Polo Tour De France Road Ride - Avignon-Bourg d'Oisans 2013/07/13-20

Sorry to butt into your conversation.... But have you considered staying in one central location instead of doing a tour?

I went out with four others in late July last year, we stayed in a chalet at a campsite in Bourg d'Orsains for 7 days, and just went out and bagged different local Cols each day (a lot of the well known climbs from the tour are doable in a day from Bourg)
I think it was a great way of doing it. Being able to go out each day with just a spare tube and some tools was a joy. And also not having to worry about food was also great, we just had a massive BBQ every night. If your plan your routes well, you can easily do two Cols a day.

And don't let fitness put you off... as long as you're not massivley unfit you will be fine. I put in a fair bit of training in the few months before hand, but thats because I wanted to put in some solid times on the major climbs (and more importantly, beat Dov). There were 10 year old kids riding shit full susspension MTB's up some of the climbs with smiles on their faces, so I'm sure a load half way fit poloistas like yourselves will be fine. At the end of the day, as long as you keep pedalling, you'll get there eventually!

Gearing wise, I found a compact chainset (52/34) with a 12-26 cassette fine... i had a 12 - 27 cassette too, which I put on the second day we were there, but saved the 27 for a bailout gear most of the time, as it was just too spinny to get out of the saddle. I'm sure this will be totally different if your are riding fully laden tourers though....

Transport wise, we had bikes in bags, and got the Eurostar to Paris, then the TGV to Grenoble. It was fairly easy. Tickets are available three months in adavnce.
I think the whole trip with transport & accomodation set us back around £300-£350 each for an 8 day trip, with 6 days of riding.

I highly reccomend it, like Bill says, the Alps are the most beautiful place I have ever ridden without a doubt. The roads are amazing, and the scenery breathtaking. The locals are super friendly too. It was one of the best holidays I've had in the last few years for sure!

Hit up AndyP for advice.... he has a wealth of knowledge about riding in the high mountains, and is of course a top class fella.

Anyway... hope this helps. And sorry again for butting in on your conversation.

I have already done a few trips like this before, and am more interested in getting to Ventoux & the Alp in the same week, so not really interested, not this year at least.