I’m currently planning a mtb touring/bikepacking trip to the french alps this summer, I’ve got a flight booked to Geneva end of June and a week to kill before meeting my family somewhere in the mid French alps. I had planned to follow the GR5 walking route as faithfully as possible, aiming to get as south as possible, but the more I look at it the more I think it would be more fun using the GR5 route as a base for a tour of the best french bike parks (blue trails as riding a rigid monstercross) and natural singletrack.

I’m planning this on as low budget as possible so will be bivying/camping and will likely ride up to avoid paying for lifts, or try to enter the resorts from the top side so I can drop down to the town via the marked trails.

So far I’ve spotted a few bike parks on/near my route;

Chatel – currently off the route, is it worth the detour?
Morzine – already on route, will come in from east side, is the west side worth the ride up?
Chamonix – Reasonably easy to include, but adds about 20km of road
Les Arcs – on route already, but no obvious marked stuff other than on strava heatmap.
Tignes – on route already, I see there is a free mtb lift pass, is it easy to get hold of as I might spend a day around here?
Val-D’Isere – Ditto Tignes.

This is the rough planned route, along with the bike parks that I know of. If you can think of any section of trail near the route that you think are worth detouring for, then let me know!

Edit: Also are there any cheap and good eateries that shouldn’t be missed on route/in the resorts?

Great plan, we did something similar in 2012 and it was the best ride I’ve ever done. We didn’t pre-plan much, just a basic route of the GR5 and some info on the diversions for the national parks where bikes aren’t allowed. So many Piste de VTT along the way that we tended to use the GR5 as the base line and just followed anything that looked good and was heading in the right general direction.
There’s a good thread here – http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/with-pics-the-best-adventure-best-ride-ever-gr5-transalp
this was what clinched our trip after having the guidebook for a while as an idea for a ride.
Any q’s let me know. I have all the diversions info from ChrisE still if needed, but no actual route file as we used maps. There’s a couple of trails that I’d say are must-do’s along the route (Col Fromage, Crette Gites, some other VTT pistes we found) but may also be better to not have a really rigid plan and see what comes of it.
Some pics here https://www.flickr.com/photos/67338272@N05/sets/72157631189677422
The best stuff was between Col Anterne-Chamonix area and Sospel, particularly either side of Briancon. The tarmac climb over the Bonnette seems a bit of a skive for an MTB trip but it’s an amzing road.

Those photos look like exactly what I’m looking for! ChrisE has already given me the stuff he used and I’ll be definitely be using his maps for inspiration.

Out of interest how many days did the route take you? I’m limited to 7 days, 8 at a push and ideally want to be ending up somewhere between Briancon and Barcelonnette, so I guess getting to Nice and back up north would be unrealistic in that time.(while still enjoying it)

EDIT: just read the blurb on the album, 12 days, so I guess aiming for Briancon/Barcelonnette in 7 days would be perfect!

12 days inc a half day at each end, so 10 for the main route, riding roughly 8am – 7pm each day at faffing about / exploring pace. A week from Geneva to Barcelonette would be good. The bulk of the GR5 for 2 days out of Geneva is slow-going on a bike so I’d head towards Morzine on quicker trails next time.

Les Arcs – there’s an extensive network of marked trails, although a lot of the best singletrack is unmarked.

Sainte Foy – not on your list, but between Bourg and Val / Tignes and has some great singletrack. They’re going to be running a chairlift this summer which would give you a minor altitude boost along the way and help give you a nice off-road route between Sainte Foy and Tignes instead of dragging up the road – email if you want some details.

Tignes/Val – more bike-park than singletrack riding, but fun for a short visit. The free pass is very easy to get hold of, you just go to the tourist office / lift-pass office.

Jameso – I had been thinking about cutting the corner off to Morzineand if the first bit of GR5 is slow going I think I’ll cut that bit out, so can hopefully do a bit more of the southern stuff.

Stevomcd- I had gathered that re Les Arcs – a lot of the stuff on strava heatmap didn’t appear to be on any maps. As for Sainte Foy, the lifts don’t open until 7th July and I predict I’ll be going through there 2-3rd July. Nice to hear that about the Tignes lift pass, I will definitely use it, even if it is just to gain a bit of height!

Little bit of a bump for the weekday crowd 😉

You should visit Chamonix, its fantastic, proper mountains, glaciers ‘n stuff. Lots going on in summer. There is a bike ban on certain trails which kicks in at start of July but either way there is more than enough riding for a day.

Morzine/Chatel are much of a muchness. Some good off-piste riding to be had away from the marked bike-park trails. Personally I would not ride up if there was a lift running.

Les Arcs – search on here there was a recent thread with links to a trail map and a French website with numerous trails (mostly on paths). FYI @stevo runs White Room Chalet

EDIT: This post for the website and a couple further down for the map post link

Sounds great.

Whatever you do, don’t ignore the fact that the main road between Grenoble and Briancon is currently closed near La Grave. No idea what they are going to do for La Marmotte….

Might be a bit off topic, but might serve as a useful piece of information for some.

Sounds great.

Whatever you do, don’t ignore the fact that the main road between Grenoble and Briancon is currently closed near La Grave. No idea what they are going to do for La Marmotte….

Might be a bit off topic, but might serve as a useful piece of information for some.

I went to Tignes last year and booked into Camping De Tignes as it’s the only campsite in the area- but found out upon arrival that it’s about 500m below tignes and 4km away, There is a free bus, but not till about 10am and no bus back down in the evening if you want to go out in the town for a meal. (The road is bloody scary at 11pm with no lights when slightly drunk carrying shopping on you bars…)

Also the free lifts are great (don’t forget/loose the pass as they are quite strict on it even though it’s free) but found that after a couple of days we had ridden most of the marked stuff we were capable of (blues and reds), but there was quite a lot of nice unmarked stuff.

For food most places are really expensive, but Jam Bar is worth a visit!

I can’t afford to go this year but looking at going again next year, hopefully do it properly and go to the White Room Chalet as they really seem to know the good stuff!

OK, hadn’t realised you’d pass through before the lift opens.

I’d still go via Sainte Foy. Use the Les Arcs lifts to go up and ride good trails down to Villaroger. Cross over to La Thuile, then climb on tarmac up to Sainte Foy resort. Climb above the resort and go via Le Monal village (stunning, lots of options for getting here depending on motivation…) then carry on to Tignes les Brevieres off-road and take the bike-bus up to Tignes. Anything from ~500m to ~1000m of climbing, depending how much climbing/singletrack descending you want to do.

Unless you prefer a huge slog up the valley on tarmac to do Bourg Saint Maurice – Tignes!

Yeah it seems a lot of stuff isn’t open till the weekend after I’ll be there (4th July for Les Arcs, 5th July for Sainte Foy), but I’m tied to that week (Geneva on the 29th June – so 1st-2nd July around There) as I have to fit it in around the family!

I was planning on going up from the Nancroix side and up over the Col de la Chal then down to Villaroger and up the road to Tignes – looking on the map what you’ve said all seems to make sense and looks a lot nicer with only marginally more climbing (in the grand scheme of things) but a lot more off road! If there is a bike bus from Brevieres to Tignes that’s an added bonus!

Les Arcs is partly open from the 27th June. Peisey Vallandry lifts open all week (lobster pots + Vallandry chair) and Funicular + Cachette open at the weekends.

Email me if you want a route map suggestion for Villaroger – Sainte Foy – Le Monal – Tignes.

YGM 🙂

bookmarked

With my uni exams now over I decided to do a bit of a kit test in the Peak District. Loaded up the overall bike handling was surprisingly good, as long as not going too fast on the rough stuff (the Jacobs ladder bridleway in particular), but will definitely need lower gearing for the alps. The tarp was a bit flappy/loose in the wind, but it was gusting at 35mph+ and I hadn’t pitched it very well, but it did keep me dry.

Homemade bike looks awesome and kudos for getting out on the hills and biving in the recent winds.

To me you look to be over prepared, less is def. more

To me you look to be over prepared, less is def. more

For a one night trip to the peaks I can’t agree more, but this was testing out all the kit that I’m planning to taking this summer, so had one change of cycling clothes (7 day trip 😉 ) plus a set of off bike/evening clothes (I don’t like riding in baggies), plus I loaded up the worst case scenario for food/water/fuel to see how I was for space. I also don’t own particularly light/compact kit which makes it harder to pack small.