The Sun Trip Alpes 2022, a 2500 kilometer Grenoble-Lyon loop via the Alps, is a race relying solely on muscle power and solar energy. This year, the Sun Trip leads once around and over the Alps, a unique opportunity to discover the diversity of the Alps. Setting off from Grenoble in mid-June, With Lyon and Place des Terreaux as the finish line.
The participants of the Sun Trip Alpes 2022 crossed 6 countries with 7 major stages for about twenty days. The cyclists will notably pass through Andermatt, Switzerland, Innsbruck, Austria and Bled, Slovenia. The return to France, from Italy, will be via the Mont Cenis pass.
Adventurers on solar bikes choosing their course through Eurasia. Inspired by unassisted yacht races around the world, the Sun Trip is writing a new page in the world of overland adventures. This year’s competition set the track on a mainly mountainous route. Continuous climbing, relatively low temperature and uncertain weather were a constant test of the participants’ physical strength.
The Sun Trip is also a showcase for new forms of mobility. The competition also put forward a new test for the performance of solar vehicles. In the environment surrounded by mountains and dense forests, the intensity of sunlight obtained is lower than that of the plains, not to mention the thick fog and heavy rain that can be encountered at any time. Only the solar car with the best performance can continuously demonstrate excellent performance.
A veritable laboratory of innovative ideas, the Sun Trips are commitments to solar eco-mobility. Each brings its doses of dreams, techniques and human adventures. On machines that are often homemade, the participants are, in their own way, the ambassadors of solar power and eco-mobility.
Drawing on the richness of the 40 adventurer profiles registered, the Sun Trip Tour carried a concrete and human ecological awareness message throughout the 7 stages and 2500 km of the route. With this format, the idea is to involve an ever-wider public to demonstrate that the solar bike can enable anyone to climb the greatest Alpine passes.
Organized as part of the European Green Capital year 2022, the Sun Trip sent a very positive signal that the green travel of the spectacular Alpes journey can be completed by purely relying on clean energy. On the roads of the world, the Sun Trip shows that solar energy adapted to the electric bike can create speed feats and universal emotions.
The Alpes route
The Sun Trip Alps as many opportunities to discover the diversity of the Alps, carried by a collective dynamic. This edition will not include any speed challenges, but giving even more value to the Solar Challenge, with points to be picked up at the top of the biggest passes or at certain sites of Alpine heritage. With less institutional time, more accessible discoveries and stopover sites in the middle of nature.
The Sun Trip Alps 2022 departure in Lyon, the start of the Sun Trip Alpes was given from the GIANT innovation campus. The the Sun Trip set on the the first stage: the Chartreuse and the Bauges, towards Chambéry.
As the solar peloton sets off from Annecy for the 2nd stage of the adventure towards Switzerland. Then, the Sun Trip Alpes solar peloton arrives in Switzerland via the Valais mountains, towards Andermatt. The Sun Trip Alpes climb the highest passes in Switzerland, up to 2400 meters above sea level, everyone was finally able to reach the Andermatt stage.
The Sun Trip Alpes arrived in the mountains forming the border between Austria and Italy, leads to the road to the Dolomites. In the mountains of Austrian Tyrol, the participants of the Sun Trip Alps sometimes have to deal with breakdowns of the electro-solar system on board their bikes. A technical dimension that is part of the charm of Sun Trip adventures.
Between the Italian Dolomites and the first mountains of Slovenia, adventurers have already climbed more than 40,000 elevation gain from Grenoble. The Sun Trip Alps in Italy with Daniele Gonano, the local of the stage receives us at his home in the mountains of Frioul then brings us to the vineyards of Conegliano. In the streets of Verona and on the shores of Lake Garda, the participants of the Sun Trip Alps 2022 continue to meet people.
Superb images at the Mont Cenis pass to mark the return to France of the Sun Trip Alpes. The participants make a stopover in Val Cenis. On the slopes of the Col de l’Iseran in Savoie, the highest road pass in the Alps was the setting for one of the last battles of the challenge of the best climber of the Sun Trip Alpes. The 5 strongest of the project went there to collect the points, at 2770 meters above sea level.
Achievement
The Sun Trip shows that solar energy adapted to electric bicycles can create speed feats and universal emotions. Since 2013, the objective of the Sun Trip is to promote new energies by relying on the human wealth of its participants. In the wake of the development of the electric bike, in all its forms, the Sun Trip has been participating for 10 years in the promotion of the self-sufficient assisted bike. The idea is to involve an ever-wider public to demonstrate that the solar bike can allow everyone to (re)discover cycling and climb the greatest passes in the Alps.
One of the riches of this project comes from the impressive diversity of solar bikes. For some regulars, this Alpine edition is an opportunity to modify their bike to better climb the passes. Others will avoid the steep climbs and favor a faster, more aerodynamic bike. The contribution of energy on a hybrid machine such as a bicycle allows to completely revisit the practice.