TOUR DE FRANCE 2019

After ignoring the Tarentaise for what seemed like absolutely ages, the Tour de France returns this coming summer for the second year in a row.  This time it will be right at the end of the race, and it could be Tarentaise tarmac that determines who wins.

Following on from Geraint Thomas' victory in La Rosiere, the Tour will be visiting Tignes for a stage finish on 26th July, having first claimed the 2,700m Col de l''Iseran (from the Maurienne side).  The tour last visited Tignes in 2007 when the stage was won by the soon-to-be-disgraced Michael Rasmussen - more here.

And then the next day - the last one before Paris - the Tour will start at Albertville, pass through the pastoral delight that is the Beaufortain and then drop into Bourg St Maurice en route to the long drawn out final climb to the summit finish at Tignes.

In Bourg the best place to watch may be by the roundabout at foot of the Cormet de Roselend.

Full route details here.

PARADISE POSTPONED: No Tour in the Tarentaise (again)

There are loads of good things about the 2016 Tour de France route:

• The opening days in La Manche will be beautiful - weather permitting
• The stage finish at the obscure Massif Central ski resort that is Le Lioran
• A more imaginative few days in the Pyrenees.  No Plateau de Beille. Hurrah!
• Mont Ventoux, itself an unlikely ski resort
• The excursion into Switzerland
• The three-week caravan follows a nice arc, Normandy to the Alps, with no long transfers (until the final day)

The only sad point is that (yet again) there is no racing in the Tarentaise.  Unless you count the stage start in Albertville.  Bourg St Maurice, Les Arcs, La Rosiere and Tignes can all claim some Tour heritage.  But it's been some time since the race went beyond Moutiers.  At least we haven't lost out to our friends in the Maurienne, which has been the usual scenario in recent years.  Roll on, 2017.....

The Miguel Indurain era ended
on the road to Les Arcs, 1986

SUMMERTIME NEWS

There is new snow up high, but it's the wrong type of snow.  In any case, all the resorts bar Tignes and Val Thorens are now closed.

The Montalbert telecabine is officially under construction.

@WeLove2Ski has published a warts and all guide to La Plagne.  "La Plagne's statistics make it feel like the best resort on earth....However it isn't the best resort - even in France."  It points out the slightly unusual terrain - flat around the main bowl and steep both up top and down below: "by turns it's bland and bloody terrifying".

Les Arcs' website now has its summer skin, with the resort open from 4 July - 29 August. This will see the reopening of the outdoor pool to complement the fancy new indoor pool/spa set-up.

There will also be weekend openings of the funiculaire and Cachette lift during the final two weekends of June.

The summer music festival runs from 19th July-2nd August - bringing with it lots of keen music students and free concerts.

The Tour de France continues to cold shoulder the Tarentaise, but at least the Cyclocoeur cyclo-sportive events, now in their 12th year, continue to flourish.  This year's events are on 7-9 August.

Meanwhile, over at Peisey Vallandry, home to some of the best walks in the area, there is a new website, including a summer photo competition...

Wainwright in the Alps: a walk from
Nancroix valley to the Lac de la Plagne

NO TOUR FOR THE TARENTAISE: #TdF2015

The Tour de France route for 2015 has been announced.

This blog is in an official strop, due to the continued absence of the Tarentaise.

No offence to our neighbours in the Maurienne valley, but the repeated presence of St-Jean-de-Maurienne and La Toussuire, is getting boring.

In 2010 we had St-Jean-de-Maurienne as a stage finish.  Modane was a start town in 2011.  Then we had St-Jean-de-Maurienne and La Toussuire in 2012.  And now we have St-Jean-de-Maurienne (twice), La Toussuire (again) and Modane (again).

In recent years, the Tarentaise has been restricted to the Col de la Madeleine and having Albertville as a ville départ.  Now, we know the Tour is all about business, but....

We love the Maurienne valley dearly, but we do feel it's time for a return to the cycling capital that is the Haute Tarentaise.  A stage finish on the Col de l'Iseran is mooted, so we look forward to seeing that on the 2016 parcours.

Rather than carry on moaning on about the 2015 route, therefore, we mark the announcement by publishing our favourite Tour de France maps:

The 1996 Tour was hampered by snow
in the Alpes, and notable for Miguel Indurain
running out of steam on the road to Les Arcs

The 2009 Tour saw Lance Armstrong struggle
over the border crossing between La Thuile and La Rosiere.
The riders then stayed in Les Arcs

For more on Le Tour in La Tarentaise, including epic visits to Les Arcs, La Rosiere, La Plagne, Tignes and Val d'Isere, click here.

GIRO D'ITALIA 2015: In Liguria

Next year's Giro d'Italia's Grande Partenza will centre on a very special part of Italy: Liguria.

A bit like the Tour de France's Grand Départ from Britain, the three days have just about everything:

It all starts with a team time trial between San Lorenzo al Mare and the cycling mecca of San Remo.

Things then move on to a circuit finish in Genoa, taking in some of the Milan-San Remo route along the way.

And finally there is the ever-photogenic Cinque Terre, with some steep climbs along the way before finishing in the un-showy port that is La Spezia.

Here is Cycling Weekly's write-up.  According to Cycling News, the cost of bringing the race to Liguria will be around €1m, compared with the €6m price tag attached to this year's launch in Northern Ireland.

Completely oblivious to all this excitement, I cycled the route of the opening time trial in July.  It will follow the dedicated pista ciclabile recently created along the former coastal railway line.  The path is used by all sorts - walkers, runners, slow folk on "shopper" bikes (aka me), as well as serious road cyclists.

And it is absolutely beautiful:

Early morning above San Lorenzo al Mare

Km 0: San Lorenzo al Mare

Just outside San Lorenzo, appoaching a 1.5km tunnel

Riva Ligure

The beach at Bussana, just before San Remo

MONT VENTOUX: Le Ski

It may be seem unlikely as we watch the Tour huff and puff its way up the mountain in scorching temperatures, but there is skiing in them there hills.

On the south side (the route the riders are taking this year), look out for Chalet Reynard, 6km from the summit, at 1,435m.  A lift pass at its small ski area costs 12€ during the season.  It's open on Wednesdays and at weekends:









As may be expected, there is more skiing on the north side, at Mont Serein.  It's still tiny, by Alpine standards, with 12km of downhill pistes, and 7km of ski de fond:

BIENVENUE DANS LE YORKSHIRE

This time next year will see the Grand Depart from another fiercely independent-minded part of the world: Yorkshire.

Stage 1 sees the Tour take in the Dales, en route from Leeds to Harrogate.  Stage 2 is York-Sheffield, which will be a "mini Liege-Bastogne-Liege" including a fearsome looking climb up Jenkin Road, just before the finish.





Stage 3 sees the tour leave Cambridge for the capital.  Boris will be no doubt be seen beaming as the peloton passes the Olympic site and then all the central London landmarks.

LES ARCS AND THE SMALL SCREEN: 10 Videos

Here, in no particular order, are ten videos all about Les Arcs and its environs.

1.  The Beginning of the End for Miguel Indurain

Tour de France, 1996.  "Big Mig" has a jour sans on the road to Les Arcs.  Chris Boardman finds it a tad tricky too.  More here..

2.  Top Gear aux Arcs

Watch Hammond et al descend from Arc 1950 to Villaroger.  By car.  Racing against the locals.  On skis.

3.  Skiing Today

Courtesy of my daughter.

4.  Ski Joering:

Les Arcs seems to be one of the few places to practice this, er, unique activity.

5.  Tour de France 2009

Sadly, they stopped in Bourg St Maurice rather than making the climb up to Les Arcs.  And the winner of the stage was later tested positive.  More here.

6.  The 7e BCA

The Chasseurs Alpins have now left Bourg St Maurice - a big event, and one which will take some adapting to on a whole range of levels.

7.  Mountain Biking on the Cachette

The red run above 1600 morphs into a notable VTT descente in summmer:

8.  Panorama

This starts rather higher up, and gives a wonderful overview of Les Arcs' terrain during the summer.

9.  Welcome to Paradise

It's hard to love the official Paradiski branding but hey ho:

                          

10.  The "LA Session"

I think the days of these February meetings have now gone, but they were quite something...

LE TOUR A TIGNES

Tignes isn't really steeped in Tour history.  It's only been there once in fact, but the 2007 tour did stay on for a rest day when it did come to town.  The stage was won by the dastardly Rasmussen, who was later removed from the Tour by his Rabobank team - Wikipedia summary, including the Tour in London, can be found here.

Here's the Stage from another angle - a nice behind-the-scenes video, including the ridiculous-ness that is the publicity caravan, about 3 minutes in.

Tignes is a frequent base for altitude training of French sports teams.  Stade Francais are regular visitors, for example.  However the most notable recent guests were perhaps the French football team, who spent some "quality time" together in May 2010, before their disastrous South African adventure.  Look out for Franck Ribery, who looks particularly reluctant as the happy campers take to the chairlift with their snowshoeing kit in tow.

More on the skiing in Tignes here.

LE TOUR A VAL D'ISERE

Given its fame, it's perhaps surprising that the Manchester United of skiing has only hosted two Tour arrivals, in 1963 (below) and in 1996, the day after Indurain's nightmare on the way to Les Arcs.

Here's some (silent) video of the 1963 stage, including the Col de l'Iseran at 5'40".  The stage was won by Spaniard Fernando Mazaneque.

1996 saw a relatively unusual mountain time trial stage, on what is (by Alpine standards) the pretty dull road between Bourg St Maurice and Val d'Isere.

The next day brought snow, which meant the planned epic stage over the Iseran and Galibier to Sestriere had to be shortened.  Riis won and went on to win the Tour - overview here.   Details of Riis's later confession to having taken drugs here.

Val d'Isere has also been a ville départ, in 1963 (to Chamonix) and in 2007 (to Briancon).

LE TOUR ET LA PLAGNE

The famous La Plagne logo. More on the history of the resort (and the evolution of the logo) here.

La Plagne has a more illustrious Tour de France history than Les Arcs.  It's been a stage finish four times, and at least two of those finishes are among the recent classics. More here.

Here's Laurent Fignon, winning in yellow, and on the way to victory in 1984.

"It's Stephen Roche"!  The famous comeback in 1987 (at 2 minutes in), followed by his collapse just after the finish line.

Alex Zulle wins in 1995 on the way to 2nd place.  This stage was one of  7 back-to-back mountain stages....

And Michael Boogerd was allowed the freedom to escape and win in 2002.  This stage finished 100m lower than the previous three:

According to www.salite.ch, the 21.4km climb from Aime, at 6.6.% gradient, with 1400m of climbing, has a difficulty rating of "130" which puts it in the same category as Alpe d'Huez....

TOUR DE FRANCE: Les Arcs 2009

The Tour de France stage to Bourg St Maurice lacked the drama of the 1996 visit to Les Arcs (scene of Indurain's downfall - more here.

What could be better - a start in Switzerland, through Italy, down into Bourg St Maurice, via the Grand and Petit St Bernard passes, before a final climb up to Arc 1800.

Except the decision was taken for the riders to finish down in the valley in Bourg St Maurice - so that the suspense could continue right until the final Saturday and the climb of Mont Ventoux.  Here's the Wikipedia account of the 2009 Tour.

In the event, the Ventoux stage proved to be a bit of a let-down, and the stage to Bourg is little remembered.  Or at least remembered for the wrong things.  The winner of the stage, Miguel Astarloza, later tested positive for drugs, and the stage was awarded to Sandy Casar.

Here are the riders on the descent to Bourg St Maurice.

The finish line was in the road leading from the SNCF roundabout to the Funiculaire:

The following day the riders left from Bourg St Maurice.  Here they are on the very lower slopes of the Cormet du Roseland.

Lance Armstrong and co stayed - of course - in Arc 1950.  The Euskatel Euskadi team, on the other hand, stayed in the more modest environs of Arc 1800.  As did The Tour Doctor:

More on cycling in Les Arcs this summer here.  If you think the 1st category climb from Bourg St Maurice is too easy, go down to Landry, take the (much harder) climb to Peisey and up to Arc 1800 on the summer road, and then continue to Arc 2000.  The final climb from the Comborciere lift at 1800m to Arc 2000 (actually at 2100m) is a tough one....

APRES SKI: Summer in Les Arcs

Update 27 May 2013

Les Arcs is open this summer from 6 July to 30 August, with "pre-ouverture" on a couple of weekends in late June.  Cyclocoeur runs from 9-11 August.

There are one or two parts of the Alps - the Chamonix Valley and the Jungfrau region which do at least as well in summer as they do in winter.

This isn't the case in the Tarentaise.  But the resorts are open, the sun is (usually) out, and you are much further from the madding crowd than you are in winter.

Here's a "Top 10" Guide of things to do in Les Arcs.  If it rains, go to Le Lagon in Tignes for a swim.

The Les Arcs website is now in "summer mode", with the resort (including key lifts like the Transarc) open from 7th July.

Although there are lots of things to do, it's arguably the cycling that's the jewel in the crown.

Tour de France 2009, lower slopes of Cormet de Roselend

For cycling uphill, there is an almost endless range of options from Bourg St Maurice: Le Cormet de Roselend, Petit St Bernard, Cold de l'Iseran, plus of course the mythical climb to Les Arcs :)

The best English-language guide to cycling I've found is www.grenoblecycling.com, which covers just about every col you can think of.

In Bourg St Maurice, the big local event is Cyclocoeur, which runs from 10th-12th August, in aid of local disabled charities.  It involves various events for road and VTT, including the hard-core climb to Arc 2000, which takes the experts around an hour.  More on the event below:

For cycling downhill, there are endless VTT trails, including the Cachette piste at 1600 which is used for competitions.  The video below gives a good guide to the terrain. NB The initial descent, from Aiguille Grive down to the Nancroix valley can also be covered more sedately on foot, ending at the Hotel de La Vanoise in Peisey.  A chacun son gout....

THE LES ARCS A-Z: A Guide for 2012

Here's an attempt at a guide to Les Arcs and the surrounding area....

Architecture - 3 sites in Les Arcs have been awarded the label of "Architecture of the 20th Century": the sites of Arc 1600/1800, the town hall and cinema in Bourg St Maurice and the Aiguille Rouge cable car station - overview here

Bourg St Maurice - "la montagne dans la ville", gateway to Les Arcs

Cycling - Les Arcs was the scene of Indurain's downfall; La Plagne of historic performances by Roche, Fignon and Boogerd

Domaine Skiable - here is the 2010/11 plan des pistes; the Les Arcs website has been a bit slack and hasn't put up the new 2011/12 one up yet - and there are a few changes, for example in the Mont Blanc area above Arc 1600

Edenarc - you can buy your new flat here and look back at what might have been, with Charlotte Perriand's original design here

Funiculaire - "unique in France", with a new makeover.  Timetable here

Golf des Arcs - a beautiful site, 32 holes, open from June until les premieres neiges

Arc 1800 runs to resort, on the golf course

Hauteville Gondon - home village of Robert Blanc, founder of Les Arcs

Infos practiques - on the Les Arcs website

Jeux Olympiques - the speed skiing was at Les Arcs, and saw a tragedy on the morning of the event

Killy - as in Espace Killy - about 40 mins up the road from Bourg

League Tables - Alpe d'Huez beats all the Tarentaise resorts, and is a brilliant all-rounder, summer as well as winter - see rankings here

Manchester United - cf Val d'Isere.  France's best ski resorts are matched with their Premiership equivalents here

News - @ledauphine gives comprehensive coverage and will improve your French

Off-piste - there is a Bureau des Guides at 1800, and Arc Aventures also have specialists.  Here's a book for the armchair expert, in French but with some English summaries.  It's available in resort

Aiguille Rouge summit: 3220m

Plagne - as in La Plagne - Les Arcs' local rivals...

Quecha - the low-cost Decathlon range.  The shop in Albertville (just off the RN90) is very good and sells ski de fond, ski rando equipment etc, which can be hard to find in the resorts



Rosiere - as in La Rosiere - distinctly under-rated - my favourite (apart from Les Arcs, of course).  Great views in both directions towards both La Plagne and Tignes, as well as the link with La Thuile to explore

La Rosiere: looking up the valley towards Tignes

Society and Politics - against an uncertain economic background, the area is not short of heated debates about which direction/s it should take in future - overview here

Tignes - just up the road.  Park at Les Brevieres

U - as in Super-U on the Route des Arcs at the edge of Bourg St Maurice

Valmorel - a resort on the up, with a new Club Med, new lifts, and handier for the airport than the Haute Tarentaise - quick review here

Websites - official Les Arcs site is more style than substance, but others compensate

X-ray - main cabinet medical is close to the Cachette lift in Arc 1600.  Will cost you several hundred pounds to be taken down the mountain by a hunky pisteur

Y - La Grotte du Yeti appears to be a chain of bars - with branches in Arc 1800, Les 2 alpes, St Francois Longchamp etc

Z - As in Zinedine Zidane - the France football team often train at Tignes, for example before their ill-fated trip to South Africa....

CA PLANE POUR MOI: 50 years of La Plagne

La Plagne celebrated its 50th birthday this week.  Le Dauphine looks back on the festivities here, with more than 2,000 people visiting the front de neige at Plagne Centre - as witnessed by TV Mont Blanc.

It all started as a regeneration project, pure and simple, with Dr Pierre Borionne, maire of Aime looking to stem depopulation of the valley.  Agriculture was no longer able to offer a living to the young, and the local mining industry was in crisis.  If you are keen, you can find out more at the museum named after Le Docteur, down in Aime.  The resort launched, with 2 drag lifts and 4 pistes, on 24 December 1961, according to its entry in Wikipedia.  Fifty years on, it is of course one of France's top ski resorts, linked to Les Arcs by the unique Vanoise Express.  More on the skiing here.



This 8-minute video, made by the Conseil General de la Savoie, includes interviews with the founders.  They remind us that in the early 1960s there was basically no such thing as skiing in the valley, and there were certainly no ski instructors.

The video also includes an interview with Herve Gaymard, president of the Conseil General, who describes the birth of La Plagne as "a big moment in the history of Savoie's ski resorts"; Courchevel and Val d'Isere were already established, but this was before the advent of Les Arcs, Les Menuires, Val Thorens, Valmorel etc.  He also goes on to look ahead to the next 50 years:

• The focus will be on "sustainable development"
• They will be looking to renovate the existing apartments
• Any future building will be "hotels or gites" - ie they will only allow the building of "lits chauds" which will have occupants through the season.  There is a clear plan to move away from "lits froids" - apartments which are only used by their owners for a week or two each season, a concern which is also evident in other resorts like Les Arcs

2012 will see the 25th anniversary of one of the great stages of the Tour de France: "and just who is that coming up behind.....IT'S STEPHEN ROCHE!!!  It will also be 10 years since Michael Boogerd won in La Plagne in an epic solo breakaway.  And of course there was Laurent Fignon's victory there in 1984.  Forget La Toussuire - history suggests it's high time for a repeat visit to La Plagne in the very near future.

You can keep up-to-date with La Plagne at the excellent www.perso-laplagne.fr.

WEBSITES OF THE TARENTAISE

All of the resorts have their own sites of course (my favourite is www.pralognan.com). The Les Arcs official site looks quite smart, but loses marks for not being kept up-to-date.  For example (on 27/12/11) the link to the piste map is for 2010/11 rather than the new 2011/12 version.  Here are some links to some other places on the web:

For Les Arcs: www.espace-arcadien.fr.  The content is a tad out-of-date, but has good links to local webcams.

Also for Les Arcs: www.lesarcs.net will sell you chalet/apartment accommodation, but has lots more.

Finally, a bit more of a collector's piece: the Les Arcs film festival.  Oh yes.  There's still a bit of a debate about whether the investment has been worth the while (the idea was to extend the season, as part of a more "diverse" offer of activities....)

For La Plagne: www.perso-laplagne.fr.  This is a great site - lots about new developments, history of the resort, etc etc.  La Plagne fans who don't speak French will still enjoy the pictures.

For the weather: Meteo France.  This is the local forecast, with "previsions" for the next few days.

For getting excited/depressed about local snow conditions: www.snoweye.com.
This has just about every resort in Europe, with various cameras in the big reports...

For cycling: www.grenoblecycling.com.  This is based further down the Isere valley, but includes descriptions of most of the main cols in the area.  Recent posts include video, which makes it doubly exciting.

To improve your French: www.bourgstmaurice.tv was set up this year by an enterprising local.  And the regional newspaper www.ledauphine.com is worth a browse/a follow on Twitter.

On The Road

For the armchair cyclist, Grenoble Cycling Pages have put together a YouTube channel. The Col du Lautaret tour, taken at the start of May, is v atmospheric.  The music may not be entirely to your taste.

http://www.youtube.com/user/standringr

Here Comes The Summer

Most resorts - including Les Arcs - are now firmly closed.  Above 1800, the builders are in to make more progress on the new Chantel development.  Over at 1600 a new Mont Blanc lift is planned for 2011/12.

Further north, Les Gets opened a couple of lifts for mountain bikes last weekend, and is planning to open Thursday-Sunday this coming weekend (2-5 June).

Back on snow, Val d'Isere opens its summer skiing at the Col d'Iseran on 11 June - with Tignes and Les 2 Alpes following a week later.

In the meantime, some websites:

www.grenoblecycling.com is full of ideas for cycling right across the Alps - including the Haute Tarentaise.  It doesn't get updated too often, but the latest are now accompanied by videos and satnav reports - recommended!

www.snoweye.com is as comprehensive a guide to webcams as you will find.   Some are turned off for summer (apparently they can be damaged by storms....), but there are still lots there.  Good for seeing how your favourite resort looks like without the snow...

www.lesarcs.com has been upgraded although lacks depth, and could do with a little more TLC right across the site

www.lesarcs.net is an unofficial site which rents apartments etc - though they have good updates on what's happening in and around the resort

www.perso-laplagne.fr OK, so La Plagne may or may not be Les Arcs' local rivals - but this is the best site I've seen from the area: entirely unofficial, with both current gossip, and some history thrown in.  The latest piece covers the redevelopment of Plagne Centre. In French, but there is a Union Jack button which allows for easy translation