Grand Tour France: Women's Alpine Finale Experience

We will meet you at Geneva airport and transfer you to your wonderful 4* hotel on the shores of beautiful Lake Annecy, our base for the next 3 nights. Our team will help you to check in and unpack your bike or set up your rental bike to you needs.

After a light lunch or snack, we’ll test ride the bikes with a short and easy spin on the ‘voie verte’ around the perimeter of the lake, before finishing with a welcome drink while watching the stage finish on screen.

Ahead of dinner, we’ll gather for a full tour briefing with our friendly guides and receive our exclusive GTP custom kit before dining together as a team, out in Annecy old town.

We are absolutely spoiled for choice with route options from Annecy! While the pro race is in the Jura region, we will be making the most of the epic cols on our doorstep in the heart of the Alps.

We can either ride south of Annecy to experience the Col de Tamié, which features two days later in stage 8 of the tour. Alternatively, for those keen to ride the most spectacular roads of the region, we recommend riding eastwards from Annecy towards the Domaine des Aravis where we have options including the Col de la Croix Fry, the Col de l’Arpettaz and the Col d’Aravis for an awesome day of climbing.

We can catch the pro race on screen while re-fuelling with some well-earned mountain food and, after a big day out, a dip in the pool or lake will make for a welcome afternoon of relaxation.

Tonight’s dinner will be in the hotel’s wonderful restaurant, offering sophisticated, seasonal and local cuisine.

Today the tour makes its way across from the Jura to the Alps in its penultimate stage, and we’re off to join it! We will hitch an early ride in the GTP tour van (approximately 1 hour) to the midpoint of the stage, to connect with the route at Valserhône near Geneva.

Here we will get on our bikes and ride every kilometre of the race route for the rest of the stage, up to Le Grand Bornand. Just a few hours ahead of the pros, expect a thrilling atmosphere with fans poised for the race cheering us on!

The route ends with a climb on the Chinaillon road into Le Grand Bornand, where we will place ourselves after our own ride, ready to see the pros battle it out to the finish line. There’s all to play for here!

We’ll soak up the tour’s party atmosphere for the rest of the day in Le Grand Bornand, enjoying a casual mountain meal before our short drive back to Annecy for our final overnight stay there.

It’s the final day of the tour and we’re on the move across the Alps to its summit finish at Alpe d’Huez. Name a more iconic stage finish for the grand finale… we’ll wait! After checking out of our Annecy hotel, we’ll drive part way to join the route around its midpoint. For the longer option ride from Albertville, or start in the village of Saint-Colomban-des-Villards where the route heads up the Col du Glandon. You then have a spectacular descent towards the town of Le Bourg d’Oisans where we’ll have a pitstop at the foot of Alpe d’Huez before taking on its famous 21 switchbacks. Once we’ve summited, we’ll be perfectly situated on the mountain as things reach fever pitch, and the tour crowns its 2024 champions. We’ll be staying here atop of the Alpe for the next two nights so we can enjoy the post-tour festivities.

We couldn’t base ourselves at Alpe d’Huez without taking on one of the most spectacular routes of the region. We start off with the Col de Sarenne and a technical descent to Mizoën, before some welcome flat to the Parc National des Ecrins. We then have a stunning valley road, surrounded by glacial rivers, waterfalls and towering cliffs, that we’ll climb up for as long as we wish. We have café stops and turnaround points in the villages of Venosc or Saint-Christophe-en Oisans, but if you have the legs we recommend continuing to the valley’s end at La Bérarde for lunch. After lunch it’s an easy roll back to Bourg d’Oisans before we tackle Alpe d’Huez once again for the final time. The rest of the day is yours to enjoy as you wish. Explore the mountaintop or simply marvel at the views across the Alps from the hotel’s balcony. We’ll enjoy a hearty and celebratory final evening’s dinner together as a group, revelling in all that we’ve seen and done.

Sadly it’s time to pack our bags and say farewell to our mountain-top home and newfound friends. We’ll help you with your bike box and get you on your way for the 2.5hour journey back to Geneva airport in time for your flight.

You could alternatively consider extending your stay and we recommend Le Bourg d’Oisans as a base for exploring other famous roads of the region including the Cols du Lauteret, Galibier and Croix de Fer. Please contact us should you require any further information or assistance.