Briançon to the Mediterranean

Briançon to the Med is our newest point-to-point mountain bike adventure. 6 days of adventurous mountain biking through an ever-changing landscape as we cross a series of cols and valleys heading South from the French Alps, into Italy and finishing on the shores of the Mediterranean. As always Jamie has chosen a route that is off-road as much as possible and that capitalizes on some of the best and lesser-known singletrack in the South of France.

Email us for a quote specific to your group size and needs.

Briançon to the Med is the second leg of our Summit to Sea trip (Chamonix to the Mediterranean Sea).  The Summit to Sea is our longest point-to-point adventure, including 11 days of guided riding and one rest day at the halfway point in Briançon.

What is included?

The basic package includes six days of guiding with half board accommodation (dinner, bed and breakfast). You then decide the level of van support you want. Choose from the comfort of full van support with airport transfers to riding bike-packing style carrying your own gear. For the bike-packing option we can arrange for a van and driver to bring your bike bags and excess luggage to Menton at the end of the trip and then transport you to Nice or Turin airport. We will arrange whatever level of support you choose.

When can I ride the route? 
Choose your own dates. You can ride the route from Briançon to the Med in July, August and September. Any earlier and there may be too much snow on the high passes. Any later and the refuges and mountain hotels will be closed. We are flexible on start and finish days.

How do I get there?
Fly or take the train to Turin and we can help you with travel arrangements for getting to the first night hotel. You can also drive over and leave your car in Briançon. You can fly back from Turin or Nice.

How hard is it going to be?
Briançon to the Med has a similar level of technical difficulty as the Chamonix to Briançon, Tour du Mont Blanc, The Eiger Tour and Chamonix to Zermatt. You need to be an experienced mountain biker, comfortable on technical terrain with a good enough level of fitness to ride 1000m+ climbs on consecutive days.

There are no chairlifts along this route but we do use the van for a short transfer at the start of the trip, a 2 hour transfer mid-trip and a 1 hour transfer at the end of the trip to avoid some badly damaged trails and the Mercantour National Park where biking is not permitted.

This trip can be ridden with full van support for luggage and medical/mechanical assistance where possible or it can be ridden bikepacking style, whereby you carry your own gear for the trip. For the bikepacking option, the itinerary has to be changed because the van transfers won’t be available. It will include an extra very tough day of riding.

This route is point to point and passes through the traditional mountain villages and fantastic singletrack of the beautiful Queyras National Park. We will cross some high passes (the highest at 2900m) as we venture into some remote Italian valleys including Val Maira and Valle Stura. We finish the route by riding the best sections of the oldest mountain bike event in France – the Transvésubienne.

We cover around 171.5km in distance  and ascend approximately 6,940m. We descend around 10,440m.

The maximum altitude is approximately 2,900m so there are no problems with altitude sickness but you may still feel the altitude in your lungs on the climbs.

What is the accommodation like?
Accommodation is in a mixture of good quality 3* hotels with en-suite rooms, smaller mountain hotels and mountain refuges. There may be group sleeping arrangements in the refuges. There are hot showers and good and plentiful food every night.

What sort of bike do I need to bring?
A mountain bike! In good working order, recently serviced prior to the trip. Full suspension and disc brakes are highly recommended for this trip to make your life more comfortable. Your bike must be a good quality mountain bike with at least decent front suspension forks, disk brakes and tyres suitable for descending steep rocky terrain. No hybrid bikes as these are not suitable. We ride dual suspension 5 to 6 inch travel “all mountain” and “enduro” style bikes.