Doing a famous TDF climb near TGV line?

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InTheWoods
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Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 2:34 pm
Location: Brisbane

Doing a famous TDF climb near TGV line?

Postby InTheWoods » Thu May 24, 2012 11:02 pm

I'm prob headed OS in sept/oct this year with a bit of time in France. I know I could figure this out myself but figured somebody on here will have already figured it all out.

Are there any of the "big" climbs that are relatively easy to get to via a TGV line (maybe with an extra train after that I guess)? I'll be with the family and my 5yo is obsessed with trains (especially TGV) so it would be nice to kill 2 birds with one stone!

Can you hire bikes there? Kind of dumb question but I figure there must be some demand for it.......?

scirocco
Posts: 412
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2011 7:34 pm

Re: Doing a famous TDF climb near TGV line?

Postby scirocco » Fri May 25, 2012 11:12 pm

Do you think your five-year-old would like an overnight trip on a train? If so you can get from Paris to Luchon in the Pyrenees on a night sleeper train on Friday nights in September and back to Paris on the Sunday night. It's a nice little spa town with plenty of shops and cafes and your missus would probably even forgive you leaving her to go riding. There are a couple of bike shops and you might be able to hire bikes there although it's not as easy as you might expect in France.

The town is five minutes away from the climb up to the ski resort of Superbagneres where both Robert Millar and Greg LeMond have won stages of the TDF. Or you can go west to the Peyresourde, east to the Mente or north to the Port de Bales where Contador got away from Schleck when he dropped his chain in the TDF a couple of years back. There are a couple of bike shops in town you might be able to hire from. I'll be there myself in September.

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