Road cycling holidays in the French Alps

Cycle Hame Blog

  • A Tour de France Alps holiday with Cycle Hame.


    The 2026 Tour de France

    The start of the Tour de France is just weeks away, starting in Barcelona, Spain and makes it’s way to the Alps in the third and final week of the race.

    An interesting feature in the Alps this year will be 2 stages finishing on consecutive days on Alpe d’Huez.

    Stage 19 starts in Gap and ends on the iconic 21 bends of Alpe D’Huez. At 127kms, this is a relatively short and potentially explosive stage. The following day is the Queen stage, and if the battle for the yellow jersey is still close this could be the day that decides the winner. Starting in Bourg d’Oisans the riders will tackle 4 major climbs, the final will see them climb the Col de la Sarenne on the way to the finish at Alpe d’Huez.


    Watch and ride.

    The Cycle Hame TdF Alps 2026 trip will be an 8 day holiday, riding every day and viewing the race on 3 of these days.

    On non race days there will be vehicle and rider support. Rides will either start from the accommodation or we will head to a start point in the support vehicle.

    On stage days we will head to a start point in the vehicle. Obviously the roads are closed to vehicles and will not follow our riders on these days. We arrange a meeting point for the end of the day.


    3 stages of the 2026 TdF

    This year we will be joining the excitement on 3 stages of the Tour.

    Stage 17 Chambery > Voiron – We will head to Chambery for the stage start.

    Stage 19 Gap > Alpe d’Huez – Ride Alpe d’Huez, either watch the stage from the road on the way up or head to the top of the climb to see the stage finish.

    Stage 20 Bourg d’Oisan > Alpe d’Huez – We will ride the Col de la Croix de Fer, the first climb of the day and, just like the day before either watchthe race from the top or from the side of the road on the way up.

    Watch the Tour live. The lead group on the final stage of this years Tour Auvergne Rhone Alpes, a build up event to the Tour de France.


    What does a day look like?

    Most days on a Cycle Hame holiday start with an 8am breakfast, but of course this may change according to the itinerary.

    After breakfast we generally aim to leave the accommodation by 9am but again this is dependant on the program for the day.

    Riders will either head off from the accommodation or we use our support vehicles to get to the start of the ride.

    Many of our days focus around one or more main climbs. Rides normally start with a flatter warm up section that we will ride together to the start of the climb and then individuals continue at their own pace, often regrouping at the top of the climb, at a café lunch stop, or some other designated point. The use of our support riders and vehicles offers flexibility for our guests to adapt the ride to their ability.

    At the end of the day, we return to the accommodation. If we are in our own accommodation afternoon tea is available. This includes tea, coffee, pasta salad, cake, french baguette etc.

    The evening ends with a 2/3 course evening meal(accommodation dependant).

    That is it, a great day riding your bike while we take care of the other stuff.

    Sound interesting?
    To see more details about this trip visit www.cyclehame.co.uk/holidays/tour-de-france-2026

  • The big alpine cols are opening.

    The big alpine cols are opening.

    It is great to see the Summer fast approaching, and with it’s arrival, the high Alpine cols starting to open up. For example the Col d’Izoard, shown above,officially opened last Friday.

    Closer to home, we expect the Cormet de Roselend(1968m) and the Petit St Bernard(2188m) to open over the next couple of days and the Madeleine(1984m) some time next week. The Col de l’Iseran will most likely open early to mid June.

    The teams responsible for clearing the roads will have a big job this season after good snowfalls at the higher altitudes over the Winter. Recent snow on the tops will not be making it any easier. We can expect to see big walls of snow on the sides of the road when the Petit St Bernard opens up.

    In the meantime we can continue to wheeze our way up the lower climbs like the Col de la Tamie which typically stay open all year round.

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