if you could...

hannawho - 2009-07-08 1:06 PM Stage 20 of this year's Tour De France:  Hello Mount Ventoux!

LindaKC - 2009-07-08 11:10 AM My husband and I rented an apartment outside Siena, Italy (in Tuscany) for two weeks last September (honeymoon!) and we rented bikes for that period. We stayed at a beautiful farm, with a fully equipped apartment, in the "traditional" Tuscan style, and would go for a ride pretty much every day to a neighboring town and explore the countryside. I wanted a place that was relatively close to a lot of interesting cities/sights, but enough in the countryside that it was easy to get out and ride. Siena was perfect! (And the apartment we rented was only 65 euros a night - by far the cheapest place we stayed, and the nicest, too. We rented very nice Wilier road bikes there (it was too much trouble/money to bring our own) and stayed on the roads, although you can cycle the "Strada Bianca" (gravel roads all over the countryside - better for mountain/hybrid bikes) as well. The scenery was AMAZING, we felt very safe cycling there, and got to see a lot more than I think typical tourists would... although Tuscany is very hilly, so it was tough at times! But overall it was a wonderful trip. We are already talking about going back and doing it all again for our 5-year anniversary. We also want to do cycling trips in Belgium/Frace and Germany. I imagine those would be pretty great as well. Feel free to PM me if you ever want specific info on cycling in Italy.

the bear - 2009-07-08 1:17 PM

I have a freind who leaves next week for France, they will ride like the last ten stages of the TdF, I think riding ahead of the peleton. He did say specifically the plan includes a ride to the top of Ventoux where they'll watch the tour pass, then ride down.

Tripolar - 2009-07-08 2:34 PM

This.

Daremo - 2009-07-08 1:41 PM The Alps or the Dolemites.