bob the nailer

Anyone with any recent experience doing a european tour? I am wanting to do some sort of tour that rides some of the climbs of the tdf, but not while it is going on. Have looked at Marty Jemison, which seems good but kind of pricy. I know a lot of people are going to say just go and ride yourself, but I prefer not to have to deal every day with where are we going to eat lunch, where are we going to refill our bottles, what if we have a mechanical, etc. I am also looking at their spain tour, seems like the weather might be nicer. The blog accompanying the Jemison website of the tour I am looking at seems to talk a lot about rain. Does it rain a lot in the alps in late july/aug? Thanks in advance.

Machka 

My most recent European tour was in 2007. See my website in my signature line below, or here: https://www.machka.net/pbp2007/2007_PBP.htm

valygrl

Haven't used this at all myself, but I did run across it and thought it was interesting enough to bookmark:
www.biketoursdirect.com

Edit: oh I take it back, their daily mileages are really short.

bikinggrrrl

We did one of those supported tours for 2 weeks (forgive me all you die-hards) for our honeymoon a couple of years ago. Went with this group:
https://www.adventuretravelgroup.com/
They are a small, intimate tour group. I think they limit their number to 14? Gary & Lise are husband/wife team who do a great job managing variable bike skills, interest levels, egos, etc. They offer a number of tours in Europe.

Riding in the Pyrenees is unlike any riding I had done here in northeast US. Get up, eat breakfast, cycle 1/2 hour to bottom of mountain. Go up up up for 2-3 hours. Eat again. Descend for 1/2 hour. Repeat.

We did follow the tour for a couple of days and I have to say, that was very cool. Yes, it is crazy, but everyone there shares the same passion in very different ways. I gained an appreciation for those pro riders who flew over cols that we had to claw our way to the top. Plus it was wickedly cool to climb the same cols that I have seen so many times watching the Tour on tv.

It was nice being on a supported tour. Most meals were together and the food was astounding. Lise was our translator and would be as much of a "tour guide" as you desired. The SAG was always there if you ran into a mechanical issue, got too cold, or just plain tired. No judgments. No worries.

We hit rain a couple of days. Often it would be foggy all the way up the mountain only to be gorgeous and sunny at the top and on the other side. I suffered hypothermia on one rainy descent, but was well enough to cycle for the remainder of our tour. Definitely bring gear for hot and cold weather ~ you'll see both. SAG was great place to stash your extra gear. You might not see the van on the way up, but it was always waiting for us at the top.

One of the other people in our group did a write-up on the trip. You can read here: https://www.adventuretravelgroup.com/...st%20Diary.pdf

You can see some descent videos on this page:
https://www.adventuretravelgroup.com/...edia_Page.html