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 480 km one-way ride from near Lamure-sur-Azergues, about 7 h 13 of riding. The stops in between: Lentilly, near La Motte-Servolex, Scenic stretch near Biol and Guilherand-Granges. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Lamure-sur-Azergues is a small village in the upper valley of the Azergues, in the Haut-Beaujolais, the wild, wooded northern part of the Beaujolais hills. This is not the country of vineyards that most people associate with the name: up here the hills are covered with forests of Douglas fir and beech, with pastures and small farms in the clearings. The Azergues river winds through a narrow valley, and the villages are small and scattered.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Lamure-sur-Azergues write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Route Napoléon Weekend is where the day begins. Next is Route Napoléon Weekend checkpoint 8.
West of Lyon, the land rises into soft hills, and the city's suburbs dissolve into villages, orchards and woods. To the north lie the vineyards of the Beaujolais, and on clear days you can see the Alps, even Mont Blanc, far to the east across the plain.
Read the complete Near Lentilly write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Route Napoléon Weekend checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Photo stop near La Motte-Servolex.
La Motte-Servolex sits at the western edge of Chambéry, at the southern tip of the Lac du Bourget, the largest natural lake entirely in France. Behind it rises the long, wooded ridge of the Mont du Chat and the Chaîne de l'Épine, and on clear days the view over the lake and towards the Alps is magnificent.
Read the complete Photo stop near La Motte-Servolex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 154 km into the recorded legs you reach Photo stop near La Motte-Servolex. Next is Scenic stretch near Biol.
North-west of Grenoble, the hills of the Bas-Dauphiné fold into a quiet country of meadows, woods and ponds that the locals call the Terres Froides, the cold lands, because of their damp, clayey soils and frosty winters. Biol is one of its villages, scattered across the slopes with farms and a church, and it gives a good taste of a part of Isère that most visitors drive straight past on the motorway.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Biol write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch near Biol, about halfway. Next is Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return.
Across the Rhône from Valence, the Ardèche bank rises fast. Guilherand-Granges and Saint-Péray sit at the foot of the slope, and above them the ruined castle of Crussol stands on its limestone crest like a broken tooth, visible from half the valley. This stop is on that western side, between Toulaud and Soyons, where the suburbs give way to scrub, vines and the first real hills of the Vivarais.
Read the complete Near Guilherand-Granges, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return sits at 388 km, late in the day. Next is Food stop near Ambert.
Ambert has a round town hall, and it is not the strangest thing about the place. This small town in the Livradois-Forez, deep in the Massif Central, is also the home of fourme d'Ambert, one of France's oldest cheeses, a mild blue made in tall cylinders. And in a valley just outside town, the Moulin Richard de Bas still makes paper by hand, as it has done for centuries, using water power and old wooden hammers. The writer Jules Romains set his comic novel Les Copains here, and the town has a good-natured, slightly eccentric feel.
Read the complete Food stop near Ambert write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 480 km.
Fuel stop near Lamure-sur-Azergues → Near Lentilly is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop near La Motte-Servolex → Scenic stretch near Biol is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Biol → Near Guilherand-Granges, on the way back is 122 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.