If you’d like to find other riders travelling on the same dates, please use the Strava Club page and create a thread, using the travel destination name for your title for outbound transfers, and the departure town for any return transfers (don’t use the Loop name, because several Loops arrive/depart on the same days). It’s worth doing outbound and return as 2 separate threads.
My Rider Account
We will post travel advice for each Loop below, when we publish our Loops at the end of October.
Until then, there is some general guidance below.
Travel to Le Loop
You need to arrange and pay for your own travel to and from your first and last hotel unless a transfer is included in the Loop.
- Please arrive at your hotel no later than 7pm on arrival day – 12pm for Barcelona.
- For train travel to and within France: eurostar.com and sncf-connect.com
- For flight comparison, kayak.co.uk is one of our favourite sites.
Train /bus versus Plane
Train travel in France can be booked on the SNCF website: sncf-connect.com. We encourage riders to take the train where possible in order to reduce our environmental impact. We’ve put together guidance notes to help make taking the train or bus as easy as possible.
Team up with other Loopers
To Barcelona. Sat 27th June
Train: From London, it’s under 10hrs by train to Barcelona with a quick change in Paris. Worth considering if you enjoy more leisurely travel.
Plane: Alternatively, there are flights from most UK airports to Barcelona.
Long haul: Barcelona is well served by international flights. We offer extra nights at the Barcelona hotel in case you want to arrive a day or two early and recover from jetlag
Back from Paris: Mon 20th July
Train: Trains to London and beyond are easy with the Eurostar. Tickets go on sale three months before and you can sign up for alerts when the date you want is released.
Flight: It’s worth checking Orly airport as well as CDG as it has improved connections each year and is just as easy to get to.
To Barcelona. Sat 27th June
Train: From London, it’s under 10hrs by train to Barcelona with a quick change in Paris. Worth considering if you enjoy more leisurely travel.
Plane: Alternatively, there are flights from most UK airports to Barcelona.
Long haul: Barcelona is well served by international flights. We offer extra nights at the Barcelona hotel in case you want to arrive a day or two early and recover from jetlag
Back from Carcassonne: Tue 30th June
Flight: Carcassonne airport has direct flights to London Stansted and Manchester on Tuesday 30th. For other destinations, you can take a train (1hr) to Toulouse where the airport has more international links.
Train: With a quick change in Paris (Montparnasse station to the Gare du Nord), you can get to London by train in under 9hrs.
To Barcelona. Sat 27th June
Train: From London, it’s under 10hrs by train to Barcelona with a quick change in Paris. Worth considering if you enjoy more leisurely travel.
Plane: Alternatively, there are flights from most UK airports to Barcelona.
Long haul: Barcelona is well served by international flights. We offer extra nights at the Barcelona hotel in case you want to arrive a day or two early and recover from jetlag
Back from Ussel. Mon 6th July
You will sleep in Ussel at the end of stage 9 (Grand Loopers will eat with you in Ussel but then drive to Aurillac for their rest day) and we have organised a transfer for Monday morning at 9am to take you (and Middle Mountains cyclists) to Clermont Ferrand train station (by 10.30)
Train: It’s only 3hrs 45 by train from Clermont Ferrand to Paris (and under 7 to London including time to change in Paris) on the very comfortable TGV trains.
Plane: Whilst Lyon airport is closest (2hrs 45 by train from Clermont Ferrand), for variety of routes, the best departure airports are probably CDG or Orly in Paris which take barely longer to get to.
To Vichy. Tue 7th July
We have included a transfer for this Loop. It will leave Lyon Airport / St Exupery TGV station at 14.30 to arrive at our Vichy hotel by 5.00/5.30.
Train: It’s only 5hrs by train from Paris to Lyon.
Plane: Lyon airport is well served from many UK and European cities.
Back from Paris: Mon 21st July
Train: Trains to London are easy with the Eurostar!
Flight: It’s worth checking Orly airport as well as CDG as it has improved connections each year and is just as easy to get to.
To Chambery: Mon 13th July
Train: London to Chambery can be done in well under 7hrs including time to change from the Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon in Paris.
Flight: Alternatively, both Lyon and Geneva airports are under 2hrs by train or bus.
From Alpe d’Huez. Sat 18th July
We have included a transfer from Alpe d’Huez at 8am to Geneva airport (which has a train station). The journey should take under 3hrs so flights from 13.00 onwards are possible.
Chalon sur Saone. Thu 9th July
Train: Chalon is under 2.5hrs from Paris (with a change in Dijon) or under 5hrs all the way from London (change in Paris & Dijon).
Plane: The closest airport is Lyon. You have to take a shuttle into town to catch a train but then it’s only 1hr 15 to Chalon.
From Alpe d’Huez. Sat 18th July
We have included a transfer from Alpe d’Huez at 8am to Geneva airport (which also has a train station). The journey should take under 3hrs so flights from 13.00 onwards are possible.
If you decide to ride the Time Trial with us, you will depart from Thonon-les-Bains by your own arrangements (approx 1 hour by taxi). We anticipate completing the Time Trial by 1pm.
To Perigueux: Fri 3rd July
Train: London to Perigueux can be done in as little as 7hrs including time to change in Bordeaux and Paris.
Flight: From Bordeaux airport it’s a total of about 3hrs (shuttle to town and train to Perigueux) to our hotel
Alternatively, if you’re lucky enough to find flights to Limoges, Bergerac or Brive/Souillac airports, it’s a 1h30 bus/ train
Back from Ussel. Mon 6th July
You will sleep in Ussel at the end of stage 9 (Grand Loopers will eat with you in Ussel but then drive to Aurillac for their rest day) and we have organised a transfer for Monday morning at 9am to take you (and First Half cyclists) to Clermont Ferrand train station (by 10.30)
Train: It’s only 3hrs 45 by train from Clermont Ferrand to Paris (and under 7 to London including time to change in Paris) on the very comfortable TGV trains.
Plane: Whilst Lyon airport is closest (2hrs 45 by train from Clermont Ferrand), for variety of routes, the best departure airports are probably CDG or Orly in Paris which take barely longer to get to.
To Vichy. Tue 7th July
We have included a transfer for this Loop. It will leave Lyon Airport / St Exupery TGV station at 14.30 to arrive at our Vichy hotel by 5.00/5.30.
Train: It’s only 5hrs by train from Paris to Lyon.
Plane: Lyon airport is well served from many UK and European cities.
Double: From Chalon sur Saone. Fri 10th July
Train: Chalon is under 2.5hrs from Paris (with a change in Dijon) or under 5hrs all the way to London (change in Dijon & Paris).
Plane: The closest airport is Lyon. You have to take a train (1hr 15) to Lyon Part Dieu (town centre) and a shuttle out to the airport.
Double Double: From Belfort. Sun 12th July
Train: Belfort has an out of town train station called “Belfort Montbeliard” where super fast TGV trains whisk you to Paris in 2.5hrs. This means that London is under 6hrs by train including the train station transfer in Paris.
Plane: Basel airport (very well served by Easyjet amongst other airlines) is under an hour by car or 2hrs by public transport from our hotel.
To Carcassonne. Mon 29th June
Train: It’s just over 5hrs by train (on the fast trains) from Paris to Carcassonne and less than 9hrs all the way from London.
Plane: Carcassonne airport is only 1km from our hotel and Ryanair fly from Stansted on the 29th at 11:45 or East Midlands at 14.25.
From other regional airports, it may be easier to fly to Toulouse and travel onwards to Carcassonne by train.
From Gavarnie. Fri 3rd July
We have included a transfer at the end of the Pyrenees Loop to take you to Lourdes/Tarbes airport or Tarbes train station. It will leave the Gavarnie hotel at 7am to arrive at the airport by 8.30am for flights later in the day and Tarbes train station by 9.00 for onward trains.
Plane: Currently Ryanair has well timed flights for Stansted and Manchester.
Public transport to Toulouse airport from Tarbes station takes 2hrs 15 and from Toulouse airport there are plenty more regional flight options.
Train: The fastest trains reach Paris from Tarbes in little over 5hrs, so London is a mere 8.5hrs including the change in Paris.