Pilat Ridge and Rhône View · short arc

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides

   You are in the Mâconnais, the southern end of Burgundy, where chardonnay vines cover the limestone hills and the villages are built of honey-coloured stone. Hurigny, La Roche-Vineuse and Sancé are small places within a few kilometres of each other, each with a church and a bakery, and Charnay-lès-Mâcon, with about seven thousand people, offers fuel and a supermarket. Mâcon itself lies a short way to the east on the Saône. The label calls this a swim stop, which is optimistic, but the countryside is lovely for a quiet pause.

   Read the complete Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides is where the day begins. Next is Food stop near Chandon.

2. 2. Food stop near Chandon

   Chandon is a small village in the far north of the Loire department, close to the borders of Burgundy and the Rhône, in a landscape of green pastures, hedges and gentle hills. The white Charolais cattle grazing in the fields tell you that you are on the edge of the Brionnais, and the farms, churches and villages are built of warm, honey-coloured stone.

   Read the complete Food stop near Chandon write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Food stop near Chandon is where this day stops to eat. Next is Photo stop in Roche-la-Molière.

3. 3. Photo stop in Roche-la-Molière

   Coal made Roche-la-Molière. The town sits on the western edge of the Saint-Étienne basin, and for generations its hillsides were dotted with pit heads, slag heaps and miners' terraces. The mines are long closed, the spoil tips have grassed over, and today it is a quiet residential town of around ten thousand people with a château on its hill and good views back towards the city and the dark ridge of the Pilat beyond.

   Read the complete Photo stop in Roche-la-Molière write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Pilat Ridge and Rhône View checkpoint 8.

4. 4. Brignais

   Brignais is where the ride hands you back to Lyon. It sits in the valley of the Garon on the south-western edge of the city, a busy town of shops, light industry and housing estates, with the Monts du Lyonnais rising gently behind it and the Pilat a blue shadow further south. After a day on the ridges it is an unglamorous but very practical finish.

   Read the complete Brignais write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Pilat Ridge and Rhône View checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is High point near La Côte-Saint-André.

5. 5. High point near La Côte-Saint-André

   Hector Berlioz was born in La Côte-Saint-André in 1803, and the town has never let anyone forget it. His family home is now a museum, and every summer a festival in his name fills the courtyard of the château with orchestras. It is a fine reason to linger, but the town has other charms too: a huge medieval covered market hall with a timber roof, steep lanes, and the distillery of Cherry Rocher, which has been making liqueurs here since the early eighteenth century.

   Read the complete High point near La Côte-Saint-André write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   High point near La Côte-Saint-André tops the climb. Next is Scenic stretch in Saint-Jean-de-Bournay.

6. 6. Scenic stretch in Saint-Jean-de-Bournay

   There is a particular kind of French country town that exists mainly to serve the farms around it, and Saint-Jean-de-Bournay is a good example: a square with plane trees, a church, a café where the same men have been drinking their morning coffee for decades, a pharmacy, a bakery and a weekly market. It sits in a shallow valley in the hills of the Bas-Dauphiné, about twenty-five kilometres east of Vienne, and it does not try to be anything else.

   Read the complete Fuel stop near Saint-Jean-de-Bournay write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 309 km.