Why Cyclomundo is better

July 2009 - Going for the Yellow

Terry Loboschefsky - "The snow is flying and we're waxing the skis. The bikes are quiet for now. Anyway...while riding out the current snowstorm, couldn't help but reflect on the "going for the yellow" tour from this summer. The excitement and spectacle of Le Tour...the sweat on the demanding climbs and stuffing our bellies into food commas at the day's conclusion. How can you not love that? Anyway, just wanted to take time to thank you and your crew. We had an absolutely great time!.... and now have many treasured memories to accompany the envious looks from our friends. Hope all stays well for you. "

June 2009 - Catalonia Bike and Beach

Becky Mohr - " We enjoyed all of the hotels. We really appreciate the smaller, local hotels. We would stay at any of them again! ... Superb [restaurents], especially in Castello d'Empuries, the restaurant just down the street from Hotel Casa Clara. Wonderful! ... We really appreciated that they added the panniers and toe cages [to our bikes]. This made our trip much more enjoyable...Phillippe and Alexandra were extremely helpful."

May 2009 - Custom Tour (Languedoc)

S. J. - " We were not looking for 5 star accommodation. All hotels were clean and comfortable. Our Tour was guided by Bruno, who was absolutely outstanding! We had some fabulous meals at night. The meals "on the road" during the day were variable in quality. This of course is always a bit of chance, as it depends upon which towns the ride passes through, the day of the week and the time of day you reach the town. We were comparing these to a previous trip we had done in Tuscany, where every meal we ate was fabulous, so we had high expectations. Also, Cyclomundo was flexible and prepared to adjust to ideas we had for the itinerary."

June 2009 - Catalonia - France/Spain Transborder Experience

B. B. - "Moli De Mig Was beautiful and very bike friendly. Recomendations [for restaruants] by local hotel owners were excellent. Again Moli de Mig was excellent. I talked with 3 vendors in Spain/Catalonia for a tour and they all recommended Cyclomundo!"

September 2008 - Dordogne/Perigord - Treasures of Black Perigord

Van Sillerud - "Dinners were out of this world. The service and attention to detail was most exceptional at the hotel in Vitrac. They deserve special notice. In contrast to prior trips, we never missed a turn or got lost. In some ways, we regret that. What can I say? ces't magnifique!"

September 2007 - Burgundy - Green Ways and Red Wines

Carlyle Stout - "I loved the Hotel Logis places as the people who run them are are family and are so friendly and the food was delicious. Overall very good directions and the route was fabulous. We loved the small towns and quiet rural scenic roads. You did a very good job on route selection. we had the same bikes that Buttterfield and Robinson used and they were outstanding. We liked them very much. My wife, Barbara, liked her seat, a Selle Italia, so much that she wants to buy one. ... Bruno was very helpful. every time I had a question, he responded in a day or two and answered it."

July 2007 - Etape du Tour

Craig Hillis - Canada - "Sabrina, Thank you and the other staff of Cyclomundo for a great time at the 2007 Etape.... After the excellent service I received this year, I would like to book with Cyclomundo again."

July 2007 - Loire Valley "Blois to Angers"

Cherith Fuller - UK - "We have just come back from France, having had a fantastic time. Thanks for organizing our holiday. Everything worked extremely well. The routes were well chosen and appropriate for our party. Celine did an excellent job. She gave us excvellent maps, on which our routes were clearly marked. The route notes were also good, The luggage transfers and the transfer back to the start were very efficient."

August 2007 - Avignon to Arles

Lynda Taller-Wakter - Canada - "... we wanted to let you know how thrilled we were with the cycling trip, the charts and maps and the hotels.... It's hard to describe just how thrilled and relieved we were that a "blind" internet booking (we didn't have any references for your company) turned into three exceptionally memorable days that we will cherish for a long time to come. Thank you for sharing your passion with the rest of us."

June 2007 - Lake Geneva Tour

Dina Leytes - USA - "HI Bruno, Just want to say thank you again for putting together such a perfect bike weekend. I wrote Nir an email singing your praises. You have a great team and it's clear that you are passionate about what you do. I am certain that you will be popular with the GoL crowd. I wish you big success! Best, Dina"

August 2006 - Alpilles Tour

Ram Chuttani - USA - "Dear Bruno, You have been on my mind to email. Just emailing to let you know we had a fantastic trip. We have recommended you to several of our friends. All the best to everyone"

July 2006 - Live from the Tour

Dan and Diane Dupuis - Canada - Excerpt from an article published in "Ride with Rendall" written by Dan Dupuis: "In our opinion, there's no race like the Tour de France. But before sharing our experience in this article, it is only fitting that I express our sincere thanks and gratitude to those that encouraged and supported us: the Peak Centre (Kevin Wilson) for their training program and regular monitoring of our results; Ride with Rendal (Glen Rendall) for giving us confidence; and Bruno Toutain of Cyclomundo for all our logistical demands. Bruno and his people, Michael, and Philippe are simply unique people that know everything there is to know about cycling in France--they were a small effective notorious universe that served each rider as a lifeline."

August 2005 - Tour of Provence (done on a recumbent)

Grant Walter, Australia - "All good things come to an end and I'm back home after what I can only describe as a brilliant holiday. As things turned out I just couldn't conquer Mont Ventoux but I did ride the Col de Mur the next day - sort of consolation prize.

I enjoyed the riding, the hotels were great, the restaurants were even better and the wine, well, as it should have been, it was truly memorable.

I think I'll be back for another tour soon!"

July 2005 - Bike rentals in the Loire Valley.

Jenni Neill - Australia - "Just a quick note to thank you for the help with our bike hire, We returned from France yesterday after a wonderful holiday. Only a small part was cycling but a very memorable few days. We had a great time: the bikes were great, the help from hotels was great. I will recommend your company to many of my friends who are thinking of doing what we did. Once again a big thank you."

June 2005 - Tour of Provence

Eduard Reynhardt, South Africa - "As you know, Theo, Rene and I have cycled the 560 km through Provence and succeeded in riding up Mont Ventoux!

I just wanted to thank you for making this wonderful experience a reality for us. Everything was perfect - the bikes, the hotels, the roads, the scenery!!

Most probably I will be back within the next year or two. I will get in touch with you as soon as I have made up my mind."

June 2005 - Tour of Provence

Frances Harrison - New York, NY - "Nico and I would like to thank you for our wonderful vacation. No exaggeration - it was the best bike trip we have both been on. The weather definitely cooperated so that helped, but the toures, the accommodation and the support were absolutely excellent.

We tried to fill in the questionnaire thoroughly, so I hope our feedback is helpful. Needless to say, we are recommending your organization without hesitation to our cycling friends here."

June 2005 - Custom Tour (Pyrenees, Ventoux, and Alps)

Dave O'Neill. - Calgary, Canada - I am afraid that I don't watch much television, I'd much rather be outside doing something stupid rather sitting glued to the idiot box. The exception, of course, is of the month of July when OLN's coverage of the Tour de France turns me into a veritable video taping, sleep deprived, stage watching fool. Encore, c'est magnifique! I appreciated the coverage even more this year because I could yell at my wife; "look, there's the place where I lost a lung in my small chain ring," and, "I'm sure Michel Le Fou was immersed in a fountain somewhere near here." The television coverage reminded me of how beautiful your country is, how cycling is embraced by its citizens and the warmth, hospitality and friendliness that we were fortunate enough to experience during our 2005 Tour De Fou.

Organizing a 16 day velotour for 8 old, fat, slow cyclists is a daunting task fraught with "small" details that require constant vigilance in order to ensure that everything works smoothly. From the moment that we started to exchange e-mails with Bruno, our Cyclomundo experience was professional, thorough, practical, and thoughtful. You helped us refine a series of proposed stages into a coherent tour. Your local knowledge and contacts enabled us to acquire accommodation in clean, culturally interesting and secure hotels throughout the journey. Several of our group would now like to move to Bedoin and seek employment as waiters at the Hotel Les Pins or move to Lyon and take consecutive graduate degrees until they encountered a suitable girlfriend or wife. Our home base in the Alps at the Oz ski station was perfect. Some might argue that the "driveway" was a shocker, but it was just what we needed so that we could appreciate the splendor of our surroundings at our standard climbing speed of 12 km/hr. The van was just the right size to be comfortable and the trailer was a great idea for the bike boxes.

Meticulous attention to detail is a key component to a successful tour, but the other equally critical element always involves people and their ability to interact with their clients. Michel Le Guide was a great ambassador for Cyclemundo and, more importantly, an absolute pleasure to have along as our leader. He worked tirelessly to ensure that all the small details were taken care of and helped us develop an understanding of the French people and their culture. From the moment that Michel met us at the airport in Pau until he dropped us off at the airport in Lyon, he was courteous, punctual, accommodating, kind, generous and helpful. It was also nice that he was such an accomplished cyclist and could provide the faster members of the group with some incentive to work hard on some of our loops. His van based support on the point to point stages was welcome for clothes, food, sports drinks, directions to fountains and the solace of a "bail out" if one was required. Michel also helped us make good decisions on our "rest" days in order to take in some of the local points of interest as well as "translating" many of the finer points of "gastronomie" to a bunch of uncultured Canadians.

All in all, our holiday scored a 10 out of 10. We are very grateful for your help in planning such a milestone event in our cycling careers and we will continue to recommend your company and your services, without reservation, to any of our friends who have designs on a similar tour in the future. Many thanks to you both for making a dream become a reality. I hope that we'll be back for Le Fou Two sometime soon. Until then, best wishes for continued success in creating, and sustaining, the best velotour company in France."

Carol Bang-Christensen - Denmark - "At last I can crawl out of the post-holiday workload and to write to you to thank for arranging a truly great holiday. It was wonderful; we loved it. Cycling is the way to do holiday travel! Already thinking about the next trip.

Everything functioned perfectly; the one occasion when there was a problem, Fabienne sorted it out immediately. Your route planning was impressive, especially the way you got us into towns – Avignon in particular, and although I wasn’t too keen on the dirt tracks, I could see they were the least of all evils. I can imagine the “ground work” that finding them must have involved....

.... Overall impression was great: the planning was excellent. Everything was obviously very well organized (luggage transfer etc); however, what was really good was that we didn’t have the feeling that we were being organized ourselves! We had all the benefits of being independent, without the hassle. The same with the route maps: we got lost just enough times to feel courageous, but never irritated. (and from your maps, it was always easy to find our way back)

The friendly, personal aspect started with you, Bruno, and continued with Fabienne at our “welcome” meeting. Thank you so much; it really made a difference. It was like arranging a holiday with friends rather than a purely commercial tour operator. But, of course, this has a down side, for you, at least: when you feel you’re dealing with friends, it’s natural just to send off a quick e-mail whenever a question arises. And these questions need answers, and I know how time consuming answering even short mails is. It must sometimes get too much for you.

So, all in all, once again, a big thank you for a great holiday. We really appreciated all the work that must have gone into it from your side."