I love cycling, I love mountains, I love France, but a holiday combining all three? - Really?
I’m not talking about those ‘holidays’ in France where top cyclists live in hotels and get bussed to mountains before climbing them on some sliver of carbon then get bussed home to get their legs shaved…
No – I’m talking about cycle-tourists on holiday who take on the great mountain ranges of France and elsewhere in Europe for the fun of it. In this article I’ll concentrate on the most extreme/lunatic form which is cycle-camping, where the rider carries their entire home and chattels thousands of metres into the sky, but it also applies to those who want to take the slightly easier option of doing it Hotel based – DON’T STOP READING HERE!
You see I don’t want to lose all those people who’ve just gone ‘lunatics!’ and begun to click away from this page. If you’re a cyclist – even just a casual one who goes out on the weekend YOU CAN DO IT! And more to the point you will have an experience you’ll never forget, you’ll never climb hills with the same trepidation and you might just become addicted.
OK – don’t believe me? Just look at the photo below. That’s the top of the Ventoux – the ‘Giant of Provence’ – nearly 2000m high, a 1500m climb and the one that professional cyclists have died on from exhaustion racing to the top!
Our magnificent mountainclimbing team;-)
I’m in that photo – Far left trying to hold my gut in. Do we look like we’re at the point of exhaustion? Or do we look like we’ve had the time of our lives?
Look again. See any skinny pro cyclists? I’m 55 years-old in that picture. The oldest is 72, the youngest 40, average around 55+ years old. None of them are ‘sports’ cyclists, just occasional cyclists that have trusted me when I told them they could do it – you need to trust me too.
And then lastly – look at the bike, all loaded up; tent, sleepingbag, clothes and all the paraphernalia of camping. You can read more about that cycling adventure up the Ventoux here.
There's no way I can cycle up a mountain like that - as for making it a holiday!
You can do it!
The first and most important thing is not to be intimidated. Climbing to 2000m, with maybe 1500m of climbing sounds daunting, but if you ride a 50-mile day in most places you’d be very surprised how many metres total climbing you do. For example in Brittany you could easily rack up 800m in that distance, in somewhere like Cornwall or Devon you might well be over 1000. The difference is that mountains are very, very long but well-graded. In the French Pyrenees or French Alps for example you’ll find that anything over 10% is the exception rather than the rule – i.e. 1 in 10. I know of no col that averages more, so for most mountains you’re going to spend quite a lot of time climbing at 6, 7, 8, 9% with perhaps the odd evil bit going up to 12% - sections steeper than that are generally very short, such as a couple of hundred metres of 14% on the Aubisque. So looking at a famous climb, say the Ventoux - one of the hardest in the whole of France – you are going to climb 1500m over 20km – an average of about 7.5% a maximum of 12%, BUT a non-stop climb.
Me at the foot of the Ventoux wishing I'd done more training
In Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Lake district – in fact all over the UK - 10%+ hills are common, but they are short, a few hundred metres, so can usually be ‘stormed’ up – riding flat out to the top. That’s the difference. Athletes apart, you can’t ‘storm’ mountains on a loaded touring bike, you have to drip-feed your muscle energy to your pedals. To do that you need the right bike, the right training and the right technique and that is what I hope to explain here...
Choosing a bike for that 'special' holiday....
There are thankfully hundreds of bikes out there now that will be perfect for riding up mountains and you don’t need to spend a fortune – New? £600 will get you something pretty much perfect for the job with a couple of modifications*, but it’s quite likely that if you own a half decent touring bike, mountain-bike or hybrid it can be adapted to fit the bill for well under £100 and there’s loads of suitable bikes on the second-hand market.
So what should you look out for?
1 – It needs to be able to carry panniers. That means rack attachment points or places where bolts/clamps can be fitted. This is absolutely essential – you could I suppose do it with a rucksack on your back but I’m not even going to go there – it’s the worse possible way of doing it for all sorts of reasons.
2 – Gearing. This too is critical but for a long time now the availability of super-low gears for mountain-bikes has made this easy to achieve. How low? Well personally, and for all the people I’ve taken over mountains it needs to be as low as you can possibly ride. In my case I can ride down to 3-4 mph on a loaded touring bike going up hill, and so my gearing is based around that figure using a pretty low cadence (around 40 revolutions per minute). My bike has 700c wheels and so that translates to a 24 inner chainring and 32 rear sprocket. This is mountainbike low and very few off-the-shelf touring bikes or hybrids go that low so you may need to swap the rear sprockets or inner chainring. Our BB Specials – the bikes in the pictures here - go even lower as they are on smaller 26” wheels and run a 22 tooth inner sprocket – that gives them one or two gears lower than I have and I can say here that there have been times when I’ve been deeply jealous of those extra gears as I’ve had to work just that bit too hard… In the end even if you never use your super-low granny gear you’re going to have a nice warm feeling knowing it’s there just in case.
Beyond that bottom gear isn’t really important. On my bike the top gear is an 11 sprocket to a 46 chainwheel and that is basically unusable on all but downhill or flat-with-a-tail-wind. You just need a load of low gears, you’ll get all the higher gears you need just by the nature of modern 24/27/30 speed gearsets so sort the bottom and the rest will be fine.
My own lovely touring bike - note I'm in bottom gear...
3 – Weight? Light – sounds obvious but you want something that’s not only light but which has a frame stiff enough to be really really stable when you inevitably have to go down the other side (more on that later). Just ride your current bike around with your planned camping weight and let it go down some steep hills – you’ll know if it feels solid and safe – some won’t – if it feels like it’s going to throw you off then don’t take it. As a target an ideal bike should be sub 15kg unladen, you could ride something heavier but it’ll be more work.
For those on a budget, looking for the cheapest bike that will do the job I’d hunt down an old mountainbike from one of the quality manufacturers in the 90’s – Specialised, Muddy Fox etc – choose one in Cro-Mo butted-steel (look for a label on the frame that identifies the material - it’ll be more comfortable and just as light as Aluminium) and without suspension of course – put slicks on it and it will fly. These bikes were based pretty much on touring geometry and generally came with rack points in those days. The stretched-out, low-handlebar craze hadn’t come in so you’ll get a really good-quality frame and the 26” wheels ensure decent low gears - you’ll probably pay £100. Add slicks and an old ‘clunker’ like this will fly;-) To put that in perspective, the current range of quality, steel expedition touring bikes made by the likes of Surley, VSF etc are based on exactly the same sort of frame and will cost upwards of £1500 so let people sneer and feel smug inside!
Of course everything you take will make a difference – you need the lightest tent you can afford, the lightest sleeping bag that will keep you warm, be ruthless when it comes to packing (see the ‘rule of three’ here) and think about what you need and what you don’t. You don’t need to go mad or spend a £1000 to save 500grm on a tent but everything you save will help in the mountains (I cut the handle off my toothbrush…).
4 – Tyres. Buy slicks – i.e. tyres with little or no tread. I’ve cycletoured for 38 years in all weathers and have never felt the need for tread. You’ll find slicks roll much easier and will grip better on the descents. Fit a decent width too – a 32mm slick isn’t going to make much of a difference over a 20mm re drag up hill, but you’ll be a whole lot more comfortable and more importantly a lot safer coming down the other side, personally I’d not use anything less than 28mm, on my own tourer I use 32mm and our BB Specials 35mm.
5 – Brakes. They need to work. You’ll need new pads/shoes and take spares, the descents will eat them. Good cantilevers, V-brakes or cable discs will do the job. I don’t think any hydraulic brake is suitable for touring – one fall (even a parked bike falling over – happens all the time) and you can rip a hydraulic line out and they’re a nightmare to fix. If a cable breaks just fit another – job done. BUT before every col check your brakes, cables, pads, bolts, everything, twice...
So all the cycling gear - check. Ticket to France booked - holiday booked - but all the gear and no idea?
But cycling up hill hurts!
No we’re not talking about your ‘pain threshold’ – but you know when you are cycling up hill you get that familiar burning sensation in your thighs? Well that marks the point where you are going anaerobic – i.e. you are drawing energy from your muscles faster than it can be replaced, and you are building up an oxygen-debt. On a short hill that’s fine – you can pay-back when you go down the other side. In the mountains there will be moments when you simply have to dip into those reserves to keep going but every time you do you’ll have less left and as you are climbing hard you’ll not recover.
Ideally you need to stay away from that ‘burning’ and during your training you should be able to identify that point and be able to cruise just below it – this is where you are most efficient, your heart will be pumping hard, your lungs filling to the max and the endorphins will be kicking in;-) Too slow and you won’t be so ‘pumped up’ and you can actually feel yourself cooling down and just getting weary.
Here I’m going to put out a shout for a turbo-trainer. These hold your bike in a frame with a braked roller on your back wheel. Most allow the drag to be varied or you can do it by using different gears. Put it on a high drag setting and you’ll get much of the feeling of mountain climbing – the wheel will stall between pedal strokes in much the same way and the incessant nature of a mountain can be replicated. No hill in the UK will go on for 20 kms so though riding your bike will fitten you up there’s nothing like a Turbo-trainer for getting mountain fit in the shortest time. In my case prior to such a tour I do 30 minutes a day on the trainer at maximum sustainable output – that bit below the burning-legs feeling… Do that for a couple of months and you’ll be ready for anything. I would do some hilly rides on a loaded bike as well (do your weekly shopping trip?) to get the feel of the bike because coming off the Tourmalet isn’t the time to find you’re not confident going downhill, but be aware that until you’ve found the sweet spot for climbing you’ll probably re-enforce the bad habits of working too hard.
The one downside they have is they eat rear tyres so if possible have a second bike with a cheapo tyre on it permanently attached.
A typical turbo trainer
Pedalling style
As noted in the last section, when you are climbing at very slow speed the bike has a tendency to ‘stall’ or slow down as you pedal through the dead spot, so the bike accelerates and slows with each stroke. It takes more power to accelerate the bike that to maintain speed so there’s an advantage to minimising the ‘stall’ and you can do that by being as smooth as you can**. Remember to ‘lift’ the rising leg with each stroke, otherwise the ‘power’ leg is having to drive the bike and lift your leg. A little practice may also get you kicking forward at the top and pulling back at the bottom to get a more circular power stroke (imagine pedalling with one leg) but that’s not essential and very personal. Myself I do pull up some of the time (using SPD cleats) but it’s the smooth push down that makes the biggest difference. Sometimes when you’re tired you’ll find yourself ‘stabbing’ at the pedals and this is an indication that you need a rest as it’ll wear you out quickly.
Enough theory - how are you going to cycle up that Mountain.
So you’ve prepared, you’re fit for the mountains and you’ve arrived at base-camp. My strong advice is that if you have time, rather than driving directly to that campsite you’ve stopped a couple of days short and ridden to it. Invariably ‘foothills’ are hard work so those two days will do a final hardening up, get you ready after a long drive/plane/drive and have you ready to go.
The great thing about cycling in French mountains is that there is almost always a campsite at the bottom of every col. It means that your ride is essentially one long climb then a descent to the next campsite – the French Pyrenees are especially lovely to ride along because of this. The other consideration is your speed of climb. I’m not talking about horizontal speed but rather the speed at which you gain altitude. In my case I base my calculations on 400m of gain per hour regardless of slope – so I’ll take the same time to gain 400m at 5% as I would at 10%.It’s only a rough guide, it allows for short stops for photos etc (more on this later) and so a 1000m climb will take me about 2 ½ hours. For any casual cyclist that’s not a bad starting point for calculating timings for your first couple of cols, but you may end up going faster or slower – remember the idea is to get to the top and enjoy it, not kill yourself going as fast as you can. Just remember - you have all day to get to the top because everything afterwards is likely to be downhill. If you want to take 5 hours over it, have an hour lunchbreak half-way up then that's just fine. The aim is to get to the top safely and having had a wonderful experience, no-one is counting your time...
One of my lovely cyclists on the last bit to the summit of the ventoux
So there you are on a bright sunny morning (hopefully) and you swing your leg over the bike and set off – what now?
Being sensible you’ve probably chosen one of the smaller cols to start you off. If you’re in the Pyrenees there are plenty that work out OK depending on where you start but do check out gradients as some of those short climbs (I’m looking at you Marie Blanque) are steeper than you’d like. A nice mid-point would be the Portillon for either direction running along the Pyrenees – start at Bagnères de Luchon (9km – start at 660m >1300m, average 8%) which also takes you from France into Spain for a short while.
So this col starts at 4% - and this is lovely, you’re going to have a gentle warm-up with several gears in hand. You’ll find most cols give you this, but for those that don’t this is a very important moment. You need to get in a gear perhaps two gears lower than you think you need – start to pedal gently, find that sweet spot and let yourself warm up. The Portillon is a really good teacher because from bottom to top is pretty short, but it gets steeper and steeper, ending up averaging over 10% for the last km. Knowing that you’ll be a bit scared and be very careful to harbour your resources!
And here a note of caution. DON’T cycle with friends. You need to do this at your own pace, riding faster or slower than your normal pace will burn up your energy faster – I’ve been caught out too often to not know the truth of it. You can meet them at the top. After a few cols you may find you have enough in reserve to ride with a well-matched partner but don’t count on it.
As it steepens keep clicking down gears before you need to – stay away from the burn but keep yourself ‘making progress’. By half way up you’ll probably be in first or second gear and starting to feel well pumped up and with all your preparation - confident. This is a danger because it’s all too easy to start piling on and that can really catch you out. Pace, pace, pace! You need to stick to that pace…
Evelyn and Jennie cruising along the Aubisque corniche.
Have a rest
And by now you must have a drink. Don’t be a wally and try to do it on the move and fall off. Stop, have a good drink, maybe eat a banana, take a photo – just stop for 5 minutes tops. Any more than this and you’ll have started to cool down, you heart rate will be right down but you won’t have enough time to recover meaningfully. My advice would be to stop every km or so (you’ll find km posts with altitude and slope marked) and just take a swig and a pic. Invariably you’ll start off again and think ‘why am I in such a low gear?’ – don’t be fooled! If you go up a few gears you’ll invariably find yourself crashing back down to first or second and in the process break your rhythm. If you are doing it ‘Geoff’s way’ then stops should be max 5 minutes, or if you are tired you need to take half an hour so you properly recover, this especially on longer climbs than the Portillon where you might well want to sit and look at the view for a while and eat some of your rations.
Then back on the bike and you keep your relentless rhythm up to the top – on the Portillon there is one savage 15% section – on this you’ll ‘feel the burn’, dip into your reserves and be very grateful you took it steady all the way up.
And then after 90 minutes or so you’ll find yourself at the top – starting at 9.00 in the morning you’ll be there before 11.00. Most cols have spectacular views at the top and often a bar for a very cold beer (I always think of ‘Ice Cold in Alex’) but sadly the Portillon is a bit of scruffy forest. But, and here’s the great bit about the mountains, you are just 20 minutes and some glorious views of Spain away from the bar and campsite at the bottom.
Descending.
DON’T kill yourself. It’s highly likely that coming off these cols you’ll go faster on a bike than at any other time in your life, I’ve done 50+mph coming down the Tourmalet and one misjudgement and I’d have been over the side – a helmet will do nothing for you at these speeds.
That said this is great fun;-) If you’ve the sort of bike and tyres I’ve suggested you can swoop down the mountain, brake hard into corners, lean over then accelerate like a piano out of a window before the next hairpin. It’s exhilarating and seems a fine reward for the hard work but when your eyes are full of tears stop to wipe them away;-)
Then just a few, all too short minutes later you’ll swing into a campsite where you can laze about, read, chat to other cyclists.
Andrew showing how to come down the Tormalet - note the windcheater, essential kit!
And eat
I’m no dietician but if you’re riding the cols you simply can’t eat enough. Forget carbo-loading, special and all that sort of guff – you need to go on a ‘seefood’ diet – i.e. see food and eat it. I usually start the day with a couple of croissants and coffee, eat a banana or two on a climb (bananas are wonder food – far better than ‘powerbars’ of any kind IMO) then at midday eat all you can then in the evening the same. I do this ‘circular eating’ on every mountain trip and I’ve always lost weight – you just can’t pack enough in. In fact this can be a problem as your system won’t be used to this sort of throughput and I always have a queasy day after four or five days as my alimentary canal protests at the work-rate, but it soon passes and all that food does make you feel healthy!
The Bottom Line
Over the last 35 years I’ve led over a 100 people on these rides. All of them were ‘casual’ cyclists and the vast majority had never ridden anything remotely like it in their lives. All, without exception said it was a wonderful time and most came back again, for some it was a life changing experience – I’m not exaggerating.
20 years ago I took a group of mountain ‘virgins’ along most of the major cols of the Pyrenees. Some of them are still cycling with me 20 years later... Thee story of the Breton Bikes Pyrenees Charity Ride to the Pyrenees is here. These heros did if for charity (we raised over £12,000) but the route we took and what happened may help you plan your first trip. So there’s no excuse, just do it.
*There are lots of decent new Hybrid bikes available that will do the job needing only a rack to be fitted and usually a larger cassette rear sprocket – a really good example that I’ve ridden is the Ridgeback Volocity (https://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bikes/hybrid-commute/velocity) – ticks all the boxes for £600.
**Studies of top professional cyclists power output shows that some generate almost constant power round the entire stroke by pulling up on the pedals and both kicking forward at the top and back at the bottom. This circular pedalling was once thought to be the be-all-and-end-all of efficiency, but as noted some, equally successful cyclists just powered on the downstroke. The reason I guess is that the limit for their power over a longer ride is how much oxygen they can get to their muscles via lungs and heart and so which muscles they actually use is down to the individual – however they pedal at ‘pro’ cadancies of 90 rpm or so and so the ‘stalling’ effect is minimal.
A small favour
We hope you enjoyed reading this short article and will go on to read many more. This website exists both as an information hub for cyclists – (and we offer free advice by email) - but also as a commercial site to sell our cycling holidays in France. For 35 years we've been the only company in the world offering fully equipped cycle camping holidays and now also offer hotel based cycling holidays - it is this experience that informs so much of what I write here.
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