Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!

From all of us at Discover France Adventures, Pure Adventures, Cycling Classics, GoToParis; we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous New Year in 2010!

Dollar on Strong Roll to Euro

Lots of turmoil in the currency market today and since this week. It is likely to continue next week before it turns around. Many analysts see the dollar much weaker than it is today during 2010. We are locking down forward contracts on currency to hedge against 2010 increase. We encourage any readers planning a 2010 vacation to consider prepaying their trip or get connected to the market news.

Here is a good place to read up:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/markets/currencies.html

Happy Holidays!

New Guided Alpes to Mont Ventoux

We are pleased to announce that we have finally posted this new guided trip for 2010; Alpe d'Huez to Mont Ventoux!

This trip is open for booking on the following dates: June 13-20, June 26-July 3, August 21-28, & September 19-26; this tour is guided, or can be available upon request for any group of minimum of 6 persons on any date you choose; subject to hotel availability.

Highlights of the cycling include:

Alpe d'Huez
Col de la Croix de Fer
Col de Galibier
Col d'Izoard
Mont Ventoux

The trip is very nicely priced at 1595 euros with 6 participant minimum basis!
It is a 7 night trip and includes all the following in this price:

lodging in mostly 3 stars and 1 2 star hotel, most dinners as shown in the itinerary, picnic lunches, daily buffet breakfast, arrival and departure transfers and all interim transportation, welcome orientation and drink, road book with maps and cue sheets, luggage handling, 1 professional guide for 8 persons and 1 support van with roof mounted bike carrier, energy bars, drink mix, souvenir Discover France jersey.

Call us at 800-960-2221/480-905-1235 or in France at 04.67.71.16.09
email: info@cyclingclassics.com
OFFER: Subscribers to this feed or our Enews can take a 75 euros per person discount if booked before January 31!

Discover France Announces 2010 Tour de France Tours

Discover France Adventures, official Tour Operator to the Tour de France, has now posted all of their tour offers for the 2010 race. The offers vary from VIP guided tours with full on insider access to media, the teams, and rides on the closed race course as well as podium access. At the other end of the offers are the self guided tours which give independent do-it-yourselfers excellent locations to see several stages of the 2010 Tour. Discover France is also offering what they call their "Domestique" tours - fully guided tours with excellent lodging and professional guides without the price tag of the VIP access.

If you are cyclists, how about riding a full stage of the Tour de France yourself? That is what Etape du Tour is all about and Discover France has packages to do just that.

The cycling isn't only for strong cyclists! Discover France also offers a VIP tour with moderate cycling distances that will suit perfectly for couples and persons who also want to take in more of the French culture and heritage. This trip starts in Aix en Provence on Bastille Day - what a great way to start!

For those who follow the Tour de France but don't have time to give to a complete cycling tour, there are the Paris only and Bordeaux+Paris offers available. These all include special Tribune seating for the final stage that finishes on the Champs Elysees in Paris. There is nothing like reserved seating for this stage as the streets surrounding are at least 10 people deep!

Custom requests are still being accepted. Numerous groups are organized already, so don't wait, hotel space is getting harder to have. Contact us by email to request a quote.

Discover France Official Tour Operator to the Tour de France

Now posted live on the official tour website: www.letour.fr

Pricing and details will be posted live within a few days timeframe on our sites:

www.discoverfrance.com
www.cyclingclassics.com

Crossing the Pyrenees is BEST TRIP FOR 2010!

National Geographic Adventure has selected another Discover France tour for their annual award list known as the "25 Best New Trips for 2010". The November issue is now on news stands and the online article can be found at this link: http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/2009/11/best-new-trips-2010/trips-text

The trip chosen is our new Crossing the Pyrenees Trip which is actually listed on the Cycling Classics Website at this page: http://www.cyclingclassics.com/pyrenees_traverse.php
This is a challenging trip as it involves cycling from the Atlantic Coast to the Mediterrean Coast over the passes and through the famous Pyrenees Mountain chain. It is however a dream trip for strong cyclists and long distance riders who love to get away from it all! The big draw and main selling feature in selecting this trip for this prestigious list is the fact that the Pyrenees remain a true natural setting that have gone largely unnoticed by mass tourism development.

Small villages that depend on agriculture and livestock as well as a few small industries still keep people in these remote and wildly picturesque hill sides. This is still France and so food is an important tradition everywhere in France. Cycling all day is rewarded with comfortable lodging, a warm welcome, and hearty traditional cuisine!

We referred to this trip as an 'expedition' style trip of days gone by. Imagine leaving the glitzy Atlantic coast at Biarritz behind and riding into the 'unknown'?! Passing from small village to small village and crossing quiet lands and soaking up raw mountain beauty creates anticipation and a bit of concern. The cycling is hard - so participants need to be ready! We offer guided and self guided options to do this tour; prices are posted on the link above!

Tour de France 2010 - Oct 14

The route of the 2010 Tour de France is to be announced next week in Paris, October 14. We are naturally watching very closely to see exactly how the Tour route will shape up for 2010, but we have a few ideas and a major announcement that is forthcoming:

First, we are pleased to pre-announce that Discover France Adventures, owners of the brand Cycling Classics, will be an Official Tour Operator for the Tour de France in 2010 ! This is very exciting news and following meetings with Amaury Sports Organization (ASO) last week in Paris, we are pleased to be selected by ASO in this exclusive representation! Only 5 companies worldwide share this distinction! We are already planning for the official announcement.

One important bit of information that does NOT come with our official tour operator status is any early knowledge of the upcoming Tour route. So, like most, even we have to wait to October 14 to know for sure. However, we have been busy at work booking hotels in various places throughout France. What we can say for sure is this:

The Pyrenees are going to play a big role in 2010. This is the 100th anniversary of the Tourmalet and the Tour de France; so we expect a number of stages in the Pyrenees, including a Tourmalet stage. We also expect to see Etape du Tour in the Pyrenees again this year - possibly including the Tourmalet.

We expect huge numbers for the places we will have to offer in 2010. We will offer VIP trips with privilged access on the Tour and of course our traditional Tour trips without all the same VIP access but still privileged info and always professional support. We hope to announce our tours in full detail by the end of October. Early booking is possible with the option to cancel (without any penalty); see this page of our site for info: Tour de France 2010

New Guided Alpes Trips for 2010

Currently in the works:

New Alpes Trip: Stay at Alpe d'Huez for a few nights, ride on to St Martin en Maurienne following the route of the Marmotte; then to Briancon to bag the Galibier and Izoard.

New Alpes to Ventoux: following the above route we continue on to Mont Ventoux.

Dates are in process now. Groups of 6 or more can have a custom guided tour date - let us know soon as guides, vans, and equipment are already being booked up.

Tour de France followers - here is a cool blog that can keep you up to date on what the latest speculations are for 2010:

New Jerseys & Shirts are Here

The new Discover France Adventures 'kits' are in! Jerseys, shorts, and bib shorts are available at prices just over cost. This is not a profit center item, we want jerseys on the road so we are just covering costs; so the prices are very good. This is high quality gear made by Sugoi, the same company that outfits our top rated amateur youth development team, Team Waste Management.

The design is very cool too! We use our custom logos and unique logo color combination but we have kept the graphics to a minimum. For fun, we stuck a baguette, wine bottle, and camembert (cheese) in the back pockets! Its France afterall!! On the collar it says Bonjour and Au Revoir! The material is lightweight and light colors so will keep you cool; and looking very cool!

Also on this page that is linked above are some new T-shirts! Of course they too are very stylish and sold at just over cost. Different options are available. Some nice white Ts to our blue/green T, and our night club black T.

Enjoy!

Tour de France & Etape 2010

The 2009 Tour is a few weeks in the bag now and already the inquiries for 2010 are upon us! In fact, we already have bookings! (Pic: Our client David Towne with his favorite play by play guy!)

What we know - the 2010 Tour will see some new teams and potentially a new rivalry: Contador who is trying to get away from Astana and possibly go with a new Spanish team; Lance going to Radioshack and forming a team. There is no doubt that the news and dramas of pro cycling will keep us glued until next year.

This year we had some great trips and feedback was very good. So, in order to get people booked and confortable, we are going to accept advance bookings now with a fully refundable option until December this year. When we know the full Tour program for 2010 in late October, we will announce some tours. This is a NO RISK way to lock up some space.

Why our tours? They are for cyclists - some come along if you want to do a lot of riding! We use only professional guides - which means Frenchmen who have years of cycling education, a diploma certifying their ability to lead people which includes safety, first aid, insurance, mechanics, group dynamics, and more. Not to mention that our guides are also bilingual, friendly, fun, and all strong cyclists themselves! Last - Price; very few can offer a better value. Being based in France and USA gives us a unique cost advantage - we don't have to subcontract services - so no layers of margin in our tours! Keep that in mind when you shop!

Check out the details at our site: 2010 French Grand Tour

Below are some pics submitted by clients from this year:

Team Astana Rocks TTT

Life is sweet.
Today, I had a day of so I was able to see the Tour de France in my own city: Montpellier, close to the French office.
From my flat, I could hear the people and the helicopters used for TV. The atmosphere was dedicated to bicycle.
So, of course, the crowd was fantastic and very enthusiastic. People were from all over the planet.
But guess who get the best welcome? Lance for sure!
The only guys who draw something on the road were Lance fans, they wrote “Allez Lance” (Go Lance) just in front of me. Even if there are quite a lot of stars, everyone was overwhelmed by Lance.
He has a huge charisma, he moves the audience.
I am so happy to finally get to see him even if they are so fast that you just cannot believe it!

The race is on, enjoy it…

Photos and video posted on Facebook

Tom.

New Transpyrenees Challenge Tour

We have just operated this tour for 28 people on 2 different groups but in reverse order. This tour has been in the works for 6 months now and is posted for 2010. However, we can offer it for private groups in August and September this year as well. Here is a short description and link to the full tour info:

Trip: Cycling Across The Pyrenees

http://www.cyclingclassics.com/pyrenees_traverse.php

Location: France, From Biarritz to Collioure

Dates: TBD – open from Mid May to Mid October

9 Nights/10 Days

Guided, Self Guided, Custom Groups

1790 euros Self Guided

2435 euros Guided

This tour is going new on our site but we have actually run it a few times this year for some private groups; so it is tested. Our guides just returned last week and they were overwhelmed with the amazing beauty of the region. Our guides are French and they were still impressed. The region is one of only a few places in France that is more or less undisturbed. Traditions and an old way of life continue on. There are many tiny villages but no big cities. Wildlife still inhabit the region in their natural environment. The peaks of the Pyrenees make you feel like you are on top of the world but are really only about 8000 ft in elevation. The dining is informal and hardy in the local tradition, and the people couldn’t be more sweet and welcoming. They are proud of their space and are thrilled to have travelers come to see it.

We are presenting this trip to clients as if they were explorers; setting off on an expedition. The challenge of the cycling and the wild, quiet, and relatively unknown countryside ahead gives a great sense of anticipation. The clients start with 1 foot in the harsh Atlantic surf and finish with the other in the mild Mediterranean calm. This is a trip of a lifetime for people who will do it.

We believe it is a great value for a 10 day trip. It is priced in euros, as is our policy, but converted to $US at today’s rates is in the $3300 range based on 6 persons. You will note that the tour price can change with group size – so more participation can lower the costs per person. Also, you will note that this trip can be done self guided too for about $2500.

Tour de France - Day by Day Details

The Tour de France website now has the details of each stage posted. You can see stage by stage the map/route, sometimes profiles when it isn't a flat stage, also the time schedule which I think is really great info. There are nice pictures and info of the stage start towns and finish towns. If you are going to the race, the Time Schedule is very useful for planning. The race runs almost exactly as they have it posted!

http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDF/COURSE/us/100/etape_par_etape.html

Last Minute Tour de France Tours

The Giro is almost over and the Tour is just about a month away. Where will you be? In front of your TV or on site?! We have a couple spaces left to offer, so readers, check it out quickly. Airlines have been doing funky last minute things, maybe you can score a good fare; and if so, get on it and maybe you can join one of our trips! Prices are the best you will find!

2 space left: Alpes-Mont Ventoux, July 19-26. We had a cancellation and can take a couple or 2 friends.

1 space left: Alpes-Mont Ventoux II; July 19-26. Your own room, or you can share on 2 nights of the trip with another.

Why go on these? Ride the big mountains of Alpe d'Huez, Galibier, Ventoux. See the time trial in Annecy; stage finish on Ventoux where the winner WILL be determined! Oh yeah, did I mention our price is about as good as you can find anywhere?!

Finally - moderate cycling option to see the first week of the race; Monaco to Provence. Catch the opening and then the Team Time Trial.

All details at www.cyclingclassics.com/grand_tour.php

LAST CHANCE - contact us to get in! info@cyclingclassics.com

New Extreme Challenge Event in France

Merrell Oxygen Challenge
http://www.oxygenchallenge.com/index_us.htm

A new program in Challenge events, or better yet, Extreme events, this is the first year for the event and will take place in May. The organization behind is well know, ASO, the same organization that runs the Tour de France, Paris Marathon, and many others.

This unique event offers an 'a la carte' composition of trail runs and mountain bike rides over 4 days. Several thousand people are expected this year according to the site. This might be a perfect way to tie in a road riding trip to France and do it all in 10 days! 2010!

L

Tour de France - French Riviera

So, the Tour starts in Monaco this year which is very unique in the history of the tour. The Principalite of Monaco is an independent country but it might as well be France. Situated just next to Nice on the Cote d'Azur, this is the perfect start for the tour we are offering to enjoy some of the best southern France countryside and the greatest bicycle race in the world!

To know more about the opening events and activities for the race, visit this page of the Tour's website: http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDF/COURSE/us/grand_depart_2009.html

We are offering a chance to ride along the French Riviera and then continue on to the southern beaches of Provence to see the all important Team Time Trial. Among all the hard core cycling tours we offer at the Tour, this trip is not meant to be a hard core trip. In fact, it is a moderate trip that is open to good cyclists who love to follow the race but would also like to enjoy some Provence countryside and Mediterranean beaches. There is no heavy climbing and the ride distances are moderate with options to go long for those who need more miles.

To see full details about this trip, please see our website at http://www.cyclingclassics.com/grand_tour01.php

Last Minute Bookings - New Norm?

Hotels and airlines are willing to undercut themselves and their advance planning customers in order to fill unsold space. The trend has been around for a while, but it seemed like only a lucky few or those who were very flexible could get a last minute deal in the past. For example, being single gives you a whole lot of flexibility that a family of 4 may not have. According to the Wall Street Journal today, this last minute trend may be something of the new norm.

Of course new norms change all the time. The examples cited in the article show that currently this does pay off. I think this can only work with airlines and individual hotel bookings, however the cruise industry seems to be doing the same thing. Well, I personally don't care much about what the cruise industry is doing and frankly all these 'travel products' have become commodities. My concern is how this mentality transfers over into the tour business.

As a company that sells mostly self-guided trips, we can handle it. In fact, we can prosper from it where I am sure many guided/group tour programs with fixed departure dates cannot. We will happily take bookings at the last minute and organize the whole tour to start any date; that is our offer anyway, so if more people go to booking last minute then we can be there for them. How can a group departure do that?

The majority of people who book 'tours' are booking group, guided programs with fixed departure dates. These trips are organized by companies that have to lock up hotel rooms and services very far in advance. Often the hotels don't like to tie up rooms without some guarantees and so comes the non-refundable deposits, etc. These tours need early bookings to assure departures and hold space. If minimum numbers are not met far enough in advance, a tour company has to decide to either cancel the space to avoid lost non-refundable deposits to the hotels, or raise prices on those who book in advance to keep the trip. The latter is almost never the solution. These same hotels that would discount to last minute travelers booking direct impose higher restrictions and standards on the tour companies that market their product and bring them groups.

So, I would expect to see more group tours with fixed departure dates to start canceling. This may leave some people who booked in advance out in the cold - with airline tickets and no tour. We have been able to help many of these people in the past who are willing to go to a self guided trip, but for those who aren't - well, tough luck. Therefore, who wants to book a guided group tour with fixed departure date in advance??

Tour companies, including ourselves, are pushing hotels and other service providers to be more flexible in their terms, but when the demand for direct bookings is so strong (and more profitable to the hotel), why should they? This could mean quite some changes for the tour industry.

L

Spain self guided for the Tour de France

The Tour de France goes into Spain this year, specifically to Catalonia including Girona and Barcelona. It coincidentally crosses that part of Spain where we offer our cycling tours. And so, we are offering a slightly adapted version of our 'Challenge Tour' during the Tour's passthrough. The full program can be found at http://www.cyclingclassics.com/grand_tour03.php

Starting on July 8th in Girona with the arrival of the race into town, you plunge into the ambiance that is Le Tour! Next day see the departure for Barcelona and then head out on rides of your own.

We price this self guided program at 795 euros for 7 days! Smokin deal! See the link above for all info.

OTHER TDF announcement: 6 space remain on Alpes+Ventoux; and 4 spaces for Monaco-Provence. see www.cyclingclassics.com/grand_tour.php

New Mountain Bikes

Ever heard of the brand Focus? It is a German company and they are aggressively hitting the market this year. http://www.focus-bikes.com/index.asp

In fact, Team Milram will ride Focus bikes this year on the pro tour. We almost went with Focus road bikes in our new fleet but opted for Look instead. However, we did go with Focus mountain bikes. Thomas, who runs the shop in Lunel and is a former top 10 France MTB/VTT champion rides Focus.

We are making these bikes available for rent as well, just like our road and hybrid bikes. They are listed on the site at www.cyclingclassics.com/rental_bikes03.php

So far, the feedback is really good. We understand that Focus wants to take it to the big time this year so they are really discounting their bikes to get people to try them. So, a good deal may be had out there for a very good bike.

New Tour de France Trip

We will be announcing in the coming days a 2nd trip during the Tour de France that includes the Alpes and Mont Ventoux. We are going to cancel our Pyrenees+Ventoux trip where there has been very little interest in favor of this 2nd program where all the interest is.

If you want to be informed, please send an email.

This trip is now posted at: http://www.cyclingclassics.com/grand_tour05.php

This will be a small group of either 8 persons or max 12 persons and it will sell out. info@cyclingclassics.com

Look 566 - The New Road Rental

If you happen to be on our print newsletter distribution, then you should have received the latest edition recently. In there, we introduced our new road bike for 2009. Look really went on the offensive last fall and gave their sales people great tools to lock up team and fleet deals. We couldn't resist! In fact, as treasurer for a USA based amateur racing on the National Racing Calendar, our team even bought the same bike!! While we put DA on the amateur team bikes and added ultra light Ritchey wheels, stems, bars, and seat posts, we didn't have that luxury for our rental fleet. Nonetheless, the rental comes with a triple chainring, 105 groupo, that still weighs very little. As a rental, we believe we have about the best thing going! Here is a description from our rental page:

The Look 566 carbon road bike is featured on all of the Cycling Classics tours. They are brand new in 2009. Of note: the 566 is an entry level yet high quality carbon frame bike. From the Look website, you can read about the high quality carbon used in this model as well as the geometry and design features. The frame weighs in at 1100 grams and the carbon fork is another 350 grams! Total 1450 grams or 1.45kg (about 3 lbs!) The geometry as described by Look offers a taller head tube and shorter sloping top tube - a compact design to allow for more comfort for going longer and faster. We have all sizes: S, M, L, XL for people comfortably up to 1m93 (about 6ft-4in) See The Look website for more info.
http://www.cyclingclassics.com/rental_bike01.php

Bike rental only can be booked from the link above as well. But, we prefer to rent you this bike on one of our tours! Rental rates for tour clients are less than rental only. If you plan to rent in July then we encourage you to book it fast!

L

Tour de France Tours

We have our first sell out situation! Our Alpes-Ventoux guided trip from July 19-26 is full. Not surprisingly really, we expected it to go first. So, there is some good news for readers who might thinking to go:

1. We have a hotel on Lake Annecy that we can offer on a "hotel booking" only basis. 3 Nights, 2 star hotel, 90 euros/person per night including breakfast and dinner daily. It sits about 15km from Annecy center and is directly on the beautiful lake of Annecy. Perfect for viewing the TDF time trial and also riding up to Grand Bornand for the stage finish. Contact me if interested. This will go out in an enews to other subscribers in a few days so not likely to last!

2. Pyrenees to Ventoux: I like this trip and we put it in knowing that it would not sell before the Alpes. It is wide open, but now it is likely to get more attention. I like this trip because it offers challenging cycling in the famous cols of the Pyrenees just after the 09 TDF passes, so the crowds are gone but you can test yourself on the same routes. Then, you can go join the madness at Mont VEntoux for the big finish. Best of both worlds!

3. Provence-Cote d'Azur: We only blocked space for up to 8 persons. It is guided, and is possible for people a little less strong to join and have fun. We will see the opening stages, the team time trial, and of course enjoy the beach and Provencale lifestyle. The price is right too!

Here is the link to the tour options: http://www.cyclingclassics.com/grand_tour.php

How to Take Your Non Riding Spouse on a Trip!

We have all kinds of travelers; male and female; triathletes, roadies, mountain bikers, weekend warriors, masters racers, etc. Many of these exceptional athletes have a spouse who is not as passionate about the sport or activity as the other. So, how does one go on a trip to fabulous France and not take a spouse?

The most common way is probably to go as a guys or girls trip and then let your spouse do the same thing with their affinity pals another time. But, why not both go to 'Fabulous France' and do your own thing? It is possible.

IN a self guided offer it may not be so evident, but still very possible. For example, several of our trips are relatively short at 4 nights. So, a week trip could be 3 nights in Paris and then 4 nights on a cycling trip. The Paris part is obvious, but here's how your spouse who doesn't care to ride big cols can come along.

1. In the Alpes: the location is pretty remote, so if your spouse isn't an outdoor person at all the best is to let him/her find activities in a nearby town or city for 4 nights. For example: Annecy or Lyon offer arts, culture, museusm, shopping. If your spouse is outdoor oriented, but not a big cyclist; then how about some hiking, glacier skiing, rafting. Or even simply very tame but spectacular is to take the various gondolas that operate in the ski areas up to the high peaks to see the panoramas and have lunch/coffee and perhaps be inspired to write, read, draw, etc.

2. Mont Ventoux - its Provence, there is much to do away from the cycling. Lavender museums and producers, wine related visits, antique markets, arts and culture of many types. From Avignon you can join numerous guided minivan trips that are single day tours. Private drivers exist for a personal day tour.

Just some examples. Another even more complete idea is to get your friends where your non-riding spouses are also friends. We can organize two separate groups and you can hook up at the end of the day, or at the end of 4 days or 7 days.

Everyone can go, nobody feels guilty, and all have a good time! What more is there?!

L