Bad news for those trying to enter La Marmotte 2010 – it appears that the entries are now fully subscribed. More information can be found on the organisers website. It does appear however that you can still enter La Marmotte by entering the Trophee de l’Oisans which is a 4 race series over the week of La Marmotte taking in the Le Vaujany Sportive, Prix Des Grandes Rousses, La Marmotte and the Alpe d’Huez timetrial on the Sunday.

We still have some availabilty left in our hotel accommodation in Alpe d’Huez – more information on our La Marmotte Accommodation page.

We are also running 2 La Marmotte weeks  here in Bourg d’Oisans one running in June which also takes in the Dauphine Libere stage race that finishes on Alpe d’Huez and also one in September. The Marmotte Prep week in september will also be taking in an optional drive to the infamous Mount Ventoux.

Also if you are looking to do a sportive in the area then there is the excellent Marco Pantani Cycling Sportive in August which takes on some equally impressive (The Col de Parquetout for example) but less well known climbs in the Oisans area.

Our first More Than 21 Bends point to point tour of the summer will be running from Sunday 13th June until Sunday 20th June.

We get asked quite a bit about this at Tour d’Oisans.

You can enter online at the following site:

http://www.sportcommunication.info/GT/index.php?langue=2 

This is the version that is in english (kind of) anyway follow the instructions through choosing the “registraion online” menu option. If you have entered before then they will have a record of you otherwise  just enter your name and it will come up with a link just below “MY NAME IS NOT ON THE FOLLOWING DATABASE”

TIP:lastname is actually your firstname !

click on this link and you should be away !! . Good luck - the website is “typically french” and prone to crashing so keep trying because the sportive itself is fantastic.

One other thing you will need a doctors certificate (which you can download from the site) or a racing licence to enter.

Once you have an entry form check out our website for La Marmotte Accommodation. The best place to stay is in Bourg d’Oisans but all the best accommodation tends to get booked up the September before. Alpe d’Huez is also a good base because it is at the finish of the event. Anywhere else and there is a lot of travelling to be done at the end of the event itself.

A fair few customers last year thought it would be good to do a point to point tour in the regions – so we have set up “More Than 21 Bends“  a week long fully vehicle supported road cycling tour starting and finishing in Bourg d’Oisans. As part of the week you will stay in Bourg d’Oisans, Saint Jean de Maurienne, Briançon and Les Deux Alpes and climb the major Tour de France climbs of  of Alpe d’Huez, Col de la Croix der Fer, Col du Glandon, Col de la Madeleine, Col du Télégraphe, Col du Galibier, Col d’Izoard and the Col du Lautaret and the less well know but equally fantastic  Les Deux Alpes, Col de la Morte, Col d’Ornon and the Col de Sarenne

For more information please visit our More Than 21 Bends website

The 2010 Tour de France has announced that stage 9 will finisn in Saint Jean de Maurienne on the 13th July. We stay in Saint Jean de Maurienne as part of the More Than 21 Bends tour that also takes in the Col de Madeleine on the same day. We leave Saint Jean de Maurienne after 1 night and then climb the Col du Telegraphe and the Col du Galibier on our way to Briançon.

Bit of a mad day here at Tour d’Oisans with 2 of our guests riding the full La Marmotte route, 3 guys riding the Col du Telegraphe and Col du Galibier and one guy just wanting to do the Col du Galibier. We managed to fit it in with a drive to the bottom of the Telegraphe in our minibus where we set 3 off. We then drove to the top of the Telegraphe where we let the last man off. I waited for them at the top of the Galibier where they all decided to descend back to Bourg d’Oisans. The two guys doing the full La Marmotte route finally arrived back after dark at 8:10 PM !

Just to let you know that our cycling season extends into the middle of October as the weather is still really good.

All the major cols will still be open so you can ride Alpe d’Huez, Col du Galibier, Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Glandon, Col du Lautaret, Col d’Ornon and also the Col du Telegraphe as well as all the other beautiful but less well known climbs in the area.

For more information on bed and breakfast (with free bike hire) or self catered accommodation in Bourg d’Oisans  please contact us here

one of our guests riding the col du galibier in october 2008

The rain came towards the end of the day in Alpe d’Huez but it seemed to cool the riders down after a very hot day in the saddle. More photos from the sportive today. The riders had already climbed the Col du Glandon, the Col  du Telegraphe and the might Col du Galibier. Some were feeling the effects…..

As part of our cycling week here in Bourg d’Oisans we can drop people off at the bottom of the Col du Telegraphe so that they can ride this and also the north side of the Col du Galibier and return back to our base in the centre of Bourg d’Oisans – two of the major cols in La Marmotte and both of which feature regularly in The Tour de France and also the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. Yesterday we did this for 4 australians and a couple of Brits (one not shown in picture as he was off buying a twix!) who are staying with us this week.

This was my first climb up the Col du Telegraphe of the year.

This climb comes before the massive Col du Galibier and after the Col du Glandon and  is part of La Marmotte Cycling Sportive. For those that do not know the climb it is about the same distance in length as Alpe d’Huez – but is not as high or steep.

I was out riding this today in preperation for our La Marmotte Preperation Weeks  that we run in June and September while our 9 dutch guest over for the Alpe d’Huzes were tackling some other climbs in the region.

La Marmotte is a big undertaking for most cyclist and it is for this reason we offer 2 specific preparation weeks a year for the event from our base in Bourg d’Oisans - one at the begining of June and one at the end of September. We will ride the event course over 2 days taking in the Col du Glandon on the first day and then the Col du Telegraphe, and Col du Galibier and optionally Alpe d’Huez  on the second day.

We have set aside 2 weeks this year as ‘La Marmotte’ preparation weeks. The rides will be split over 2 days with full vehicle support. For La Marmotte 2009 we are running this option week commencing the  7th June 2009.

For those considering riding La Marmotte in 2010 we are offering the chance to ride the course fully supported over 2 days week commencing the 20th September 2009

For more information on this please contact us

Marmotte 2009 entries are now available on line at the rather criptic sports communication website. Once you have your entry contact us for accommodation or check out our Marmotte Accommodation page on our website as we now have additional accommodation available in both Alpe d’Huez and Bourg d’Oisans. Need a bike for the event we can provide that as well

Sabato 5 luglio si è svolta la granfodo “La Marmotte” in Francia.

E’ una delle granfondo più impegnative d’Europa. Il percorso, sulla distanza di 174 km, prevede 4 salite veramente impegnative: Col du Glandon (25 km), Col du Telegraphe (12 km), Col du Galibier (18 km) e la mitica Alpe d’Huez (13 km).

Qui lo spirito della granfondo è molto diverso da quello a cui siamo abituati in Italia. C’è gente su tutte le salite pronta ad incitare tutti i passanti e ad aiutarli e i partecipanti sono molto calmi e tranquilli.

Dopo lunghe salite ci sono lunghe discese, un pò pericolose per la mancanza di parapetto, ma che offrono paesaggi stupendi.

Del Vitamina TEAM hanno preso parte: Andrea Servadei, Fabio Guardigli e Fabrizio Bresciani

Consigliamo a tutti questa fantastica esperienza, anche se veramente dura ed impegnativa.