Here's to Lance Armstrong's 4th Tour de France win! (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

Nice pictures Aurel!! I guess the riders did manage to avoid the famous NYC manhole covers... They eat you alive!!
Haven't seen the event yet, it's still on my PVR. Did Mayor Bloomberg show up or any other dignitaries?
Hey Mario, any responses on the TdF tours? We should figure out how much riding versus spectating these tours do.
Jay

 

[Mario Bartel]

We should figure out how much riding versus spectating these tours do.

That's still what I'm trying to get a handle on. I don't want to be locked into 100-120 km rides every day; afterall, this is supposed to be a holiday.

So far, Bikestyle in Australia still seems the most promising, with a few options for riding commitment on any given day. They're fairly established, owned and operated by experienced cyclists. And reviewing their tours from this season's Tour, they seem to have access to some pretty nice hotels.

While testimonials/articles about the specific companies have proved pretty elusive, the general comments I've found on the internet from people who have taken tours to the Tour have all been raves. It does sound like an amazing experience.

I'm still digging for more information, but I'm looking to make a decision on commiting to a deposit by mid-September.

 

[Mario Bartel]

Ooops. Double post. Caught in the brief Forum hiccup.

 

[Jay H]

Have you seen this from cyclingnews:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/cyclingtr...f02intro.shtml
Are you looking at 16 days or 10?
http://www.bikestyle.com.au/tdf_2003.html
I figure this is the tour company that you're looking at..
I'll try to see if I can dig up anything from that, but reading the cyclingnews (great site, BTW, I read that for my TdF02 coverage) seems to indicate that there are options to ride or not ride on each day of the tour, they have a slow group that does like 60mi and a fast group that does 60mi and another that does like 25mi and a groupt that doesn't ride at all, so it seems like there are options.
There is also a group discount with 5 members so perhaps we can get a better head count in early september.
I suggest everybody who said they were interested, check out my links and see if it agrees with them, I'll try to find more user reviews and look more at bikestyle's website..
Jay

 

[Mario Bartel]

There's also this article
I'm thinking the 10-day tour would be plenty, plus a few days in Paris after the Tour.

they have a slow group that does like 60mi and a fast group that does 60mi and another that does like 25mi and a groupt that doesn't ride at all

Yeah, that's another thing I like about Bikestyle, they do have plenty of options depending on what you're feeling up to on any given day.
I've got the road bike off the trainer and back on the pavement after two years of riding mountain and cross-country trails almost exclusively; although with work, and the evenings getting shorter, putting on significant km's is a bit of a challenge. And I'm thinking some gearing adjustments will be in order for those alpine climbs

 

[Jay H]

10-days..whew! I found out I have three weeks of vacation this year, kind of unexpected, so I have one more week, but fortunately, we get our vacations refreshed on July 1st so next year's tour should be under next year's vacation plan. It's good because I plan on using this leftover week for a trip to Vancouver and Calgary sometime early next year.

So out of the orginal group of interestees, how many people are seriously interested?

Yeah, the sunsets and sunrises are getting closer together now, wont peak til December or so. But that's why they make bike lights. I got a set of dual beam Marwis that are great and I just got an 8amphr battery from the factory for free that replaced a 6amphr battery that was defective. :u for Marwi, nice reasonably priced lights too and they are great for on and off-road riding.

Jay

 

[Mario Bartel]

that's why they make bike lights.

No problem for my mountain bike, but it just seems wrong to plunk a heavy battery pack into the bottle cage of a sleek steel road bike. Besides, drivers out here have a hard enough time seeing cyclists in broad daylight let alone reconciling a slow-moving headlight or blinking taillight in the dark

 

[Jim_F]

I'm giving it some thought. Right now I'm preparing for this year's big expensive vacation. I'll have to hedge on this until at least just after Labor Day (sorry)

10 days + travel should be workable.

 

[Jay H]

Hey Mario, well my grandma is in Calgary so that's why my family wants to go but I know my mom and dad want to go to Vancouver because my father has a bunch of brothers who live by Vancouver so my whole family might go along to visit. I've never been there but I don't know how much time I'll have, but we haven't even planned anything yet anyway so I'll let ya know.
Jim_F, I think we're planning on doing something mid-september anyway. Bikestyles gives you the opportunity to drop out with full deposit refund within 14 days of the release of the itinerary (they don't mention typical dates when that will be announced).
Mario, I'll try to check out the others sooner or later, but the Aussies sound like fun, a domestique would have a great insite as to how the peloton works and stuff, maybe even more so than a team leader who lives a sheltered life in more ways than one
We can prod the others who expressed interest later anyway, or they can chime in again when we settle on a tour provider. We wont be mad at ya if you drop out, we promise, really! We'll just try to drop you on Mont Ventoux....bwahahahaha..
It really sounds like the great tour to see, Lance's 5th in a row attempt, the 100 year (of riding) anniversary, more American interest, etc.
Jay

 

[Edan W]

I'm still interested, just haven't had a chance to look at all the available information...also, wasn't on the computer much in the past couple of days.

 

[Mario Bartel]

Here is an update from Bikestyle:

We want to keep you informed about what is planned for the*Tour in 2003. It's very difficult at this early stage to know exactly what the make up of our trips will be but we have come up with the following for next year.

I think it will probably go something like this:
Obviously there is not a lot of information available for the event yet except that it will start in Paris on the 5th July and conclude back in Paris on the 27th July.* The Centenary Year of the Tour will follow the route of the 1st tour in 1903. That will mean it will go from Paris to Lyon then through the Alpes to Marseille, then to Toulouse, through the Pyrenees to Bordeaux, then to Nantes and finally back to Paris.
However the final route will not be announced until the 24th October in accordance with tradition.
With the prologue to be held around the Stade de France ( the scene of France's World Cup Football Victory ) on July 5, 2003,* the race will celebrate its hundredth birthday, and to mark the occasion Jean-Marie Leblanc envisions a Paris departure. Though few details of the actual parcours have been disclosed, one thing seems certain. After a prologue through the streets of Paris and a neutral start through central Paris on stage one, the road racing will begin in the town of Montgeron. Just south of Paris, this town served as the first start back in 1903, in front of the RÈveil-Matin.*
The Tour will focus on celebrating its history, with a classic route and a chance to visit many of the cities which played host to the first edition of the race.* Some classic climbs from the original route are expected to be included. Those mentioned are The Galibier and Col d'Izoard in the Alpes and the Tourmalet in the Pyrenees.

Our first trip*(Paris to the Alpes) will be of approximately 2 weeks duration definitely starting on Friday the 4th in Paris and probably concluding between the 15th and 17th in Paris. This will take in the prologue in Paris head down over about a week to Lyon and then through the Alpes around Grenoble and Briancon and possibly to Marseille in the second week.

The second trip*(Pyrenees to Paris) will be approx 10 days starting in Paris about the 18th July and will take in the Pyrenees and all the stages back to the final stage in Paris. After the Pyrenees it will make its way up the coast to Nantes at the top of the Loire Valley and then back to Paris on the 27th July. I would think that we will travel to Nantes or somewhere near and then through the Loire and back to Paris for the final weekend with the trip finishing on the morning of Monday 28th July.

 

[Mario Bartel]

Just bringing this thread back into play, for those HTF'ers still interested in a tour to the TdF.

We're about six or seven weeks away from the release of the route for next year's Tour. I believe it's a clockwise year.

I have committed a deposit to Bikestyle, the Australian tour company. Lawrie Cranley, the operator, has been very prompt and cordial in my email communications with him, everything I've read about their tours is positive, and they seem to run at a comfortable pace with good accomodation. At this point, the deposit is still fully refundable, but they'll expect a more definitive commitment within a couple of weeks of the Tour announcement.

So, if anyone who expressed interest earlier in this thread is still interested, you might wanna start counting those quarters.

PS, a pox on OLN Canada for not picking up coverage of this year's Vuelta, or tomorrow's SF Grand Prix. Aaaarrrggh.

 

[Jim_F]

I'm going to entertain the idea for a bit, but my projected work schedule doesn't look favorable.