CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 503 km, Theizé to Givors - roughly 9 h 21 in the saddle. The stops in between: Beaujeu vineyard road, Cluny stone town and Mâcon river. The climbs: Col des Écharmeaux and near Saint-Didier-sous-Riverie. The passes are the reason to go.
Oingt looks as though someone has poured honey over a hill. The village stands at the heart of the Pierres Dorées, the Golden Stones country of southern Beaujolais, and its houses are built of a limestone coloured by iron into every shade from butter to rust. Steep cobbled lanes wind up toward a medieval tower and a church, and the whole place is on the list of France's most beautiful villages, a title that here feels earned rather than marketed.
Read the complete Oingt golden village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oingt golden village is where the day begins. Next is Beaujeu vineyard road.
Beaujeu is the old capital of the Beaujolais, and the region takes its name from this small town rather than the other way round. You would not guess it from the size: just over two thousand people, a few streets climbing a hillside, a church and a good deal of cellar space under the houses. The valley of the Ardières runs right through it, and the vineyards start almost at the last house, their rows following the slopes in neat stripes of green, then yellow, then rust as the year turns.
Read the complete Beaujeu vineyard road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beaujeu vineyard road is where this day stops to eat. Next is Col des Écharmeaux.
Écharmeaux is a pass in the French sense of the word: a gap in a rounded range of green hills, not a gasp of rock and snow. The col sits in the hills that separate the Beaujolais vineyards from the upper Loire country, a watershed where streams to the east head for the Saône and the Rhône and those to the west, near Chauffailles, join the Loire. You climb through pastures and cattle, past dark plantations of Douglas fir that the Beaujolais hills are known for, and arrive at a modest saddle with no drama at all.
Read the complete Col des Écharmeaux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Cluny stone town.
For several centuries, the biggest church in Christendom stood in this small Burgundian town, and today most of it is gone. The Abbey of Cluny was founded in 910 by William of Aquitaine, who gave the land to the monks and, unusually, freed them from any lord's control, answering only to the pope. Under a series of long-lived abbots, Cluny became the centre of a network of over a thousand monasteries across Europe and a powerhouse of medieval religion, art and politics. The third abbey church, begun in the late eleventh century, was the largest in Europe until St Peter's in Rome overtook it, with five aisles and two transepts.
Read the complete Cluny stone town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cluny stone town, early in the day. Next is Mâcon river fuel.
Mâcon is the point where the Saône changes character. Upstream it is a slow, reedy river through meadows, and here it becomes a proper waterfront, with stone quays, a long bridge and the flat Bresse plain stretching away on the far bank. The town is the capital of the Mâconnais wine country, home to the poet Alphonse de Lamartine, and for a rider moving between Burgundy and the Beaujolais it is the natural place to do the dull but necessary things.
Read the complete Mâcon river fuel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is Back to Oingt.
Oingt is a village built of a stone that seems to have been dipped in honey. The limestone in this part of the Beaujolais is coloured by iron oxide, and in low sunlight it glows from pale cream to deep orange, which is why the region is known as the Pierres Dorées, the Golden Stones. Oingt perches on a hilltop, its old houses wrapped around a medieval keep and a church, with narrow cobbled lanes that curve and climb between walls hung with wisteria and roses. It has been named one of the most beautiful villages in France, and a handful of artisans' workshops and galleries occupy the old houses.
Read the complete Oingt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 512 km. Next is Drôme Provençale Weekend.
Fill up here — 276 km left and no pump marked after this. Next is High point near Saint-Didier-sous-Riverie.
The high point of this section. Next is Drôme Provençale Weekend checkpoint 8.
West of Lyon, before the city has fully let go, the land starts to buckle into the Monts du Lyonnais, and the villages around Vaugneray, Grézieu-la-Varenne and Brindas sit on that first rise. They are prosperous, leafy places of four or five thousand people each, half suburb and half country, with stone walls, orchards and views back across the Rhône basin to the Alps on clear days. Craponne, a slightly bigger town, is a few kilometres closer to the city.
Read the complete Near Craponne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Drôme Provençale Weekend checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Scenic stretch near Le Bois-d'Oingt.
Scenic stretch near Le Bois-d'Oingt comes up about 311 km into the recorded legs. Next is Photo stop in Saint-Georges-de-Reneins.
about 332 km into the recorded legs you reach Photo stop in Saint-Georges-de-Reneins. Next is Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return.
Where the Rhône swings around the northern edge of the Isle Crémieu, the river runs wide and green between limestone cliffs, with the Bugey hills rising on the far bank, and the villages of Bouvesse-Quirieu, Montalieu-Vercieu and Hières-sur-Amby sit along its southern side. It is a quiet corner, an hour from Lyon, that most people never think about, and on a hot day it is exactly where you want to be.
Read the complete Near Bouvesse-Quirieu, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return, late in the day. Next is Food stop in Trept.
Food at 473 km, roughly 9 hours into the riding. Next is Back to Drôme Provençale.
This is the industrial southern edge of Lyon, where the Gier valley meets the Rhône at Givors, a town of eighteen thousand people with a working past. Givors was once a centre of glassmaking, with a large factory that produced bottles for the wine trade, and a canal built in the eighteenth century linked it to the coalfields and ironworks of Rive-de-Gier, carrying coal to Lyon. The canal has largely disappeared, but its line can still be traced in the streets, and a few locks and old warehouses survive beside the river. The town has a slightly worn, honest look, with tall chimneys and river wharves.
Read the complete Drôme Provençale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Drôme Provençale. That is the ride.
Oingt golden village → Beaujeu vineyard road is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beaujeu vineyard road → Col des Écharmeaux is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Col des Écharmeaux → Cluny stone town is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cluny stone town → Mâcon river fuel is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mâcon river fuel → Back to Oingt is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Oingt → Fuel stop near Givors is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop near Givors → High point near Saint-Didier-sous-Riverie is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Saint-Didier-sous-Riverie → Near Craponne is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Le Bois-d'Oingt → Photo stop in Saint-Georges-de-Reneins is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop in Saint-Georges-de-Reneins → Near Bouvesse-Quirieu, on the way back is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop in Trept → Back to Drôme Provençale is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.