Beaujolais Dawn Sweep · part 3

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Near Irigny

   South of Lyon, the Rhône broadens into a powerful, heavily engineered river, lined with locks, power stations and chemical plants on the east bank. The west bank, where around Irigny, Charly and Vernaison, is softer: a strip of villages, orchards and market gardens rising gently towards the Monts du Lyonnais. Rides begin and end here for a simple reason: it sits outside the congested core of the city but within easy reach of it.

   Read the complete Near Irigny write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Beaujolais Dawn Sweep checkpoint 8 is where the day begins. Next is High point near Bourgoin-Jallieu.

2. 2. High point near Bourgoin-Jallieu

   South and west of Bourgoin-Jallieu, the flat valley of the Bourbre gives way to a tangle of low hills, and these are the high points of the Bas-Dauphiné: rounded ridges, small woods of oak and chestnut, walnut orchards and farms with pebble walls. Further south they become the Terres Froides, the cold lands, a name that sounds harsh until you ride there in June and find nothing colder than a breeze across the hay meadows.

   Read the complete High point near Bourgoin-Jallieu write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch near Tignieu.

3. 3. Scenic stretch near Tignieu

   Tignieu-Jameyzieu sits on the plain between Lyon's eastern sprawl and the Rhône, where commuter villages have spread over old farmland and gravel terraces. It is not a destination in itself, but a few minutes north-east the scenery changes sharply. The Isle Crémieu, a limestone plateau bounded on three sides by the Rhône, rises above the plain, with cliffs, oak woods, dry meadows, small lakes and villages built of pale stone.

   Read the complete Scenic stretch near Tignieu write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 80 km into the recorded legs you reach Scenic stretch near Tignieu. Next is Back to Beaujolais Dawn.

4. 4. Back to Beaujolais Dawn

   Dagneux and Béligneux are villages on the plateau north-east of Lyon, called the Côtière, a long terrace above the Rhône valley where the land breaks away in a steep slope toward the river. From the edge of the escarpment, the view stretches over the plain and, on a clear day, to the Alps on the horizon. The dot sits above the Rhône, at the edge of the Dombes, a country of ponds and woods that begins just to the north.

   Read the complete Beaujolais Dawn write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back to Beaujolais Dawn closes the day.