twowheeltours and the Haute Route share an exciting three year history and the future looks great for more challenges in 2014 with not two, but three cyclo-sportifs. The race organisers OC Sport, have added a 3rd race for 2014 – Haute Route Dolomites.

The French Alps have been the stable since the first edition in 2011 with an 800+ km timed race from Geneva to Nice. This year, the Haute Route Pyrenees - Barcelona to Biarritz edition was added.

These Haute Route races are billed as the 'highest and toughest cyclo-sportives in the world' and 2014 will test even the most committed road bike rider. twowheeltours will be offering packages, including race entry, for each of these three races and for the serious riders, a discounted package covering all whole three.

Why the Haute Route - after competing in the first Haute Route, I saw the advantages of creating a special eleven day package with luxury accommodation before and after each event. After all, riding for seven straight days over the famous Tour de France stages in the French Alps is not something you attempt without training, commitment and a love of riding.

What better way than to have two days of pre event luxury with the time to 'acclimatise' and get two moderate training rides under your belt plus some needed relaxation after a long journey to the start city. The same thoughts applied at the end of the race, two days in absolute luxury to re-live the highlights with our other riders whilst eating great food and relaxing in five star comfort.

As an official Tour Operator, appointed by the organisers of the Haute Route races, it is exciting to continuing our association. We have put together both eleven day and an eight day packages for the 2014 Haute Route events.  Click here for details.

We at twowheeltours pride ourselves on providing the best experience for our clients and in addition to riding each HR stage spending time with each rider on our tour, my team provides a personalised service to ensure you get to the start each day in the best possible form to ensure success in each stage.

At the end of each stage, we have our staff there to welcome you in and provide you with your day bag, cold drink, some chocolate and chips, a "well done" and information about where you accommodation is and what time is dinner.

Here are some comments from our clients who attended the 2012 and 2013 twowheeltours events:

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It was a great trip and thanks again for everything you did to make things run so smoothly ... The organisation was excellent and everything ran very smoothly ... the trip itself was excellent and I wouldn't do the HR with anyone else.  Joseph (August 2013) - Haute Route Alps 2013

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The trip was beyond my expectation. I'm pretty sure my boys [Shoko was the Team Tauge Team Manager] were satisfied perfectly, they became relaxed and made friends with other tour members...even though there were some language communication problems. When riders saw Joe at the goal or saw Will in the peloton, they really got encouraged and relieved. Thank you for your hospitality, we really appreciate everything you've done for us. Y. Shoko (August 2013) - Haute Route Alps 2013  

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Hello Will - Thank you so much for everything on the tour. It made it a zillion times easier for me. I have low tolerance for things going wrong when I'm tired and hungry and I just know that would have happened without you and Laurie to organise me. I'm so impressed that you can ride all day and then sort us out in the non-riding times. You are completely unflappable! I really enjoyed it.

I don't think I would have finished the HR without being looked after. I would have struggled with messy transfers and disorganisation on top of riding. Thanks you and Laurie for all your care, support and organisation. It really showed. Eleri (September 2013) - Haute Route Pyrenees 2013  Haute Route Pyrenees Blog 2013 

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Thoroughly enjoyed the trip from a riding perspective and ditto from a non-riding viewpoint. We believe the logistics were handled very efficiently and I appreciated the separate transfers between stages that TWT had organised. The support staff were also very good in catering to our needs - especially Gorka. Even the smallest request was attended to - there is no way that I would consider doing the Haute Route without the level of support provided by TWT. We are happy to endorse the HR TWT trips and gladly act as referees for any other interested parties. We both want to do it again!!!!! Detlef -Rider- & Lisa -Non Rider- (September 2013) - Haute Route Pyrenees 2013 

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The service and dedication provided is excellent. I am very satisfied with the service. It is an excellent way of entering the Haute Route. Grant (September 2013) - Haute Route Pyrenees 2013 - This was Grant's second Haute Route with twowheeltours

Haute Route - Here We Come

twowheeltours and Ride Cycling Magazine 

heading to Geneva - Nice and all the Col's between

This is the advert that will be placed in Ride Cycling Magazine in the next issue

For more information click here - you can also email info@twowheeltours.com.au for more details.

Cannondale

A week of testing out a new bike ... does life get any better when you've got the only ONLY Cannondale Scalpel ULTIMATE in Australia to ride around on? It really is hard to believe that a full suspension bike can be this light! It was a pleasure to take around the city this week, I even found a little stretch of dirt to see how it handled off road, to sum it up in one word -ultimate- is what comes to mind. The whole system integration, no bearings or bushings really does pay off with weight reductions! Next weekend it will be on the trails ... can I wait that long!? 

There is rumour that a 29'er will be around soon - now that is a bike that I'd like to take on the Swiss MTB Week in the Alps, June 13-19 2011. On the trip this year, one of the riders who usually rides a 29'er was professing the need for his bike instead of a standard 26 ... maybe one day he'll be back to rail those trails on a 29'er. 

During the weekend I was at the NSW Cycling Grand Prix down at Coogee Beach, 960m of road was turned into a criterium track, two hairpin turns and plenty of riders made for some interesting riding. It is great to see Sydney have events such as this put on. It makes me pine for the Tour de France again, come July we'll be back there, letting the Tour come to us.

Things on the twowheeltours side of things are certainly moving along, the Six Degrees of Separation has gained plenty of interest. All those years of teaching in the US has gotten me closer to the White House than I would have guessed. I got this from one of my degrees 'It's interesting that you mentioned Barack Obama, because a good friend of mine's brother works in the White House...go figure!  So i'll see if i can get them to look at your website :)'

Some unfortunate news came out this morning about the Pegasus Racing Team, it seems that they are having trouble with their entry Pro Team Licence from the UCI. In attending the launch for Bikes for Bush a few months back I was fortunate enough to meet Chris White who 

is the team manager for Pegasus Racing. He had a dream to construct an Australian based cycling team to take on the likes of the Tour de France. This was never going to be easy but I hope that there is a silver lining for Chris and the rest of the Pegasus team.

Have a good week all and get on that bike.