Hi!

My husband and I will be visiting France in July, spending 3 days in Alsace. We would like to rent road bikes and do daytime bike rides along the route du vin. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good town to base ourselves in and for a bike shop where we could rent road bikes?

Thanks!

http://www.mybikeguide.co.uk/Alsace_Guide.php

Colmar would be the best place but a fair number of bike shops have gone bust in the last few years.

Best I have is
http://www.ot-colmar.fr/en/cycling

You beat me to it bilbo. I was just about to give those links.

Since Strasbourg is the most bike friendly city in France, I'm sure that it has all sorts of places to get bikes for going out into the country or even across the border by bike.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your responses. Since we were hoping to get road bikes, rather than mountain/hybrid bikes, we were concerned there may only be 1 or 2 shops in the Alsace that would have those (road bikes). I'll try to do more searching on Colmar, and see if there is a shop where we could reserve bikes.

FMT, one minute...

jerhart

There is at least one company who offer good road bikes throughout France. I'm sorry I've lost the website. You will get hit by a price above the Euro 50 mark. Another site you might like in "Haut Rhin", http://www.haute-alsacetourisme.com/...my-car-60.html

While a fair bit of the route du vin is along the main (but quiet road) it also goes onto farm road (normally concrete block) to one side of the main road and also the occasional gravel path. Have fun it is one of my favorite areas.

Strasbourg is a real centre of the bike community (paths everywhere so watch your back) and its easy to bring bikes on the local trains to Colmar.