Places to take a cycling holiday in Europe
During the Covid pandemic, sales of bikes have risen exponentially, with more and more people seeking the freedom and adventure that cycling brings. Riding our bikes takes us back to days of childhood, gives us the opportunity to explore new challenges and new places. And, if you’re looking for real adventure in spectacular surroundings in the future, then there’s only 1 Trans Alp race.
Yesterday’s journey to my first crack at a UCI Marathon Series started about fifteen years ago, after seeing Miguel Martinez solo to a marathon win on Eurosport, having ditched his punctured back tyre and ‘rimming it’ from about 5km out. I’d been an armchair fan of Cape Epic and loved the footage of the dust covered athletes racing MTB’s in dramatic landscapes. I’m in my fifties. I still want to be that man. Tragic I know.
This is an unbelievably beautiful ride through rolling meadows, taking in steep climbs and fast descents on tree lined roads. History is around every corner, with abbeys and castles and country houses. Helmsley serves superb cake and coffee too, and is an ideal holiday base.
Over the last thirty five years of cycle racing, I’ve often considered my peers and their contentment at riding the same disciplines, indeed the same races, year in year out. Each to their own and all that, but it’s not for me. It’s probably a Myers-Briggs personality thing. Firstly, I like new experiences; secondly, as a very average amateur athlete, I have never really found a discipline that has offered fame and fortune. Riding the same races over and over again holds little appeal.
Sitting at an altitude of 1968m the Cormet de Roselend connects Beaufort(744m) in the Beaufortain valley in the west and Bourg-Saint-Maurice(840m) in the Tarentaise Valley to the east. The climb has a rich TDF history. It was first featured in the 1979 Tour de France and ten times since. In 2019 the climb was cut from the tour as a mudslide rendered the climb impassable. It returns in 2020 for stage 18 and just happens to follow our preferred route over the Cormet!
One of the classics of the alps and steeped in history, it is believed the Carthaginian general Hannibal used this very route. The road connects Bourg st Maurice on the edge of the Isere in France with the Aosta Valley in Italy via the french resorts of La rosiere and La thuile on the Italian side.
It is possible to find country lane road cycling routes in Sussex and London. The classic Ditchling Beacon road cycling climb is an example, cycling from Balcombe to Brighton.
The Colle dell’Agnello links Italy and France, and at 2,744 m (9,003 ft), it is the third highest paved road pass of the Alps. This route takes in a hard ascent, with a break in the mountains before the return. Maybe consider an overnight 😉
There are places in the world that are not only still relatively undiscovered, but that also have road cycling climbs that rank alongside any cycling climbs in the world – welcome to Romania cycling, or to be precise – it’s time to be transfixed by Transylvania!
Crossing between France and Italy, Col de la Lombarde (or Colle della Lombarda) is a high mountain pass cycle route, above the French ski resort Isola, and above the Italian mountain resort of Vinadio, famous for its historic Forte.
