Where to cycle holiday in Europe for 7 days in September?

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afie
Posts: 137
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:11 am

by afie

Okay, so I am in Paris on the 15th and leave on the 23rd and need help deciding what to do.

I am working in France for the two weeks prior and probably want something with varied daily rides and a changing base camp, but a little more relaxing.

I like climbing.

Dolomites:
- ridden in 2012;
- requires warm clothes.

Flanders:
- enough terrain for seven days?
- relaxing weather?

Scandinavia:
- never been;
- more expensive to travel.

French/Swiss Alps:
- ridden in 2005, 2012;
- requires warm clothes.

Sicily:
- nice and warm;
- Rome is as far south as I have been.

Morocco:
- warm;
- travel may be too tiring;
- potentially hiring a road bike will be difficult.

Croatia:
- cheaper.

Spain:
- where?

Any ideas/alternatives?
Riccò "Of the 10 controls taken, only two were positive. In theory all the tests should have been positive, therefore the method needs to be checked," he said.

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Antoine
Posts: 551
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 6:36 pm
Location: France

by Antoine

Morocco is definetly not in Europe ...

one week it's not much, from Paris it takes at least hallf a day to get to the places you listed

I think the best is to stay in France, either the Alps (Grenoble, Annecy, ...) or the Pyrénées (Bagneres de Luchon, ...).

It should be warm enough in september but with a risk or rain.

You can also consider Corsica, weather should be good and you can go to the beach after your rides

HillRPete
Posts: 2284
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:08 am
Location: Pedal Square

by HillRPete

I had a long post weighing the benefits of your proposed places against each other.
But if you want to climb, you might just go to Spain and hit the Sierra Nevada. There's a number of fairly quiet roads between Motril, Almeria and the mountain range. Maybe not enough for a whole week, but as you said you wouldn't mind moving camp, you could always explore more places up the shoreline. The Calpe region for example is very popular among pro teams.

MisterNoChain
Posts: 275
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2011 9:29 pm

by MisterNoChain

afie wrote:Flanders:
- enough terrain for seven days?
- relaxing weather?


If you like exploring the roads of Ronde van Vlaanderen, Liege-Bastogne-Liege or even Paris-Roubaix you will find enough terrain to tackle during a week. You cant call it climbing of course

About the weather ... it could be sunny and 20 degrees for a week but if you are unlucky it can be rainy as well. If you want to be sure about good weather i'd go to Spain.

Dirty32
Posts: 90
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:49 am
Location: Perth, Straya!

by Dirty32

Calpe sounds nice...
http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/05/roadtripping-calpe/

I'v never ridden anywhere in Europe though, so i'd be happy with any of the places you've listed.

urt
Posts: 64
Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:46 am

by urt

I have ridden a lot in the nortern part of Spain, Aragon in the Huesca region. Beautiful climbs, lovely weather especially in September, cheap food and coffe, cheap hostels and good roads. I stay in small town called Areny de Noguera just outside the big mountains but have cat. 2 and cat. 3 5km within my reach. For the HC and cat. 1s I have to ride about 40km to get there. Perfect!
works in the industry

BruceCarnevale
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 4:36 pm
Location: Aachen, Germany

by BruceCarnevale

You could also fly to the Canary Islands. Either Tenerife or Gran Canaria have plenty of climbing and warm weather. As I've been to GC several times, I know that you can get a rental bike very easily, but they are not cheap. And you can do the notorious Valley of the Tears climb.

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tymon_tm
Posts: 3665
Joined: Tue Sep 05, 2006 4:35 pm

by tymon_tm

it depends on how you wanna get there. if you travel by car with all the stuff (bike, luggage etc) just go south - anywhere near the French coast. or try Genoa (Italy) - close enough, with very, very scenic routes.

Genoa happens to be one of the most beautiful cities (at least on my own personal list) - i've been there this spring, but only managed to get like 3 riding days. FWIW definitely worth staying loger :thumbup:
kkibbler wrote: WW remembers.

gwilliams
Posts: 84
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:27 pm

by gwilliams

Southern Alps

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kbbpll
Posts: 494
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 5:56 am

by kbbpll

^^ Genoa is a good idea. Although when we toured through there 25+ years ago, we circled the port area twice before we could figure out how to get out of town without getting on the autostrada. Seems like we eventually had to go through a parking garage in order to get on the right road. You're also only 100k from the Cinque Terre region near La Spezia, as far as changing base camps. The "five villages" probably still isn't a good destination for road cycling, as I believe still only the train goes through. The OP says they like climbing - there's not mountains here really, but pretty rugged coastal hills and inland from Genoa was a very popular canyon climb, as well as inland from Rapallo and La Spezia offering lots of small roads and villages. I'd go back to that area in a heartbeat.

joec
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 9:20 pm

by joec

[*]I did Scicily october last year, theres some good climbs out there, and it was pretty warm, too warm at times.

its a bit of a strange place, some bits are really nice... some bits are heaped with rubbish, generally the etna end of the island is nicer and more prosperous,

we were there 8 days and cycled from the airport at palermo > Terrasini > Corleone > San Giovani Gemini > Caltanisetta > Belpasso > over Etna to Randazzo via Linguaglossa > Cesaro > Santa Agata di Militello > Termini > Terrasini > Palermo

milroy
Posts: 199
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:37 am

by milroy

Antoine wrote:
one week it's not much, from Paris it takes at least hallf a day to get to the places you listed




Ha. Try living in Australia!

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Antoine
Posts: 551
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 6:36 pm
Location: France

by Antoine

I did for six months some years ago ... it's not only the distance but crowded roads and transportations and hassles if flying

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