Cycling the Alps
Cycling the Alps
Alastair McNeill
Cycling the Alps takes us from Geneva to Nice, along La Routes Des Grandes Alpes
Fuelled by my love of most things French and Alpine, and having watched this years Tour De France peloton race up the iconic Col De Lautaret and Col D’Izoard during stage 14, I decided it was time to get out to the Alps to experience the pleasure and pain for myself.
La Routes Des Grandes Alpes was built between 1909 and 1937 by the French Touring Club at a time when the Alps were still relatively inaccessible. It was intended to facilitate ease of movement for local people, as well as to open the mountains up to the growing tourism industry. It also made it possible to drive South from Thonon Les Bains right across the Alps and down into Nice on the Cote D’Azur.
Long established as a spectacular drive, La Routes Des Grandes Alpes offers cyclists the opportunity to ride some of the Alps’ most iconic Cols, as well as a few lesser known but no less incredible passes… Read More >
[rps-include blog=127.0.0.1 post=30120]
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[…] some of the Tour de France’s more arduous and gruelling climbs, riding from Geneva to Cannes (see Alastair’s piece on Les Routes des Grandes Alpes to get the idea) and donating all proceeds to Hammersmith Hospital. The first time I ever heard tell of the […]