A Typical Day on Tour

There really aren’t any 2 days the same when following the Tour de France!   At Discover France, we primarily offer VIP access to the race, but we do also offer some tours to ride and follow the race that don’t have VIP access.  On any tour we offer during Le Tour, you can expect full days, lots of action, lots of sites, and quite possibly a fair amount of travel!

We typically do not ‘follow’ the race every day, it would be exhausting to you our paying guests.   We make up our itineraries to take in the best stages we can and also be able to offer excellent lodging, excellent riding, and hopefully some interesting sites, villages, and attractions.    Our tours may intentionally leave out a day, or some days at the actual race so that we can more calmly enjoy some countryside cycling, or a nice off day at a luxury hotel, or perhaps even traveling many hours by vehicle to be in prime position for the following day’s Tour stage.

The VIP trips include very privileged access to the race and each of these access experiences depends on a tightly controlled schedule dictated by the race organizers.  We are at their beckon call to adjust our times to meet theirs.  So, we leave some play in our schedule to get you the best experience possible and we can adapt to any changes in the race.   To know what each of the VIP access experiences are, consult this page for details.

When we design and build our tours, we have to do by practically picking up what is left over in terms of hotels after the race organizer pre-books many thousands of rooms.  It is our objective to book the best hotel we can find, with the most comfort, and that minimizes travel time, and offers the amenities we need for you.

A typical day will usually begin early with a buffet breakfast at our host hotel.  We will ask to include the most complete breakfast possible, especially for our challenging group riders who plan to put many hours in the saddle today!   After breakfast, we will ideally ride out of the hotel on a route that will meet the ride objectives of the tour. (challenging, moderate, easy)   It may be required that we load up the vans and drive to our next destination, which could be all the way to the hotel, to the race, or to a ride point where will start our daily ride.   Rest assured that riding is the key objective of every day.   However, note that we have learned over the years that our groups take much longer to ride the big mountains and hills than they think they will take.  We may plan a ‘challenging’ ride of 70km that involves category 1 and 2 climbs and you will be in the saddle for 5 hours!   A moderate ride of 40km can take 3+ hours!    In this site we intend to show you by profile and description as much as we can to let you know how hard a ride is and how much time it will take, so do not be put off by “low” kilometer rides.  They may blow you apart!!

All ride days include picnic lunches or on some days a sit down lunch.   We also provide a limited amount of energy bars and drink mix to all our riders so you can manage some supplemental nutrition while riding.  (be sure to verify in the trip description exactly how many meals and what days are included in your trip!)

The Tour stage finishes between 4pm and 5:30pm on most days.  Therefore, if we aren’t at the race, we will most likely be in front of a TV so that you can stay up to date on the action!  Our guides will keep you informed too throughout the day.  Yes, everything is in French:  TV, radio, loudspeaker, etc – so your guides will help you out if you don’t speak ‘rapid fire’ French!

If no travel or limited travel is required to reach our hotel tonight, you will have some down time tonight.   We don’t include every dinner just so you can do your own thing some times which feels nice.   When we do include a dinner, we will all dine together and usually have a set menu with a few choices but not a la carte dining.  We can accommodate non-meat eaters too as long as you tell us when you book!

Some days may require transportation after the stage finish to our hotel.  Always, around the Tour route there is traffic, sometimes it is horrendous.  We can’t do anything about it but sit it out!  This adds to a long day, but we do try to minimize this.  It may happen in your tour that on one day you will arrive after 8pm with the group at your hotel.  We plan meals en route on such occasions.

Always upon arrival at your new hotel the guides will get you quickly into your rooms and leave you a ‘meeting time’ or post notices on our traveling white boards to inform you about important times, and schedule.

Sometimes you will arrive in small mountain village with few buildings and activity – it will be quiet and pristine.   Other times you’ll arrive in a town over run with Tour fans and the ambiance will be wild and memorable!

The most important thing to a ‘typical’ day on tour is to remain flexible!   We have learned how to plan for surprises and are good at adapting.  We will inform you best we can in advance, but a sense of adventure will improve your experience at this massive event watched the world over!  You never know who you might meet!