We are pleased to announce that we will be providing our bike rental for the 2019 Etape du Tour from our base for the weekend in Val Thorens.
All our mountain friendly carbon road bikes will be available from the town centre in Val Thorens from Friday 19th July 2019 with available returns directly after you have finished the event on the Sunday evening.
For more information and to book directly online click on the link
The weather changed direction yesterday after weeks of glorious sunshine. The darker skies and rain signalled a very noticeable cooling off and, sure enough, once the mountain mist cleared there was a dusting of snow on the higher peaks. It magically changes the whole atmosphere of the mountains as well as the clothing that you need to use when riding. I didn’t quite get it right today as I enjoyed the fresh air riding up the Col d’Ornon but suffered a deep chill descending. The PROMPT is a great ‘point and shoot’ frame and that means fast descending and considerable windchill. Next time I will take a full wind jacket!
As a certain British rider begins to take a firm hold on yellow there is another colour ruling the roads in the French Alps this week. Monsieur le PROMPT bleu has been spinning to the Col summits with sublime ease against his Californian buddies- so much so that there are various plots and ruses beginning to play out over the beers in the evening. I counted a full 15 minute advantage on La Morte today. As we await the real yellow jersey today at Le Col de la Croix de Fer it will be interesting to see what other points calculations have been taken into consideration. Chapeau Monsieur le PROMPT bleu.
Christmas is not here yet. It gets cold in Bourg d’Oisans, home station for PROMPT, at Christmas; everyone tells you that when you are moving here. Cold enough to take your breath away. But today Christmas came early as our latest batch of frames arrived. Candy colours have come to PROMPT!
Two frames in grey with a hint of green, another in glossy black and our real eye opener – blue with red lettering. Rock and roll this one!
I don’t know how old you feel but it seems to me that riding bikes is age defying in every way. Many of our riders scoot up Alpe d’Huez like 60 year old children. It is not necessarily how quickly they do it but it is that grin of achievement and stressless pleasure at the top. It is a return to more innocent times and reminds us all that our inner child is not that far away. It just got a little buried along the way. Riding is about movement and fresh air, physicality and smiles. We fidget with happiness on our bikes like children with popcorn.
A few minutes ago a French kid hammered past the shop on his bike – late for dinner. You can only do that on a bike. Bike riding is like an endless Christmas morning.
More Than 21 Bends had 5 Prompt D211 bikes out today on their trip to La Berarde as part of the Marmotte Big Col Tour.
This photo was taken at a coffee stop in St Chrisophe en Oisans
I completed Alpe d’Huez for the 40th consecutive month this week in glorious early winter sunshine. The purpose of the ride – to get my winter ski pass. The D211 performed faultlessly as I cruised up in 65 minutes despite having to stop for traffic lights on the last bend. There is not much snow about up top as the picture belows shows.
After the climb I road over to Oz en Oisans and took this photo overlooking Lake Verney where the Alpe d’Huez Triathlon Swim takes place.
We will be busy renovating our new pickup point in Bourg d’Oisans over the winter but will be available for pre booked bike hire until the end of November and starting again in February 2012.
Australian national champ Victoria Veitch stayed on More Than 21 Bends Alpe d’Huez to Italy tour and hired a PROMPT D211 from us for the week. For the record she recorded an excellent 54,27 seconds up Alpe d’Huez
All our PROMPT.CC hire bikes have been successfully hired and finished the La Marmotte sportive and also the Etape du Tour Act 1 2011 sportive. Most of the bikes were hired as part of the La Marmotte week.
One of our hire bikes on the Col du Galibier today after it opened to cyclist yesterday.
After over a year of design we have this week ordered our new road frame the “D211” – named after the official road name of the Alpe d’Huez climb. More news on the Prompt bikes after christmas but while the frames are the traditional low weight carbon designed affair ideal for tackling the big cols in the area the graphics design will be a little different to your usual road bikes.
PROMPT CYCLE CULTURE 