Alan Toogood for Marmot Tours - running excellent road cycling holidays

Alan Toogood

Hire Bike Fleet Manager

I was born and grew up in the South West of England. At age 15 I followed in the pedal strokes of both my father and grandfather by starting to cycle regular time trials on a Thursday evening. I also spent many years playing hockey which gave me the opportunity to travel and see many parts of the world. I have always enjoyed the outdoors and every day of holiday from my work as an engineer was spent playing sport or riding my bike.

In 1997, during a cycling trip traversing the Alps, I made the decision that life had to change and I must live in the mountains!

Life did change and in 2000 I gave up my job and set out to find a new home. After 6 months of exploring, I settled down in Ax les Thermes where since 2002 I have been running the Alpage, a B&B providing evening meals. I met James in 2003 and started to host some of the Marmot Tours groups. I also started to lead trips the following year. In order to continue to lead trips and share my passion of the outdoors with others, I set about passing the French walking and mountain biking Qualifications. After 4 years of studying and hard work, I am pleased to say that I am now one of the only English people who have got this set of qualifications.

I still continue to compete regularly in local mountain runs, montain and road bike races, as well as the odd triathlon.

Whilst I’m taking a break from guiding, I have now taken on the role of Fleet Manager, looking after the ever growing numbers of Marmot’s custom built titanium hire bike fleet to ensure you have a great ride when hiring one of our bikes.

What our clients say about Alan…

Alan is great guide, competent and friendly. R Walker, Classic Cols of Corsica

Great, couldn’t do enough to help and was very knowledgeable of the area and of riding in general. Peter, Classic Cols of the Pyrenees

Alan was very supportive, always encouraging, giving tips, maintaining and managing the bikes and generally helping were ever he could….couldnt have asked for more…..from a personal perspective when I bonked on the climb to Col De Vars he came back and ensured I was hydrated and fit before proceeding and monitored me on the rest of that ride…generally felt he was safely managing the event. D Martin, Raid Alpine

Calm, steady, reassuring support throughout, always cheerful and upbeat. T Sutherland Classic Cols of Corsica

Extremely professional while also being cool and friendly! Nothing was too much trouble for Alan. When we were cold and wet in the rain, there he was.  Amazing. N Cavill Classic Cols of Corsica

Alan excels as a lead guide, he is comfortable and competent and provided the whole group with a great service during the week. S Tobin Raid Pyrenean

True professional, always making sure guests are enjoying their break, top bloke, you could feel his passion for Catalonia too. M Gorshkov Classic Cols of Catalonia

I thought both guides were really excellent. helpful, patient and good fun. The information they gave us was spot on and always timely and the advice they gave us with relation to riding was always valuable. The guides were one of the best parts of the trip. A Saunders Raid Pyrenean