This SportActive tour is located in the Provence region of Southern France. The nearest main town is Carpentras.

SportActive offers fantastic and challenging rides, all guided. We ride some of the roads used in the Paris-Nice stage race and in the Tour de France. The gem of the week is the ascent of Mont Ventoux, the infernous mountain with an altitude of 1912 m.

Ventoux , a mountain located some 20 km north-east of Carpentras is the largest mountain in the region and has been nicknamed the "Giant of Provence" or "The Bald Mountain". From Bédoin, the ride is 22 km over 1610 m climbing. This is the most famous and difficult ascent.
The road has an average gradient of 6% until Saint-Estève. The 16 remaining km have an average gradient of 8,9%.

While the ride takes 2-3 hours for trained amateur individuals, the pros can ride it in 1-1.15 hours. The fastest time recorded is that of Iban Mayo in the individual climbing Time Trial of the 2004 Dauphiné Libéré. Mayo did the cliimb in an amazing 55' 51" !

The time was first measured from Bédoin in the 1958 Tour de France in which Charly Gaul achieved the win with the time of 1h 2' 9".

Cycling programme :

5 guided rides, coached by Martin :

• Les gorges de la Nesque
• Le col le L'Homme Mort
• Tour des Dentelles de Montmirail
• Route des Vins (Vacqueras, Gigondas...)
• Mont Ventoux par Sault - East
• Mont Ventoux par Bédoin -South (passing the Memorial for Tom Simpson, passed out during the Tour de France stage).
• Mont Ventoux par Malaucène - North

Distance and difficulty of the rides will be adapted taking into account the fitness level of the group.

Accommodation : Village de Vacances Les Florans

Les Florans is located 200 meters outside the charming "village provençal" Bédoin, right at the bottom of Mont Ventoux, in an expansive 3 acres private park.

85 double or twin rooms, en suite, with telephone, TV, balcony or terrace.
You will find a vast restaurant (breakfast buffet, dinner : buffet or served at the table depending on the season), bar service with terrace, sitting areas, library, meeting rooms, heated outdoor pool, tennis, grounds for volley ball, pétanque etc.

The location is ideal : you enjoy the view on Mont Ventoux literally all the time ! For the bike rides, we are situated on flat terrain, in the middle of the Côte du Rhône vineyards, with easy access to all the other surrounding rides as indicated above.

The package includes :

• 6 nights Half Board, based on 2 sharing
  
• private airport transfers
  
• bike hire for 5 days
  
• 5 guided bike rides
• Bike storage

Not included are:

• Flights
• Single supplement : 14 €/night
  
• Private medical & travel insurance

This amount will be invoiced in €uro; the exchange rate at the moment of payment will apply for the guests who need to pay in Sterling.

Package with flight :

• We invoice your flight at cost +15% admin charge (for our guests in the Sterling zone, we invoice it in Sterling if the air company is British - this avoids going through exchange rate with €).
• You can also buy your own flight, as long as the landing/take off times in Geneva airport are close to the times of the Aer Lingus flight from Dublin (in order to be able to join the airport transfer)

To book your place on this trip, please send in a booking form and a deposit per person :

• 300 € for the package without flight,
• 500 € for the package with flight.
• balance needs to be paid 2 months before the holiday, deadline July 17th, 2012

17 to 23 Sept 2012   SOLD OUT

without flights

• 699 € /pps early booking before 31st January 2012
• 731 € / pps for bookings from 1st February 2012

Flight details :
17/9/12:

• Dublin dep 8:40 arr Gatwick 10:00 Aer Lingus EI232
• Gatwick dep 13 :20 arr Marseille 16:10 British Airways BA2365

23/9/12 :

• Marseille dep 10:15 arr Gat 11:05 British Airways BA2363
  
• Gatwick dep 14:40 arr Dublin 16:00 Aer Lingus EI243
  

Contacts:

for any further information, please contact us

SOLD OUT

Please make sure you have valid private medical insurance and travel insurance

Book Now!

If you would like to book your place on this holiday, please download the booking form and return with a deposit of 200 € per person.

 

You prefer to talk to us before sending your booking request ?  On the numbers below you will talk to :

• Martin : 0044/ (0)28 7136 5997
• Martin mobile : 0044/ (0)75 997 191 79 ; 00353/ (0)86 196 6006
• Flora : 0033/ (0)4 78 59 18 90 ; 0033/(0)6 99 79 12 54

How to book your holiday and pay the deposit :

1. post the completed booking form + cheque made payable to SportActive, to: SportActive, 1st Floor, 2 Dacre Terrace, L/Derry, BT48 6JU, N Ireland
2. by bank transfer in € or £ : please contact us to receive the bank details

Once we have received the deposit, we shall send you a SportActive-Atol-invoice for the outstanding balance of the holiday (to be paid 8 weeks before departure)

Airport transfers :
For the SportActive Cycling Centre in Mallorca : will be organized in function of your flight details ; if you book your own flights the flight details must be forwarded to SportActive with your booking. If any change in your flight schedule occurs later, please check with us if and how this affects your airport transfer. For all changes in transfers an administrative fee will apply.
The transfers for groups are organized with a privately hired bus.
The transfers for individuals or small groups under 5 persons are booked with a shuttle service.
A private taxi can be organized on request ; additional charge applies. Please ask us.

For other holidays : the flight details of the group are indicated in the package description. If you organize your own flights, you must make sure you land in the arrival airport no later than 1 hour 30 min after the group flight in order to join the programmed airport transfer.

SportActive will organise accommodation and activities. The price is inclusive with the following exceptions:

1. Cycle hire is extra
2. On walking trips there will be a small additional charge for local taxis to walks start and return to hotel (for certain tours)
3. Participants are responsible for their own insurance.

• All participants are responsible for their own safety.
• All participants (cycling) must at all times obey the rules of the road.
• All participants are responsible for their own fitness/health to take part in an active holiday.
• SportActive will accept no responsibility for accidents or injury to participants during the trip.

 

Travel Insurance

UK residents : click here to book your travel insurance

EU residents : click here to book your travel insurance

Please make sure you have valid travel insurance for all bookings !

 

You need more informations ? Ask us !

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