Hello,
Myself and three friends from the US are heading to Lyon at the end of June and looking to do a 5-day bike-packing tour. We are looking at a route that has us heading east from Lyon towards the Alpes and doing a short day with a giant hill climb in the middle, bookended by easier longer days (60-65 miles per) through some beautiful Rhone alpes towns - Bourg-en-Bresse, Annecy, Chambery, etc. Looks like a pretty nice route and we're exciting to explore the Rhone wine country as well as suffer a bit on Le Semnoz or Col du Glandon.
We're all experienced cyclists but likely won't be traveling with our bikes and prefer to rent in Lyon, for cost of flying internationally with them and convience of not needing to build up our bikes and travel with so much gear before the tour. We also would just put on a small day pack on our backs with one change of clothes and ride with our kits during the day. Given the route and our experience, we are wanting to ride carbon bikes (56-60cms) that are 105's or better and ideally Ultegra. We want to have a compact set up, but not a three ring. We are hoping that there are shops in Lyon that can accomodate and wanted to start here to see what locals would recommend given that you know the area better.
Please let me know if you have any recommendations on shops that can accomodate for these needs.
Regards and allez, Luke