Hello all,

Me and a couple of mates just got back from a point to point 'bikepacking' trip across the Rhone-Alpes and Alpes Maritimes. We strapped a few bits and pieces to our bikes and followed some rather clearly defined signposting from Valence to Nice.

BTW – we were quite amazed at the amount of singletrack the French boys included in the route. Ribbons of lovely undulating traversing stuff, follwed by steamy (by not ugly) descending.

If anyone's interested, I've put a few pics up here (I know we look like retards, but we didn't 'alf have fun 😀 )

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46135675@N00/sets/72157624128129930/show/

and here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elajel/sets/72157624126176598/show/

Lovely landscapes and trails. Lucky people. Thanks for sharing.

Great photo's, any details on the route?

Yes, we followed the route described here:

http://www.grande-traversee-alpes.com/en/my-journey/by-mountain-bike.html

Really easy – the GPS coordinates are on the site; we had maps, and also it's pretty well signposted. But despite what appears to be a mass market mtb route, the riding and scenery's absolutely fantastic – long sections of technical singletrack through unbroken forest.

It's tough too – we didn't get in much before 7pm every day due to long stretches between accommodation, as it gets fairly remote.

Fantastic stuff. which colour route was it? GR5 from geneva to nice is high on my list of things to do.

That looks a fantastic trip, none of my 'mates' will do anything like this 😐 did you get manage to get your bikes on to a French train without being shot then?! I'm doing an organised trip from Germany to Italy across the Alps soon, can't wait!

Where or how did you plan the overnight stays, just hope to find something where you ended up or did you plan it?

check out http://www.trans-provence.com for riding round there. Its my fav place to ride in the world

Freeridenick – we started off with the red one in Valence and then switched to yellow. Got a plan to do the GR5 from Gap to Nice next year. Someone's GPSed an mtb friendly version of the route, so we'll do that, and then hook it into the Transvesubienne race at the end. 🙂

Kojaklollipop – no problems at all with getting bikes on a TGV. You just got to get the wheels off, and put the whole lot in bin bags. There wasn't much in the way of accommodation though – we stayed in gites which were easy to find using the gites-de-France web site. Are you doing the route of the Transalp race? It's absolutely lovely, although rather fire road heavy.

Great pics guys. Good show for 'touring' it

olaf – if you dont mind sharing the GPS coords – i would really appreciate a copy?
cheers
Nick

Just looked again, the purple on starts in Valence and green finishes in Nice??? 😕

Sorry Nick – haven't got access to the site here, so going on memory! 🙂

The GR5 GPS route is online – I'll dig it out shortly. Route looks immense.

Fantastic looking trip, I always love to see reports like this. Cheers.

That looks awesome. Time to get out the GPS and start planning

Beautiful. Just beautiful.
It looks like a perfect two-wheeled adventure.
I may refer back to this for motivation at some point.
Thanks.

no problems at all with getting bikes on a TGV

I'm surprised, travelled from Paris to Lourdes with bikes in cardboard boxes on the TGV about 15 years ago and had no end of trouble and threats and demands for money, put me off taking my bike on the trains in France forever!

Yes, it's part of the Transalp race route, really looking forward to it! 😀 although I can't seem to find much in the way of photos/pictures for that area?

very pretty pics, how many days of riding was this? how many km and how much climbing did you do per day?

i'm interested cause i'm doing a 4-day ride in the central alps every year with my mates, but the alpes maritimes are high on our list. some of the route descriptions i've read sound a bit gnarly however. this year will probably be slovenia anyway..

here are my pics from last year's trip to austria/italy

Lush.
It looks like you've got some fantastic memories to call upon when you feel all hope is lost back in your 9-5.

Tamworthcrowd – Lovely pic. Alpes Maritimes is a bit gnarly, but it just sets the standard. I saw some of those French guys gliding down really horrible looking stuff. But also, the charm's there, 'cos the area's so rural in places.

This was 7 days riding in all. The first three were 100, 90, 90, followed by about 4 days of 70. The signposting's so good, you don't really need to spend much time faffing around looking for some obscure track behind a tree.

Bikes on TGVS and Eurostars – seriously, just get the wheels off. Put the frame in 2 bin bags; wheels in a bin bag each. Done countless trips like this and no-one's complained. They can't – it's not a bike anymore.

I haveent done the tour myself but i regularly taxi Germans from Ventimiglia (near nice on the Italian side) to Briancon.they do a 7 day tour from there… I have alll the gps coordinates etc.. so just have to have a go myself one day…

If you get Greg Germain's book he also has some multi day routes and we also do a 5 day tour taking in the Ligurian and Maritime alps, staying in mountain refuge's… there is literally unlimited riding in this part of France/Italy and is now slowly getting the recognition it deserves..

Well I'm now off to ride from the Italian border down in to Val Roya!! a 1400m alt descent followed by a 1100m climb!!! not looking forward to that bit!!

Ciao

Olaf,

Seriously interested in teh link of the GR5 from Gap to Nice. I have a family holiday home in Gap and the idea of riding from here to Nice gets me rather excited!!!!!

Love the pics and great work, am looking forward to exploring this part of the work more!

Dave

great pics 🙂

olaf_hansen:

Please, please, please get in touch regarding the GPS route for the GR5. The gf and I are going out in 4 weeks and this would be perfect.

steve DOT prest AT virgin DOT net