RENETTA Coutman and Andrew Allan might have the perfect sporting holiday for anyone interested in cycling and sunny France.

And the Tamworth Travel travel agents have linked with the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service to enable anyone taking up their Tour de France trip in July will also be supporting the helicopter service.

It is a unique tour in support of the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service,  Coutman told The Leader.

Part of the estimated $12,990 cost of the 17-day tour to France will go to the WHRS.

“We need a minimum of 20,” Coutman said of an idea that came from Barry Walton, a keen mountain bike rider who headed up the WRHS in Tamworth for a number of years before moving back to Newcastle last year.

Walton is still heavily involved in local mountain bike charity rides for the chopper and is spearheading a ride from Cameron’s Corner to Tamworth in May.

That has some 36 riders and 14 support crew preparing for a novel three-week ride from the heart of the nation.

Coutman was talking to Walton after a recent Walcha charity mountain bike ride and Walton suggested the  tour as a possible fundraiser for the WRHS.

Coutman and Andrew Allan, a former professional golfer, with a big family interest in cycling, have come up with an amazing tour that takes in a number of stages of the 2015 Tour de France, as well as plenty of French culture and visits to Normandie beaches, Loire Valley, Provence, Monaco and the French Alps.

“The big thing is that it’s also the 100 years of Australian involvement in France in the First World War,”  Allan said.

“In the early part of the trip we re going to honour the Australians killed in action over there. “We have trips to the Somme and Normandie beaches.”

The tour also winds into various stages of the Tour de France with one famous mountain-top finish included as well as being at the finish along the Champs Elysees in Paris.

“We have our own private section along the finish,” Coutman said of a bike race where a number of Australians will be riding.

She said the private tour group would be fully escorted. Travel will be by luxury coach with four-star hotel accommodation, 16 hot buffet breakfasts and 11 dinners.

The tour departs Sydney July 11 and returns July 29.