Morning, looking at doing a long-distance Trans-Alp trip this summer. Can you suggest a company that offers trips for alpine beginners, or by its very nature are all trans-alps rides for the experienced only? ta

Not sure about companies doing trips, but can help in terms of the type of riding as last year I did a 4 day trip from Geneva to Chamonix and this year I’m planning on doing a 18 day trip from Geneva to Nice roughly following GR5/TMB. We do carry all our own kit though (8-10kg each, including camping gear but not food) which does make a difference.

The riding can be pretty tough, but unless you are targeting long distance in a short time you shouldn’t have too many issues as it’s normally only short sections which are unrideable so can be walked. For reference we’ll be targeting about 1200-1500m climbing a day (30-50km a day), from looking at the route I know a decent amount of hike a bike can be expected, especially in the northern french alps, but these targets allow for this.

are all trans-alps rides for the experienced only?

In terms of riding ability they don’t need to be at all, there’s a lot of open jeep tracks, wide footpaths and easier trails.

http://www.go-alps.com/mountainbike-transalp

Plenty of GPS files online if you wanted to plan your own route. In general if you can see the track from a reasonable zoom-out when looking at the route in satellite view or the route shows a white line like a minor road it’ll be straight-forward riding. It’s mainly the small paths higher up in the mountains that get tricky.

Hi Simon

Drop me an email (in profile) if you want . I have done a fair few and have maps, routes, etc if they help. If you can get two of you then I’d recommend doing it without a commercial company. Being alone in the mountains is what I find best, working stuff out for yourself

C