For this year’s Tour de France, I’ve decided to take my Giant Revolt with me.
It is better suited for rougher terrain than the Émonda – I’ve cycled bad ‘routes forestières’ on that, but it’s not ideal.
Another advantage is the gearing: my Émonda has a lowest ratio of 1, the Giant a granny gear ratio of 0.77 – yes, I’m aware that 1:1 is already granny gear for most of you.
(The Giant comes standard with the Rival 40T / 10-44T (0.91) combo, but I replaced that with an Eagle group set.)
Obviously, the 45 mm gravel tires also help 😎
But as I’ve previously stated I will not be looking for the often-degraded roads that are listed on Climbfinder as ‘cyclable on a road bike’, you may wonder why I even bother to take a bike like that with me.
Well, to be perfectly honest: because of climbs like the Tougnète and Loze. Perfectly asphalted, but I simply need the smaller gear…
And because there are some climbs left in the area that are not perfect tarmac-wise, plus some ‘pistes forestières’, that are worth cycling.
I’ve already listed Cormet d’Arêches / Plan Pichu and if I want to get past Barrage de Plan d’Aval to Plan d’Amont, the ‘road’ is on gravel also.
For the latter, the road is already not in top shape up to Plan d’Aval, which is as far as Climbfinder goes…
Also interesting is the Piste Forestière de la Grande Roche, part of the Route des Grandes Alpes Gravel, between Modane and Valmeinier, or even further to Valloire.
And probably as an endeavor that is bound to fail, I have plotted a course combining a few climbs close to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne that are over ski slopes: La Saussaz, L’Arpont and L’Arcelin.
They’re mostly on degraded tarmac and gravel, which coupled with the sustained grades means I need the smallest gearing I have available on my bikes.
But I can do these one by one too – maybe that would be a good idea for when I want to meet the pros.
The Car
And if you wonder how my support car is able to get over the roughest of these roads: after 5 mini vans over the past decade, we’ve recently bought a Dacia Bigster.
The main task for this C-SUV is no longer to almost exclusively support my idiotic cycling adventures. Unlike the mini vans it has a back row, so we can take our granddaughter on a trip.
Or Grasshopper, when he decides to join us again for another Türkiye – Hollanda cycling meet-up and we need to transfer to or from a start / finish location 😏
The Bigster owns up to its name, and I can easily put the bike in the back of the car although I will put it on a bike carrier for any grand tour.
