Route des Grandes Alpes.

I did Cannes-Annecy-Freiburg in a day solo a few years ago, it was late June and all the passes where open. A long day in the saddle of a Fireblade, but I left after breakfast and reached Freiburg before last night. One thing that did slow me down a bit was cars towing caravans; you get a lot on the roads that time of year. Great blast all the same.
So I would say Monaco - Annecy would be a nice leisurely days ride with photo stops.


:beer:
 
Mind and do the Col de la Bonette. Its a cracker.

After going through Bareclonnette turn right at Jausiers which takes you up the pass (Col de la Bonette) but rather than come down the same way carry on over the pass on the D64 which continues as the D2205 as far at Isola where you can turn left on the D97 this runs up to a couple of skiing villages and over another pass leading into Italy where the road becomes SP255 continue on this road to the SS21 and turn left onto the SS21 which takes you back into France where the road becomes the D900 and rejoins the D902 Route des Grandes Alpes. I'm sure you'd enjoy :thumb

Edit; just realised you're heading south :augie

If you're planning on camping I can point you in the direction of a few good campsites too.

Dave
 
3 of us doing the 'Route des Grandes Alpes' 1st June, chunnel via Reims, starting at Evian, ending at Menton, then head home via Route Napoleon ish, took my inspiration from 'Ebbo's' site, 10 days, cant wait.

Hi, 6 of us doing Santander, Pyrennees, Corsica, RDGA, Reims, Calais. Have currently allowed 2 days for Menton to Val d'Isere which seems possible but for sure not very relaxing. Prefer to limit riding to 6-7 hrs/day.

Any advice?
 
Have currently allowed 2 days for Menton to Val d'Isere which seems possible but for sure not very relaxing. Prefer to limit riding to 6-7 hrs/day.

Any advice?

Advice..... Let's see..... Er.... Um.... Yup, got it..... Allowing longer than two days, would seem to be one bit of advice :thumb
 
Hi, 6 of us doing Santander, Pyrennees, Corsica, RDGA, Reims, Calais. Have currently allowed 2 days for Menton to Val d'Isere which seems possible but for sure not very relaxing. Prefer to limit riding to 6-7 hrs/day.

Any advice?

We rode Grenoble to Sospel (10 miles or so north of Menton) in a day. Roughly speaking, that was half the RGA. We did divert up to Alpe d'Huez and also up the Galibier and back. It was a long day without too many breaks for cofee and photos, but entirely doable.

Given the choice again, I think I'd allow three days to do the RGA in full. But Menton to Val d'Isere in two days should be fine.

It is an amazing ride - we had perfect weather in mid July.
 
The scale of the planning sound about right, but it might be sensible to allow some le-way for unexpected situations such as if a pass is closed.
I found out the hard way, the col de l'iseran was closed while heading south to Briancon mean`t a diversion back from Val d'Isere towards Alberville and over col du Madelaine.
 
We rode Grenoble to Sospel (10 miles or so north of Menton) in a day. Roughly speaking, that was half the RGA

We did Menton to Grenoble in a day and it is a long day using RDGA, on the way down we took 2 days to ride RDGA, but stopped for a day half way down to do a nice circular route, so many great passes around that area.

Just blasting the main RDGA top to bottom is not what I would recommend and you could fill a week of good fast riding along the way, passes I would not want to miss...

Bonnette, Iseran, Agnel, Restefond, Galibier, Grand / Petite Saint Bernard, Izoard, Cayolle, Sampeyre, Larche / Maddelena, Lauteret, Valberg, Couillole, Madonna, Saises, Pre, Roseland, Champs, Allos, Lombard - probably a fair few more decent ones
 
Came down the RDGA and up the Route Napoleon this year, took the advice on the RDA website and took 3 days to do it and 2 from Sospel to Annecy stopping at Castellane. This seemed ideal to us, not too long in the saddle and arriving inplenty of time for beer....
 
This thread (and others like it) highlights the difficulty in recommending which way to go and how long anything will take.

In his post Greenman14 says:
Hi, 6 of us doing Santander, Pyrennees, Corsica, RDGA, Reims, Calais.
but then goes on to say:

Have currently allowed 2 days for Menton to Val d'Isere which seems possible but for sure not very relaxing. Prefer to limit riding to 6-7 hrs/day. Any advice?

The obvious answer is, then take longer if that is what you want to do. For instance, take three days not two, if that enables someone (unknown) to hit a 6-7 hours a day target. But that might not work if Greenman14 and his five chums has to be back in Calais on a certain day, meaning that he and they will have to make up the 'extra day' somewhere else. If they can, fine. If they can't then they'll have to take a view. There are six of them on what seems to be a reasonably long jaunt (maybe some time next year, we don't know) so we can assume that they will be able to work it out between them, as it's half the fun.

Similarly, 'riding for six to seven hours a day' is all but meaningless. Why?

(1) Is that moving forwards for 6 or seven hours, to which stoppage time is to be added? If so, and assuming two fuel stops (15 minutes each) a coffee and tea stop (30 minutes each) and lunch (one hour) that adds two and a half hours when you are not moving forward at all, bringing the day's total 'riding time' door-to-door to between eight and nine-and-a-half hours.

Add in perhaps two or three photograph and / or wild flower pressing stops of 15 minutes each and another 30 to 45 minutes are gone. If someone averages between 35 and 45 miles an hour they will have lost a combined total of about three-and-a-quarter hours, which is about 130 miles.

(2) What time does an intrepid traveller intend to start and stop the day?

I know bods who are happy to get cracking at 08:00 and keep going.

I know others - which emphasises point (1) - who struggle much before ten, want to stop at 11:15, stop again again for a two hour lunch at 12:30 and be in their hotel by 16:30. That is 'six and a half hours riding' on their clock. Not surprisingly the latter bunch do not get that far but they are very happy, which is fine.

(3) You get characters like Rasher who want to take longer but only because they want to ride every col and pass in a 50 mile radius of where they stand at any one moment, take pictures and create very good trip reports. On the same bit of road as Rasher you'll find other fellows who just want to go from A to B to C, riding the roads as fast as only they can, not stopping other than for a swift sandwich and fuel. And you'll find a whole bunch of riders somewhere in between and some more at the outer extremes of either end of the spectrum. In short, they will all tell you something different. They will all be right and / or all equally wrong.

So, Greenman14, work out what you and your companions want to do, based on your preferred riding model and not least your overall timetable. Then come back and tell us.
 
bods who are happy to get cracking at 08:00 and keep going.
That`ll be me :blush :blush
Getting boxed in the garage by a car until 9am at Beze frustrated me no end.
Somehow I`ve never mastered the sensible concept of stopping when I should, between the mornings departure point, and the evenings arrival point. I s`pose I never will :nenau
Oh, it has got me into some interesting situations, especially when I push on past the most sensible fuel stop & seek the next one only to find the fuel light come on before I get there :augie
 
Getting boxed in the garage by a car until 9am at Beze frustrated me no end.

Then you should plan ahead and not park in the garage :blast. Leave the bike on the forecourt.... nobody will steal it in sleepy old Beze. That's for sure :D:D

:beerjug:


PS Or you can take the rufty-tufty UKGSer approach, lifting the car out of the way, torching it (and the hotel) for good measure. That'll teach 'em.
 
You get characters like Rasher who want to take longer but only because they want to ride every col and pass in a 50 mile radius of where they stand at any one moment, take pictures and create very good trip reports. On the same bit of road as Rasher you'll find other fellows who just want to go from A to B to C, riding the roads as fast as only they can, not stopping other than for a swift sandwich and fuel. And you'll find a whole bunch of riders somewhere in between and some more at the outer extremes of either end of the spectrum. In short, they will all tell you something different. They will all be right and / or all equally wrong

I have had the joy of being on my own (well Mrs on the back) or with a close mate who is happy to tag along for the trip and do whatever I have planned on most my big trips.

Get a few bikes together and it can get very different, I have been out with guys who take 15 minutes to put their lid and gloves on, a quick fuel stop (lids on / fill / go)

First to fill pays and decides to have a fag, another mate reckons if matey's having a fag he can grab some grub, and promptly queues up for hot food to return as matey has finished said fag, at this point another chap goes off for a cofee, eventually food / drink has been consumed and "Flash Lightening" having watched all this unfold takes his 15 minutes to go through some racer-esque routine to get his lid / gloves on and be in a position to move on.

So about 55 minutes later we have completed our flying pit stop :blast

Me and Mrs with normal riding companions can manage an average of 1 hour riding to 15 minutes still over a days mountain riding, plus an extra 30 minutes for lunch (8 hours moving equates to a 10.5 hour day or 9:00am to 5:30pm) but this is minimal flower pressing with most photo's being taken by the Mrs as we move along, or I will stop for about 5 seconds for her to take a picture and move on. You could quite easily spend as much time stopped as riding on routes like the RDGA if you want to enjoy the fantastic views, take loads of pictures and stop for coffee at every mountain top refuge.

We can do a bit better on main roads / long transit days with about 1.5 hours riding to every 15 minutes stopped (plus extra 30 min for lunch)

I also like to stop for 2-3 nights at some spots to just have riding days with no packing / unpacking, just get up, hop on bike and loop around half a dozen passes :D
 


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