France Grand Cycle Tour - Classic French Alps, The Jura, The Vosges and Paris Experience

Bienvenue en France and the magnificent French Alps. We will collect you from Geneva Airport and transfer you to your hotel near Megeve.

After check-in, we will help assemble and fit the bikes, and then take a leisurely test ride nearby. Back at the hotel we will regroup for pre-dinner drinks, hand out the musettes (goodie bags), and discuss the logistics for the coming week. Dinner will be an opportunity to get to know your fellow riders and to interrogate the Grand Tours Project team.

DO NOT be deceived. This 22 kilometre long individual time trial will be brutal if you are aiming to put in a personal best effort. There are 2 climbs - Cote de Soudans and lung busting Côte de Domancy.

After an early breakfast, we’ll ride this course and then ride some of the surrounding terrain before returning to see how the professionals do it…and to compare your times!

When the last racer has crossed and the results are finalised, we will transfer to our hotel in Albertville.

The Queen Stage route tally for today is 166 km and 5,400 m ascent. Gulp! Luckily, as part of our Experience crew, you will not be attempting the full stage, but we are still offering you a challenging and steep ride to Col de la Loze, above Meribel and Courchevel.

There are three options that enable riders of different abilities to ride along the race route with passionate fans cheering you on: ride early from Albertville to Col de la Loze; or transfer to Moûtiers or Brides-les-Bains and ride to Col de la Loze. Somewhere on the mountain, we’ll find a place to watch the pros ride up and disappear down to Courchevel. We will then ride or transfer back to our hotel in Albertville.

Today is not so intense. A hilly day from Albertville to Lac du Bourget and beyond depending upon your energy levels after yesterday! Stupendous views from the cotes above the lake. And bring your lights, we possibly have a tunnel section. Near the boundary between Savoie and Ain, we will stop for lunch and then take a transfer to our hotel in Geneva.

A leisurely start to today. After breakfast we will transfer to the stage of Stage 19 in the pretty toy capital of France, Moirans-en-Montagne. This morning is an opportunity for you to browse shops of the famous wooden toys, an industry that has sustained this town since the 14th century. But the focus for our visit is your immersion in the passionate fanfare of the teams signing in and riders being presented before they set off on Stage 19. It will be an amazing spectacle to experience.

After a light lunch, we’ll jump in the GTP vehicle and transfer to somewhere near Salins-les-Bains to ride a portion of the route before watching the pros race by. Then we transfer to our hotel near Colmar.

If a winner of the yellow jersey has not already been predicted, then today is the day we find out. Stage 20 is in the Vosges and although not huge, the cumulative height gain is impressive, and it finishes on Le Markstein.

We have an early start; first a transfer to Munster and then we ride, with numerous other cycling fans, the last 30 odd kilometres of Stage 20 in the wild Vosges mountains via Le Petit Ballon and Col du Platzerwasel before reaching Le Markstein. We suspect this ride will be fast and furious in order to reach our destination before the gendarmes close the final climb. Once riders and their teams cross the finish line and we know the winner of the yellow jersey for 2023, we’ll transfer to Colmar for the TGV train to Paris.

We trust you had a good night's sleep. After breakfast we will transfer to the Palace of Versailles and ride through Monteparnsse, the Latin Quarter, over La Seine to La Musée du Louvre, le Jardin des Tuileries, le Place de la Concorde and onto les Champs-Élysées and the L’Arc de Triomphe. A route of famous Parisian sites. After lunch at the hotel, we will head to the Stage 21 Arrivée area and join the crowds cheering on the sprinters and applauding the winners of the race categories and specifically the yellow!

Tonight, we celebrate the end of the 110th Edition of France’s premier cycle race, and toast your achievements and stories on the road.

What a week! - Racing through the French countryside, climbing mountains, leisurely rides, gastronomic adventures and Paris on Stage 21 and all in 6 days. We hope that the Grand Tours Project team fulfilled your expectations, helped you attain your goals, and that you return home with stories to retell and many memories.

We will assist you in checking out and take you to Toulouse Airport for your flight home or to your next destination.

As always, ride safe and see you on the road again soon.