Depends where you're coming from.

I took a direct flight from Raleigh to CDG for work in 2018 and took my bike. Showed up to the airport both directions well well before my flight to get checked in fine.

I drove about 3 hours east for my work with it in a rental car. 4.5 hours is a lot though.

I wound up staying over in Paris a day and a half or so to check stuff out on the way home. I never took a train while there, only the car.

I've heard you have to check if the train can take bike boxes or if there's a fee ahead of time, just like the airlines.

Is the Lyon flight direct? If not, you'll be arriving in Europe and have to recheck the bike/cart it around. Which sucks. My Paris flight was direct, meaning only carting the bike around once.

So consider the transfers if looking at ease of the trip.

Both flights are direct, so no airport transfers.
Train to Lyon would require an extra transfer of luggage before getting in a rental car.

Assuming you are coming from North America, I would minimize any kind of drive. I did a US-Europe flight followed by a long day of driving once, and it was painfully exhausting. I would not do it again if there were other options.

CDG is by far the worst airport in the world by all measures. Pilots hate it, travelers hate it, and the inbound & outbound roads absolutely suck. Avoid at all costs. (I have traveled through CDG a few times, and my dad was a pilot. He has been hating on that airport for decades.)

Thanks for confirming my suspicions about CDG.


How bad is LYS? I think it might have to do. All my other routes are longer or on airlines that gouge for bikes.

I have travelled through CDG airport (transit to Nice twice and Geneva once) and two out of the three times my bike has been delayed by over 24 hours. I will only book connecting flights through CDG as a last resort.

I have never been to LYS, but there cannot be any way that airport is worse than CDG. CDG makes Mexico City seem like a paradise. Think of the worst way to do something, and CDG will hold your beer. Every of the beers.

LYS is a nice airport. I flew directly there from ... Atlanta, I think, in 2016. It's much easier than going via CDG. Pro tip: book through Delta instead of its partner Air France. The airlines code-share, but when there's a strike, the Delta-labeled flights tend to continue flying while the Air-France-labeled flights are a cluster.

It's a fairly easy drive from LYS to Bourg d'Oisans (base of Alpe D'Huez), as the LYS airport is on the Alp side of Lyon and you avoid the city. Lyon is worth a few days' visit -- it's the food capital of France.

The TGV (fast train) from Lyon to Paris goes directly to CDG airport in about two hours, so that's not a terrible route. If you have to fly into CDG, I'd recommend taking the train to Lyon and renting a car from there if you're not going to sightsee. If you have a week, that drive to Paris can go via the Burgundy and Champagne regions.

There are some excellent bike rental places in Bourg d'Oisans. I didn't bring my bike, but rented a nicer one from Bleach Xtrem Sports (bad name, very good company). "Cycle et Sports" were dicks.

---

<The Dew Abides>

I've done the drive from Geneva to Alpe D'huez before.
Lyon will be much faster. No stupid Swiss border too.

Flying from Canada so options are KLM/Air France, Air Canada, Iceland Air and Westjet.
Bring the bikes with as will do some riding in the Morzine area after.

Then book a KLM-branded flight, if you do one of their shared flights with Air France. We flew Air-France-branded flights that were code-shared with Delta and got stuck from an Air France strike. We eventually flew home via KLM on a KLM-Air France code share -- KLM was still running their AF-shared flights. AF has the best food, but it's not worth the hassle of dealing with the strikes.

---

<The Dew Abides>

I would look to fly into Geneva and drive to Alpe d'Huez. Geneva airport is a fairly small, no hassle airport. You probably have a 2 1/2 hour drive to Alpe d'Huez. There are tolls that you'll have to pay if you want to use the highway and just follow the speed limits. Speed cameras are very popular, and they are hard to spot. Another thing I would also keep in mind is that traffic on Saturdays is very congested in the summer (thinking about this as the tri is in July I believe). If you can, avoid driving on a Saturday. And also, the Tour de France will be in that area on the 14th, 15th, and 16th of July and will start from Grenoble on the 15th, so a cool thing to go watch if you can.

Another thing I would also keep in mind is that traffic on Saturdays is very congested in the summer (thinking about this as the tri is in July I believe).


Confirming this.

We spent a Saturday in August driving from Pau (in the Pyrenees) to Megeve (in the Alps) - it's a long story as to why we were doing this - crazy drive with crazy congested roads, even on the Motorways. It seemed like the whole of the south of France was on the move!

Earlier in this same trip when I was going from Toulouse to Pau, I reacquainted myself with the pleasure and simplicity of taking the train in France and Europe in general.

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Olympics has pushed the tour earlier by a week this year so Alpe d'Huez triathlon is well after the tour.

Would arrive/depart on a Monday, so less traffic, although it's still summer in France.
Unfortunately will probably have to drive a bit on the Saturday after the event which is August 1, BLACK SATURDAY.

I would try and fly to London then to Geneva, then drive. I have done that trip many times and it is easy and Geneva is an easy airport to use with good roads leading to it.

---

---

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

This will probably be too complicated given you're coming from Canada, but there is a boutique all business-class airline called La Compagnie that flies directly from Newark to both Paris and Nice. Nice is also a bit of a drive to Alpe d'Huez but pretty easy to get in and out of.

My wife and I flew business class to Nice for 70.3 WC this year non-stop for ~$1,300 RT. Coach prices were about $1,000 for non-stop so it was a heck of a deal. It's not the nicest business class out there but they have lie-flat beds, and sleep is at a premium when you're flying for a race trip.

---

Strava

I fly to France every year and I avoid CDG like the plague. Whatever the second worst airport is, it is a distant second to CDG. I generally avoid driving in France. One, gas is expensive so it is rarely the cheapest option. Plus, there is the challenge of navigating roads built well before the automobile was invented.

It looks like you have your preferred airline, but lately I've been making the trip via Aer Lingus. It's often the cheapest option, the transfer in Dublin is easy, and then it's a short flight to your destination in France. Coming back to the States, you have the advantage of going through customs in Dublin so that when you arrive home you just walk off the plane like it is a domestic flight. I'm not sure Canada has the same arrangement, but it's awfully nice.

I've travelled from Toronto to Lyon the past three summers using Airtransat . The cost of a return flight has always been less than $900 Can. , and there is always a short layover in Montreal of usually less than 2hrs.
Lyon is a very easy airport to get both into and out of as it is on the outskirts of town and it's an easy 1hr drive to Grenoble or an hour and a half to Le Bourg d'oisans. There are lots of car rental options right at the airport and lots of accommodation options in Grenoble.
Airtransat used to only charge $30 for a bike, but it was increased last year to $75 for the oneway trip.
So the short answer is get an Airtransat flight to Lyon if you can, that is the easiest option!

I am not saying that CDG is a fantastic airport but if you feel that this is the worst airport in the world you have not travelled much!
Good for you!

I did 70.3 Vichy this year and drove from the UK. One thing I did not expect was the price of the toll roads - we ended up spending about 100euro in toll charges between calais and Vichy. I know its not the same as your planned drive but there will likely be a fair few toll roads if you do drive.

The other thing to note is the roads were basically empty, and quite nice to drive on, but they are SUPER hot on speeding! I got the first two speeding tickets of my life (driving for 15 years) both within an hour of each other!

The trip to Vichy ended up quite a lot more expensive than I had planned for!

Hi,
I'm from France, living 30 minutes away of CDG airport.
In 2018 I drove to Alpe d'Huez from my home for a 3 days weekend to race the olympic distance triathlon. I drove nearly 7-8 hours only on highways @130km/h (count more or less 100€ + 100€ for gazoline). The fatigue is quite important for such a travel just before a race. During the summer vacation period in France, driving can be tricky depending on wich day you drive (avoid friday to monday, or drive by night). We had 1 hour traffic jam in Grenoble due to pollution peak (require speed reductions in France). Moreover, to leave CDG you have to drive near Paris, that is a hard work that can take you up to 3 hours at peak hours.

Travel map with time and cost estimation : https://fr.mappy.com/...sy-en-France%2095700|TOL'Alpe-d'Huez%2C%2038750%20Huez|MOvoiture|PRcar/N151.12061,6.11309,4.28577,47.08209/Z7/

I would book a direct flight to Lyon for sure ! And suggest you to plan to spend many days in Alpe d'Huez. This top skiing place in winter is really lovely and a joy place for sports in summer.

Perfect! I'm 99% sure we'll fly to Lyon now.

The plan is to spend 4 nights in Alpe d'Huez then go to maybe Morzine and do the Trail des Hauts Forts.