2023 TDF French Alps Private
Private Cycling Trip through the French Alps, coinciding with the Final week of the 2023 Tour de France
Watch 2 stages live, including the Mountain Time Trial
Ride many famous climbs of the Tour de France
12 days
Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, France
Tour Departs
Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, France, July 13, 2023
Tour Finishes
Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, France, July 24, 2023
Tour Style
Group Size: 7 guests – 2 staff
Rides: Always a social ride option and for those that want a challenge, we have some epic rides also.
Challenge Rating: We get you to the iconic climbs so that you have all the time to ride them at your pace. Our challenge rides are for experienced riders.
Accommodation: 3 to 4-star hotels, twin-share basis, all breakfasts included, and many dinners.
Trip Suitability
Social Riding and Leisure: We understand that your cycling holiday is a HOLIDAY! You may not normally ride every day at home. Our ride routes allow you to cherry-pick the sort of riding that you’d like to do. Choose the days you want to climb, the days to ride flat, and days to rest.
Experienced Riders: Your cycling holiday is actually about the bike! Our epic and challenging ride options seek more vertical meters and longer miles. Choose your rest days or recovery rides, or just ride, and ride, and ride.
Cycling Partners and Spectators: You are not interested in riding yourself, but you are a cycling enthusiast who would like to experience the Tour de France live. Whether your partner is a rider, you want to experience the culture along with seeing the race. We have off-the-bike itineraries for you to see the most spectacular areas, such as the plus-beaux (most-beautiful) villages.
Meals Included
Buffet breakfast every day, 5 dinners
Tour Inclusions
Accommodation and Transport
- Transport throughout custom vans
- Transport for your bike with professional bike carriers
- 11 nights accommodation 3 & 4 Star hotels
- Scheduled arrival and departure transfers to Lyon-Exupery Airport
Meals
- Buffet breakfast daily
- 3-course evening meals on 5 nights
- Wine at welcome and farewell dinners
Professional Ride Support
- Hosted by our experienced tour guides and professional drivers
- Mechanical assistance with your bike
- Ride support vehicle when you need it most
- Navigation assistance on all guided rides
- Sports powders, water, and bars during your ride
- Bikestyle Tours Cycling Kits
Why we Love this Tour
- Watch 2 stages live, including the Mountain Time Trial
- Ride sections of the 2023 Tour de France course
- Ride many famous climbs of the Tour de France
- Ride Alpe d’Huez, Col du Galibier, Col d’Izoard and Col de Joux Plane
- Custom private trip
Pricing
PRICING: Pricing for private groups is based on agreed minimum numbers of participants being met at the time of receipt of payment of final invoices by all trip participants. Prices may increase if minimum numbers are not met at the time of final invoicing (90 days prior to trip departure date). Final pricing will be based on the number of participants at the time of invoicing.
DEPOSIT: AUD$1500 per person.
A reservation is not considered to be finalised until a deposit for the trip is received.
PRICING: TWIN SHARE PER PERSON
- 7 people: $8550 per person twin share
- 6 people: $9200 per person twin share
SINGLE SUPPLEMENT FOR SOLE USE OF ROOM (SINGLE) PER PERSON
Cost: AUD$1520 (require even numbers for single supplement)
FINAL PAYMENT: Due 14th April 2023
CANCELLATION POLICY:
If for some reason you have to cancel your place on the trip, the following deductions will apply.
- From payment of deposit to 120 days prior to trip departure date: Loss of 50% of deposit
- Between 90 and 120 days prior to trip departure date: 100% loss of deposit. This may be reduced to 50% of deposit if a replacement person is found to take your place on a trip.
- Less than 90 days prior to trip departure date and after final payment: 100% loss of trip payment. This trip payment may be applied, at the discretion of Bikestyle Tours, to avoid a price increase being levied on other passengers of a private trip due to a reduction in group size.
Note: It is a requirement of Bikestyle Tours that you have Travel Insurance for your trip. Please take out Travel Insurance at your earliest convenience. We recommend at the same time as paying your deposit.
Bike Hire
Many guests find it convenient to hire one of our professionally prepared quality hire bikes.
- Hire a bike so that you’re not lugging a bike around on your extended European holiday
- Hire a bike and mitigate damage or delays during international transit
Bike Hire Charges
Bike Hire: AUD $770 Note: Renters of our hire bikes are liable for damages to their hire bike during the period of hire, treat it like you own for the rental period. Bikes are set up to your measurements before your arrival and are fully serviced by our professional mechanic.This Trip will be Escorted by Former Pro-Cyclist, Pat Jonker
Although born in The Netherlands, Patrick is an Aussie. He often raced with a Dutch licence during his career and has won 12 major European races.
Patrick turned professional at the end of 1993 and he raced with:
- 1993 WordPerfect
- 1994 Novemail
- 1995 and 1996 Once
- 1997 to 1999 Rabobank,
- 2000 with US Postal,(when injury ruled him out of the Tour)
- 2001 and 2002 with Big Mat
He finished 12th overall at the 1996 Tour de France, Miguel Indurain was 13th and that was the year Bjarne Riis toppled the Big Mig. A young up and coming Ullrich was second. Pat is also a former Dutch and Australian time trial champion.
Most South Australian’s know of Patrick’s greatest win in his final race as a professional, the Tour Down Under. It was a fairy tale win for him in front of his hometown crowd and one that we will remember for years to come.
Trip Summary
2023 TDF French Alps Private
Follow the exciting final 2-weeks of the 2023 Tour de France. Your private cycling holiday starts and finishes in Lyon, the gateway to the French Alps. We will stay at 3 dedicated locations, with easy access to some of the most famous Tour de France routes. Our daily rides are planned so that you can finish with a great lunch and catch the live coverage of the Tour de France, in the same time zone.
There will be some challenging rides, and on days that you’d like to recover, you can choose an easier option. We’ll take a break from filling our own Palmares and follow the 2023 Tour de France on the roadside for the only Time Trial in the three-week race. The exciting time trial will establish riders for the final showdown before reaching Paris. Our trip finishes on the shores of Lake Annecy, where you can play tourist in one of France’s most beautiful villages.
See 2 key stages of the 2023 Tour de France
- STAGE 16 – 22km ITT – Passy to Combloux
- STAGE 18 – 186km – Moutiers to Bour-en-Bresse
2023 TDF French Alps Private – Daily Itinerary
Welcome to France
Our staff will meet you at Lyon Saint-Exupery airport this morning at 10am before transferring to the heart of the French Alps. Our destination over the next few days will give us the opportunity to ride the most famous climbs of the Tour de France. With the classics of Col du Galibier, Alpe d’Huez, and Col d’Izoard on our doorstep, we will be spoiled for choice of rides.
Staff will be available to assist you with assembling your bike or becoming acquainted with your hire bike before we set off on our warm-up ride. After our ride this afternoon, we can stop for a drink and catch the final moments of the stage in Beaujolais before we celebrate the start of our trip with a welcome dinner.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Transfer from Lyon
- Welcome dinner including drinks
Our ride will take us into Briancon, the highest city in France. There is a famous fort that has protected inhabitants over many conflicts through the mountains. We’ll then set off up a quiet valley that is a popular tourist destination for nature lovers. We can make this ride as long (or as short as you like), and the scenery will be incredible.
Alpe d’Huez
Today we will set off for the most famous climb of the French Alps, for Tour de France for that matter – Alpe d’Huez. There are 21 switchbacks of Alpe d’Huez, and during a stage of the Tour de France, as many as 2 million people line the roads for the stage. It is mayhem! We will have a quieter day on the Alpe, but even without the Tour de France visiting this year, there are still millions of riders each month that conquer the mountain.
Enjoy the ride up the Alpe d’Huez and we’ll return to Le Bourg d’Oisans to enjoy the wonderful French village before traveling back to our hotel for the evening.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Col du Lautaret
- Alpe d’Huez
We will head off from our hotel on a similar route that Cadel Evans battled out with the Schleck brothers, before going on to win the 2011 Tour de France. Our initial climb is Col du Lautaret which won’t be too difficult before a mind-blowing 40km descent to the base of Alpe d’Huez. Ride Alpe d’Huez at your own pace. Set a steady cadence, stop off for some photos along the way, and enjoy the experience of this mystical mountain. We’ll have lunch in the village at the top before descending along a spectacular balcony road to the village at the base.
For a shorter option today, you can take transport to the base of the Alpe, skipping the first climb.
Col du Granon
There have been very few stages on the climb today, as it is narrow and complicated for the logistics of the Tour de France. It was a stage in 2022, where Jonas Vingegaard set claim for the yellow jersey with some very clever team tactics over the earlier climbs to isolate their main rival. This set up Jonas for an all-out assault up the difficult climb to Col du Granon.
We will finish the ride early so that we can see watch the exciting finish to today’s stage on television at a local bar.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Col du Granon
Today we will climb one of the toughest in the area, Col du Granon. The gradients are unrelenting, and they can be steep in sections. Granon has hosted some of the most exciting and unforgettable stages in the Tour de France history with a famous stage in 2022, and less recently stages between Hinault and Le Mond in 1986.
There is a ride extension available for you after col du Granon should you feel up to it.
Col d’Izoard
Our main focus for today is one of the most magical climbs of the Tour de France, but it has also featured on the Giro d’Italia for it is on the Italian border, the Col d’Izoard. The famous era of cycling that involved Fausto Coppi is where this climb featured. Coppi rode away from the peloton early and stayed away over multiple summits to win by an astounding margin into Pinerolo. Coppi first, daylight second.
We’ll enjoy lunch in Briancon before returning to our hotel this afternoon.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Ride Col d’Izoard
- Lunch in Briancon
Our ride starts through the valley towards the south. At Guillestre we then take the junction through a stunning gorge road toward the Italian border, before turning left again for our return. We climb up the mighty Col d’Izoard. The climb is long, yet gentle, well more than yesterday at least. Once we reach tree line in the mountains, the environment turns magical through the Casse Deserte section of the climb. There is a memorial just before the summit to Coppi and Bobet and has now become a shrine to cycling legends.
Col du Galibier
We will transfer hotels today and complete four climbs before jumping into the vehicles. We ride Col du Lautaret, Col du Galibier, Col du Telegraphe, and the stunning climb to Lacets du Montvernier. It will be a memorable day of cycling in the French Alps, and the climbing itself isn’t too demanding, as long as you keep at an easy pace.
As it is the rest day of the tour today, we will complete our transfer and settle in before our spectating day tomorrow. Our destination is Les Gets, in the Portes du Soleil region on the France and Switzerland border.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Ride Col du Galibier
- Ride Lacets de Montvernier
Our ride today is the biggest and is often frequented by the Tour de France for it connects the valleys in the eastern part of the French Alps. It is Col du Galibier. We have already conquered half of the climb to Col du Lautaret. But there is a further 8km of climbing from there to reach the summit road between the Hautes Alpes and Savoie, Col du Galibier. We’re above 2,600m here. We then descend to the valley below, and manage to climb over Col du Telegraphe on our way, it is an easy climb between Valloire and Telegraphe and is not categorized when the race travels in this direction.
We descend down the Maurienne valley and head up an engineering masterpiece to the village of Montvernier. Perched just above the valley the tight twisty road is shaped liked shoe laces, hence the name Lacets de Montvernier. It isn’t a difficult climb, but one of the most intriguing roads to ride in the area. It has been more frequented since the Tour de France started racing on it in the last 10 years.
ITT 22km Passy to Combloux
Today is our day for seeing the Tour de France. It may be the most exciting stage of the final week, certainly for spectating it is. It is an individual time trial in the mountains. We will catch the race later today, after setting off early from our hotel to conquer a climb in the area.
After the afternoon watching the time trial and seeing the best riders contest, we will return to our hotel in Les Gets.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- See stage 16 ITT Passy to Combloux
- Ride col de l’Encrenaz
Our ride has an extension this morning going over another Tour de France climb, col de l’Encrenaz. We’ll ride it from the Morzine direction, which makes it a little easier. Then we have a long descent to the valley that takes us toward Mont Blanc, where we will meet up with today’s stage.
Col de Joux Plane
Today may be the hardest ride of our itinerary. It has been claimed as their toughest day on the bike, even by Lance Armstrong. He was racing and the climb was at the end of a 200km stage in searing temperatures. We will have fewer demands on us and can ride at our own pace. We are riding Col de Joux Plane today, it was the final climb on the Queen stage in the week prior. So names will be freshly painted on the road, and we have fresh memories of the theatre that took shape.
This afternoon we’ll catch up on the race at our hotel, it is a demanding stage with a spectacular final climb between Meribel and Courchevel.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Ride Col de Joux Plane
We have a good warm-up before we start the climb to Col de Joux Plane with lots of free kilometers as we descend. The climb itself is 12km in length, and the average gradient doesn’t seem too demanding. However, the varying gradient and some open sections make it more difficult. Ride within yourself today, and it will be more enjoyable. We’ll finish the ride in Morzine and enjoy a great lunch after an enjoyable day morning on the bike.
Annecy
It is our last transfer today and we are set for a spectacular finish in the beautiful village of Annecy. Known as the French Venice, it is situated on the most pristine lake of all of Europe, something that locals are proud to maintain. You’ll find the village to be beautiful, and there are lots of restaurants to choose from.
We can ride between hotels today, and for those wanting something shorter, there is a lovely ride around the lake in Annecy. We can also catch up with today’s stage on the road to break up our rides. Once the official timing and route is released, we will tweak our ride to see an interesting portion of the stage as riders depart from the French Alps.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Overnight in Annecy
- Ride Col de Romme and Col de Colombiere
We will ride to Annecy today, just under 100km, with two stunning climbs that offer great views of Mont Blanc. We will ride over the often-used summit of Col de Romme and Col de Colombiere, on our way to Annecy.
Col de Semnoz
We have a lovely ride planned this morning and this afternoon you can relax on the shore of Lake Annecy, and wonder the streets of this spectacular village. It is a wonderful destination, has a vibrant culture, and celebrates art and adventure – mostly inspired by the looming French Alps.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Another night in Annecy
- Ride Col de Semnoz
We will ride the favoured climb near Annecy, Col de Semnoz. It is a great climb and allows us to descend back to our hotel. There are shortcuts that avoid going to the top of the climb should you wish.
Le Grand Bornand
Another day in Paradise and another famous col to tackle. Today we will ride Le Grand Bornand. Le Grand Bornand is a prestigious climb used in the Tour de France 8 times and links Lake Geneva and the Mediterranean. After our ride, we will have time to relax back at the hotel and watch the final “racing” stage of the Tour de France.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Ride Le Grand Bornand
We will ride along the northern side of the lake before turning off to make our way up the Grand Bornand. It is a gentle climb of 10km with no steep gradients to concern us. Once at the top, we will enjoy the 30km descent back to our hotel.
Final Day in the French Alps
It’s our final full day on our cycling holiday in the French Alps. We will ride this morning and relax this afternoon on the shores and catch the final stage of the Tour de France on TV. It is a perfect way to wind down, and recharge before we set off home. This evening we have a final dinner together, at a local restaurant where we can celebrate our journey through the French Alps.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
- Final day in the French Alps
- Farewell Dinner including drinks
We will ride around the lake this morning, and for those wanting another climb on their palmares we will break off from the shoreline and head over Col de la Forclaz, which was raced over earlier this week in the 2023 Tour de France. Otherwise, stay on the shoreline and cruise around the lake taking in the many activities of holidaymakers.
Farewell and Safe Travels
Sadly our cycling holiday comes to an end today. We will travel to Lyon, where our trip started nearly 2 weeks ago. In that time, we have ridden and seen some of the most spectacular parts of the French Alps, and we have followed the 2023 Tour de France, in the right time zone, in local bars, from the relaxation of our hotels, and from the frenetic roadside with spectators.
We will arrive in Lyon just before midday, so if you are making onward travel plans book your flights from Lyon after 2 pm for domestic flights and 3 pm for international. There is a TGV station at the airport (note it is Lyon-Saint Exupery, not Part Dieu station), and you may book for a departure from 1 pm.
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
No Ride Today
Ride Challenging Climbs with the most experienced Tour Operator at Grand Tours
Grand Tours for 27 years
2023 will proudly be our 27th year of organising trips to the Grand tours, making us among the most experienced tour operators at Le Tour.
If you’ve ever stayed up late watching le Tour de France on TV and swooning over the imagery, we’ll help you make your dream come true by bringing you there live and letting you cycle the famous roads yourself!
- 20+ years of experience running Tour de France trips
- Different trips and itineraries to suit your holiday preferences
- Accommodations in 3 & 4 star hotels
- Luxury transportation throughout your holiday
See the race at various stages including the start, finish, epic climbs, and routes in small French villages. Go beyond the typical tourist areas of France and celebrate Le Tour in a friendly French town.
However you want to experience the Tour de France, we have a trip for you.
Book your 2023 Tour de France trip now and be a part of the largest annual sporting event.
Why Book with Bikestyle Tours?
A COVID-Safe plan
- All staff and guests must complete a pre-travel questionnaire prior to the start of the trip
- Bikestyle Tours complies with the COVID requirements of the local authorities (Tourism and Accommodation, Bike Tours); such as controls for social distancing, cleaning and hygiene, vehicle transport
- Check your departure and return requirements for your country of residence
Are Trips Guaranteed Departures?
We make every effort to guarantee departures to give you peace of mind that once you’ve booked your trip – you’re going! We do not cancel trips due to insufficient numbers leaving you stranded.
