jjd

Are there organized trips to follow a stage of the tour de France?
If not do you know if there are many people who ride the stages right after the start of a stage?
Will be in France this summer and on our bucket list is to ride a stage of the tour.
Thanks

indyfabz

One stage? Doubt it. You can simply ride a course yourself, so where would the money be in leading a tour of one stage? And people who ride the course usually do so before the stage starts. The racers don't start early in the a.m., and if it's a mountain stage finish you'd run into all the traffic of people driving down after the end of the stage. Back in '95 I did an organized tour built around the last week or so of the Giro. That's what we did. Ride some of the course then watch the race go by. Unless you are incredibly strong you are not going to be able to ride an entire route except maybe a time trial course. I did manage to complete the entire mountain TT course that had two climbs that were probably not all that demanding by pro standards.

Be advised that finding places to stay in the area of a tour stage can be a logistical nightmare according to the couple who ran the tour company that I went with.

El Diavolo in Sampeyere at the start of the Col d'Angel.

skidder

The route(s) change from year-2-year, so I highly doubt you'd find any trips like that. And the road closures are pretty brief so not a lot of time for a casual tour group to ride along: one of my brothers was on his honeymoon over their in the early 1990s and happened to be in a town in eastern France when 'Le Tour' came through - as soon as the peleton and support vehicles had passed through, the barriers and traffic controls almost instantaneously disappeared and life got back to normal. And most tour groups aren't going to ride 100 miles in a day.

Better option is to look for something that includes the 'classic' sections that are regularly in 'Le Tour'. Try something like the Alps de Huez or Mt. Ventoux climbs. (sorry if my spellings are wrong).

axolotl

I rode part of a stage on the day of the stage prior to the arrival of the peleton without even knowing the Tour would be coming through until the night before. I suspect the police and Tour organizers wouldn't permit that anymore. I think I was allowed to ride because I was going down a mountain pass (Col d'Allos) which was already closed to cars, but it was still a few hours before the peleton would arrive.

I would suggest you follow skidder's suggestion above. Mont Ventoux, Col du Tourmalet, and Alpe d'Huez are all well-known and have various Tour-related features. Mont Ventoux is the easiest (if you start in Sault, as I did). I rode up with my panniers on a beautiful Saturday in late May, and there were hundreds of cyclists (none with panniers, however) riding up, most of whom went with an outfitter who provided high quality racing bikes and provided a shuttle so they could descend down a different side. I happened to ride the Col du Tourmalet on the day (also in late May) when the sculpture of a giant cyclist was being brought up to the top on a flatbed truck. In honor of that annual event, dozens of local cyclists from France and Spain rode up the col for the ceremony. Alpe d'Huez was the most difficult. Each lacet (hairpin curve) is numbered and signposted.

I was touring in SW France last September with some friends. We rode through some towns in the Dordogne valley which the Tour had passed through last summer. Many of the villages were still decorated.

fietsbob

the time trial stages are short.. some are loops .. you feeling frisky ? head up to the climbs early , camp out the day ahead.

BobG

In 1994 I joined a group of friends cycling in the Pyrenees. We stayed at hotels near the route. One day we rode in the direction of the Tour (intercepting the route) until we got pulled over an hour or two ahead of race arrival. Another day we rode up the Col du Tourmalet in reverse direction in time for a late afternoon encounter with the Tour. We found no need for a tour company to provide that service. Riding the entire stage on the same day would not allow time to spectate it.

That's me in the yellow jersey out in front of Armstrong! (on sidelines with camera )

BobG

indyfabz

I think people still do that regularly. During coverage you can usually see a good number of people in cycling clothes with bikes lining the mountain stages.

jefnvk

Dunno if anyone offers the option to ride a current stage, but there are plenty of operators who combine viewing TdF with VIP access with riding some of the classical stages and bike touring in general.

Just a few that popped up on a quick google search:
https://www.bikestyletours.com/tour-...tour-de-france
https://www.discoverfrance.com/tour-...nce-bike-tours
https://www.thomsonbiketours.com/rac...kom-challenges

alan s 

Most people ride the route, or at least a portion, before the tour comes through, and then hang out until everything passes by. You won’t want to miss the caravan. After it goes through, everything returns to normal pretty quickly. I was at a mountain finish in Switzerland, and the next day you never would have known the tour passed through.