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Afternoon
I’m looking for advice for riding in the le tour area of chamonix valley and also advice on decent bike hire going end of July , know the area reasonably well but not biked it much
flowy trails nothing mental as a pretty mixed age and experience range going , we’re staying in centre of Cham
any help appreciated
Evening. There's an Intersport in the centre of the town that does bike hire. Also a couple of shops near Chamonix Sud-Zero G and Legend CHX. All seemed to have decent bikes for hire.
You can catch the train from Chamonix to Montroc and then ride to the cable cars of Le Tour. There's a green, blue and a couple of reds from the top. Blue and green were both flowy. Never tried the reds as short of time. Think it was a 20 euro charge for all day lift pass last year.
There's also a couple of rides back down from Le Tour to Chamonix, Have a look for the Chamonix Bike book which has some routes to follow.
Le Tour's the best choice for a mixed ability group for sure, plenty for every standard from total beginner upwards. The 20e liftpass (just buy it from the ticket office at the base of the lifts) also gets you the Vallorcine gondola, so you can take the train (free with a carte d'hote, which you should get free from your accommodation provider, or it's less than 10e a week from the tourist office if you're staying with friends) to Vallorcine instead of getting off at Montroc and save the wee pedal up the road (and pedal up a coupe hundred meters from that gondola instead, no such thing as a free unch) There's also the free bike bus in the summer which will take you all the way to Le Tour, but best to get on at Montenvers in the centre of Chamonix as the UCPA has a irritating habit of filling it with their clients.
Plenty of bike hire in the valley, just mind you get what you pay for...
July is in the bike ban period so on the front face of Le Tour you're limited to the green, blue and red official trails. PLEASE DON'T RIDE THE POSETTES TRAIL NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT IS. The green is quite fun and flowy, the upper blue a little tricky for the grade, and the lower red is again lots of fun. Round the back the Black Vallorcine DH trail is a bit full on for most folk, but one of the better DH tracks in the alps. You can ride round all the more interesting lines easy enough, but to take the fastest route down requires a fairly solid bike....
The non-Chamonix side of Le Tour is in Switzerland and the bike ban doesn't apply, the main line down to Trient (in the chamonix bike book) is easy going and a great, great trail, so if your team is feeling a bit more adventurous then it's a really good choice.
Finally, as Kenttaff13 says, there's a few ways to ride the 400m vertical back to Chamonix from Le Tour. The Promenade des Arve is the easiest going and is cruisy double track the whole way. Petite Balcon Sud is a bit more engaging but fun, and Petite Balcon Nord is the uphill track so you shouldn't really ride down it.
Hope that helps, here's a bunch of Le Tour inspiration if you want it:
http://www.chamonixbikeblog.com/2017/le-tour-triptych/