Best European Cycling location

For €120 you could bring your own bike on the flight! 🧐

Thats very decent, have to say.

Nothing to it really...

Plus. always nice to have your own bike...Your own wheels, gears, saddle etc. and in the case of a MTB even more so as rentals require a lot of setup to get right...

Copy of my post from daily cycles thread:

In summary cycling in Gran Canaria is top class. Fantastic experience as was using Free Motion for bike rental and a tour.

Not today's cycles but my last bike adventures. Weeks holiday with the wife in Gran Canaria. Based ourselves out of Maspalomas for the 1st half and rented a couple of bikes from Free Motion. I got a Specialized Tarmac with Rival EPS and the better half who will cycle but refuses to go uphill rented a Specialized Cruz ebike.

First ride was part of a tour organised by Free Motion. 65k with 1300m of climbing. First climb of 6k at 6% followed by a short descent then a 9k climb at 6.3%. Then a rolling descent the whole way home. Weather was perfect; mid 20s and blue skies. I've never cycled climbs that long before. They're pretty hard to find in Ireland. So I took the pace pretty easy as I didn't want to blow up. Probably had a bit more to give but it was a fantastic day in the saddle, the scenery is amazing and climbing and descending mountain roads full of switchbacks was a whole new experience. Especially descending! My bike handling definitely needs some improvements!

Morning Ride | Ride | Strava

For our second cycle it was just the 2 of us. So I planned an 85k route with 1800m of climbing. Bit of light gravel thrown in for good luck. The wife's battery on her bike died just as we reached the summit of the main climb so it was an interesting 2nd half trying to nurse her home. We had to do some walking on a couple of the steeper ramps as like I mentioned earlier, she is not one for the climbs.

GC Cycle #2 | Ride | Strava

Overall a great experience. Free Motion were top notch as was the tour guide. Amazing cycling. Views were incredible. Wife also really enjoyed it which will definitely make it easier to plan another holiday like this. Only downside was my Karoo2 lost GPS before the top of the mountain on both days so that is the reason for no KOMs. Also passed by Pavel Sivakov and Lauren De Plus on some training spins.

We got lucky with the wind for both our cycles as a the remainder of the holiday was pretty breezy. Even at that on the 2nd cycle it got pretty windy up in the mountains at times. Was pretty hairy at times turning around a corner and being hit by a gust.

Can't believe this thread is 3 pages in and no one has said St Jeans de Maurienne!

Col de Madeleine, Croix de Fer, Glandon, Telegraphe, Galibier, Col du Mollard, Lacets de Montvernier, col du chuassy, la toussuire, and a myriad of lesser known climbs. For a concentration of cols on your doorstep it's unbeatable imo

We flew to Lyons. It's only a couple of hours drive from there. You can probably fly to Grenoble too.

Luz St Sauveur is the Pyrenees equivalent. Haven't been but it's in my sights.

Another excellent cycling destination not yet mentioned is Girona. Brilliant set up for bikes and rentals and beautiful roads.

Some cols might be closed in late april. It gets wickedly cold at elevation at that time of year and you could also have to deal with windy conditions. The French side of the Pyrenees is very green for a reason.... lots of rain. there is still lots of cycling from bases like Argeles Gazost or Luz st Sauveur. Imo best to do the area in late May/June or September.

Turin isn't far and Briancon easily accessible from there. Lyons is further away, and Grenoble AFAIK doesn't have direct flights year round. Briancon has the Lautaret + Galibier, the Izoard, and the Granon on its doorstep.

Regardless of where you go, it's worth keeping an eye on dates for "Cols Fermes" (accent missing on that - nothing to do with farms!). In the summer months the grand cols usually get closed to traffic once a month for a morning in rotation, so it's feasible if you were to time it right to have 2 or 3 of them open only to bikes. Given the narrowness of the roads and proximity of Italian drivers, this is a very good thing!

I haven't personally, but friends of our have used it in previous years to get their camper and surf mad kids in range of Portugal. Their opinion is that it was a very barebones experience. 36 hours odd crossing, not much in the way of facilities on board, limited choice of expensive eating options. That said, they've taken it a few time since - just took enough food to cater for and the wherewithal to entertain themselves. Note that it seems to be a new ship, so things may have improved, but still a good way to get to the north of Spain providing you're going for long enough to justify 4 days traveliing to get there