got my confirmation whos coming?

Not confirmed yet, but I am 90% going.

I'm going …booked through flow mtb early Jan. Will drive over and fly back as a few of the guys are heading to Switzerland for the 2nd week…I only have a week pass from the missus 🙂

3 times is enough pain for me, have fun.

0pt1cal: does that mean you are gunning for a front row on the qualis?

Im in.

I found this a little while ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M24IcXMM3I8
It invades my dreams.

I'll be there. Fourth year in a row. Spending a week in morzine after. Sweet.

Yup. Group of us going for the first time with a week in Les Deux Alpes afterward too.:)

Not this year – would love to though.

If you're going with flow…good luck… we went last year and everyone in the chalet came to the agreement the week was absolutely fantastic – but that flow could not be credited with any of that. You may think the following is petty but when you're paying £700 each (not incl flights or the mega entry) for the half-board service your expectations are still pretty high. This was our experience:
They didn't give us any guiding or even advice on other routes, despite the fact they were riding with their mule bar buddies (they seemed to think we were there just to ride the mega route for a week…erm, no…there is a very large mountain to explore; and its not as if we weren't capable of finding routes ourselves but as any of you who've had a guiding service, it makes it a whole lot more of a satisfying holiday). They did give us this speil about having to be qualified to guide in france even though they guide in Morzine where their permanent chalet is;
– didn't give us any help with a ticket situation we had (despite the fact they were fluent in french and the french were being, well, french) cos they were too busy riding with their buddies;
– didn't give us any tips on riding the course despite the fact they've ridden every year;
– their welcome thing was crap and the guy (I think his name was guy) arrived late when we all needed to be at registration;
– there was no workshop or tools despite the fact we were told there would be (and hence didn't take anything apart from a multitool and ended up having to get charged to use one of the shops tools).

The bottom line seemed to be: you're paying flow £700 for a week at the mega but you're actually not get any of even the most basic service you'd get for half the price at any other bike holiday company in the alpes. All you're gonna get is an over-priced chalet and that's it. Sort yourselves out. See ya!

Rant over. Still p*ssed with them about that.

Sarah @ Flow posts on here and it would be good to hear from her on changes that will be made this year.

I must say, I went to Morzine with Flow MTB and I thought they were great.

Did you ask for their help?

In my experience they couldn't help enough.

Hi Monsta,

I'm not sure who you are, or which chalet you stayed at last year, so have no idea if you voiced your concerns and disappointments to us either at the mega or by email or phone since. We're sorry you felt that you didn't have a good enough week with us – let me answer each of your points here:

They didn't give us any guiding or even advice on other routes, despite the fact they were riding with their mule bar buddies

We can not guide, and did not advertise any guiding with this holiday. We could have arranged a qualified guide to show you the mountain for an additional cost. We offered advice and were on hand to be asked for advice. We are, however, allowed to ride with our friends.

They did give us this speil about having to be qualified to guide in france even though they guide in Morzine where their permanent chalet is;

The 'speil' is the French Law. We'd guide you if we could, but don't fancy getting arrested in the process. We do NOT guide anyone in Morzine, I don't know where you got that information from. Any company in the French alps that guides you without the proper qualifications is breaking the law. It annoys us as much as anyone that we can't do it.

didn't give us any help with a ticket situation we had (despite the fact they were fluent in french and the french were being, well, french) cos they were too busy riding with their buddies;

I don't recall any 'ticket situation' – but I am sure that we would have helped if asked. We were riding, that's why we're in this business – it's certainly not for the money – but I've never knowingly not helped a guest because I was 'too busy riding'.

didn't give us any tips on riding the course despite the fact they've ridden every year;

Simply not true. I recall speaking to both chalet groups about the course during the week. In fact, as you might imagine, it's a the main topic of most of the conversations we have with our guests that week!

their welcome thing was crap and the guy (I think his name was guy) arrived late when we all needed to be at registration;

Yes my name is Guy. I'm not sure what's crap about our welcome pack, most guests find it useful, if you could give some more constructive criticism, we could make it better for this year, but saying it's crap helps no one.

I arrived in resort at about 4pm – one hour later than we originally said you could get into the chalets – I apologised about that, but it shouldn't have stopped you or anyone else registering – you can do that all throughout the week.

there was no workshop or tools despite the fact we were told there would be (and hence didn't take anything apart from a multitool and ended up having to get charged to use one of the shops tools).

We had pretty much all the tools you needed, they were probably at our second chalet – I'm guessing you were in the bigger more central one? You could have asked at any time to borrow them at any time for zero cost.

The bottom line seemed to be: you're paying flow £700 for a week at the mega but you're actually not get any of even the most basic service you'd get for half the price at any other bike holiday company in the alpes. All you're gonna get is an over-priced chalet and that's it. Sort yourselves out. See ya!

The price is steep, I agree, but that reflects the costs of running a trip that lasts a week in Alpe d'Huez. We had just about THE best chalet in the whole resort, a great chef cooking for you morning and night. If you have that for just one week, then the costs are massively higher than running a chalet for the whole summer (hence our Morzine trips are much less money). I believe that we were on hand for any route advice, bike advice and would have done our upmost to help any of our guests out all week long.

Changes for this year are twofold:

Our guests are staying in one of two centrally located hotels (rather than chalets).

The price is a lot cheaper (from €440 / week) This is down to economies of scale (more people = less costs for everyone) and that the food and standard of accommodation is lower: We felt that there were more people after a cheaper place to stay with the trade off being that they won't be in a super luxury chalet, and will be provided with more basic meals – think Lasagna rather than Lamb Shank.

And Monsta, whoever you are, I am truly sorry that your holiday didn't live up to your expectations. I don't think we've ever had a complaint like this in the 4 years we've been running. And if you did contact us after the trip then Sara would have got the mail, but she's not around right now for me to verify. I don't recall any complains like this being voiced during the week when we could have rectified any shortcomings on our behalf.

Just realised who you are Monsta – you did stay in our second chalet – and if I remember correctly, you and your partner kept yourselves to yourselves all week – hence missing out on our frequent visits to check up on everyone, share a beer, say hi, discuss the course, discuss the routes you could ride etc etc.

And by way of balance – here's something another guest, staying at the same chalet with you last year, emailed us to say:

just wanted to say that it was a fantastic week. Incredible riding, chalet was top, food top – will go down as one of my best riding trips ever.

Guy

My friend Joanne stayed with Flow two years ago in Aloe D'Huez and had nothing but praise…