2022 Tour de France Private Chalet Trip

Our base at Portes du Soleil, the convenient start point for an active holiday.

Our staff will meet you at Lyon Saint-Exupery airport at 10 am, a convenient starting point for reaching the French Alps. You may arrive by TGV or plane, with many domestic and international services. Arrive a day early and acclimatise, adjust your clock, and be ready to make the most of your trip with us. Book your flights early and contact our booking team to arrange accommodation at our pre-trip hotel in Lyon.

Your luxury coach and professional staff will transport us to Les Gets, in the Haute Savoie region and the famous Portes du Soleil. There are 12 villages that are recognised making up the Portes du Soleil. Our chalet is based at one of the popular resorts that host a World Cup Mountain Bike event each year. In August 2022, they will host the MTB World Championship. You’ll have time over the next few days to walk through the trails and see some incredible skills and gnarly drops. This area is also a road cyclist’s heaven.

Join us for dinner tonight at a local restaurant as we meet our fellow guests and importantly your guides who will help you maximise your experience with Bikestyle Tours at Tour de France.

Watch the summit finish on the French and Switzerland border.

We will set off after breakfast in pursuit of the Tour de France as it meanders its way around the Switzerland border. The stage starts from Aigle which is also the headquarters for UCI.

Our afternoon will be filled with taking in the fanfare of the arrival of the Tour de France on an important summit finish. For those not riding today, you will have all day to enjoy the products of the region – cheese fondue is very much the staple.

Our riders will coast down toward Lake Geneva before riding up another valley toward the final climb to Châtel. After the race we will return by our luxury transport and enjoy dinner together, celebrating an adventurous day seeing the Tour de France live.

After the race, we will return to our chalet for dinner together, with the convenience of a fully equipped kitchen.

Rest day for tour riders, but longer rides and tourism options aplenty.

It is custom for the tour rider to head out and ride even on their rest day. Stopping their engines completely makes it difficult to get going again tomorrow. We may be lucky and see one or more of the teams out riding their bikes.

Our options are aplenty today. Our easier ride option will use gravity to our greatest advantage and head for Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval, a magnificent village that is listed as one of the Plus-Beaux Village de France. By far the biggest attraction in the area is the Cirque du Fer à Cheval, where the many waterfalls cascade from the cliffs which form a semicircle. The number of waterfalls varies according to the seasons.

Our longer ride may also include this scenic option but return over one of the toughest climbs that have featured on Tour de France – Col de Joux Plane. You are free to explore the village for yourself this evening and choose one of the restaurants for dinner.

Final night in the Haute Savoie, a Stage Start or Stage Finish

You are welcome to choose your preferred option today. If you’d like a bit of time to relax and explore more of the Portes du Soleil area, you can head to Morzine for the stage start and be back at the chalet to watch the finish on television, maybe with a cold beverage. There are many great hiking trails between Morzine and Les Gets also.

We can head off early this morning and get a ride in before the stage start and summit two more Tour de France climbs, Col de la Ramaz and Col de l’Encrenaz. If you’re worried about making the distance and having time at the stage start, there is a shorter option to climb Col de L’Encrenaz on a more direct route.

We’ve left the afternoon available for you to enjoy the village of Morzine or Les Gets this afternoon and return to the chalet at your leisure to prepare for our departure tomorrow.

Ride Alpe d’Huez at your pace, with the cheering crowds before the race comes through.

We’ve carefully considered your options today and have given you the best chance to experience the famous switchbacks – like a professional. Going up the Alpe with the cheering crowds is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You need not race it today, but take in every aspect of the festival that is growing on each corner and count them down, from 21.

We will return to the base of the climb descending to Col du Sarenne, an extra climb and descent that the Tour used in 2013 to ride a double ascent of the Alpe d’Huez, celebrating the 100th edition of the Tour de France. It has less traffic, to descend this way and will take us more directly to our chalet. 

Finish your ride this afternoon in time to watch the race go over the final climbs and finish on the very tough Col du Granon. Today’s finish was made famous by the battle between Greg Lemond and Bernard Hinault in 1986. The Col is long overdue to host another dramatic stage of the Tour de France. We will enjoy dinner together tonight in the village, and prepare ourselves for the exciting day at the Tour tomorrow, on Fete Nationale.

See the 2022 Tour de France on Alpe d’Huez.

We will set off after breakfast this morning and ride one of the most scenic roads of the area, a balcony road that leads us to the Alpe d’Huez where we can watch the race and join in the festival that stretches the entire length of the mountain. 

A stage finish on Alpe d’Huez is one of the biggest sporting spectacles one can witness. This is your day to park your own cycling ambitions and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the 2022 Tour de France. Today is especially important for the French, as it is their national day as they celebrate Fete Nationale – Bastille Day.

Return to the chalet this evening and we will enjoy a dinner together, celebrating a magnificent day following the most iconic stage of the Tour de France.

Tour departs the French Alps plus a favourite climb, and stage start.

Stage starts are a wonderful fanfare as every rider is required to sign on for the day’s stage. Each rider makes their way from the team bus to the podium to sign on and may be interviewed by the compere. See the riders and bikes up close, watch teams make their final preparations for the stage having settled on their best opportunities for today’s course. Find a position on the road as they roll out in a procession as they ride the ‘depart fictif’, under controlled conditions of the commissaire.

We also have a great ride on offer today, and should you prefer more time for yourself, you can head off before the stage starts. Our ride is the challenging climb to Croix de Fer with a deviation to the Col du Glandon on return, you can collect 2 cols for the day.

Tonight, you are free to arrange dinner at one of the local restaurants, or simply you may like to sit at the local bar enjoying a cold drink and a plat du jour. This is one of the most enjoyable aspects of a summer evening in France.

limb the legendary French Climb, Col du Galibier.

We will set off after breakfast and make our way carefully down to Lac du Chambon, where the road starts to rise from the valley. We’ll stick to the quieter emergency road that was constructed when the tunnel and the main road was plunged into the lake in a landslip. The route to Col du Lautaret was not accessible for about 2 years, and forced the Tour de France to re-route.

It has since been diverted and reconstructed with more reinforcement. Once we join the main road on the other side of the lake, our climb starts in earnest. It is quite gentle until we reach La Grave and the road starts to steepen. We will pause at Col du Lautaret before the final push on to the summit of Col du Galibier. The race passed over this summit twice this year, and is not uncommon to do so. A famous 2-day sequence in 2011 saw Cadel Evans defend two Schleck brothers, and finally attack the descent to all but secure his overall victory.

We will return the same way where transport can help us with the final climb to our accommodation. Or if you would like to chase those vertical metres, you can ride up to Les Deux Alpes.

This evening we will enjoy our final dinner together, and celebrate the triumphs, challenges and joy of riding our bikes in the French Alps.

Farewell or Bon Continuation

Today we farewell our private guests on our Alps Chalet trip. It is a pleasure to welcome returning guests, and likewise those that have joined us for the first time.

We will depart our chalet shortly after breakfast and take the short journey to Lyon Saint-Exupery airport. We should have you arriving around 11am, which means if you’re booking a domestic European flight make it no earlier than 1pm, and 2pm for any international departures. There is also a TGV station at the airport, remember it is Saint-Exupery station, as there are two stations in Lyon. This station has frequent high speed train services to Paris, Cote d’Azur, and Spain should you look to continue your adventures in Europe.

Consider extending your trip with Bikestyle Tours, and we’ll arrange your transfer to join our Tourmalet to Paris trip starting the following day. It will give you a good chance to relax for an evening in one of our favourite French cities (Toulouse), and start our trip that follows the final week of racing with some strong climbing legs!