gets very high. Thin air at altitude (2600m ASL) is no joke, no way to be really prepared for that. So, better saving legs when possible. For this reason, we tackle the Mortirolo from its ‘easier’ side, from the little town of Grosio, so to lower a little the gradient of the first climb. We climb up Gavia starting from Ponte di Legno, like in occasion the 97th Giro d’Italia (2014), won by the Colombian Nairo Quintana of Movistar Team. Accommodation and dinner at hotel.
Stelvio pass is in the cycling myth since 1953, after a 34 years old Fausto Coppi, was able to grab his last Giro d’Italia, dropping the GC leader, the Swiss Hugo Koblet, in a legendary day. Stelvio was a dirt road at that time, and bikes were not as sophisticated and lightweight as now. Romantic cycling, as they call it.
“I’m still that eight-year-old kid who rode up the Stelvio. I’m still that kid in my legs, in my head and in my heart.”
–Ivan Basso, former pro cyclist.
There’s big debate among cyclists on which side of Stelvio is the nicest: Lombardy side, from Bormio or Trentino side, from Prato allo Stelvio. We don’t want to influence your opinion, so we give you the opportunity to make your own idea. We ride up from Bormio, go all the way down across Switzerland, and up again from Prato allo Stelvio, enjoying all the famous 48 hairpins up top. Accommodation and dinner at hotel in Bormio.
SardiniaCycling Quartu (Cagliari)
Via Vittorio Emanuele, 27
Quartu Sant'Elena, Cagliari
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