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 proper escape from Lyon with roads worth waking up for. A 294 km loop that starts and ends near Civrieux, about 5 h 42 of riding. It goes by way of Scenic stretch near Montluel, near Vienne and Irigny. in Chamagnieu is the high point. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Next is Scenic stretch near Montluel.
Montluel is the kind of small French town that most people only see as a sign on the A42, which is a shame. It climbs a slope above the little River Sereine, on the escarpment that the locals call the Côtière, the step where the Rhône plain to the south rises up onto the plateau of the Dombes. For centuries this was border country: Montluel belonged to the House of Savoy and only became French with the Treaty of Lyon in 1601, and the old centre still has the narrow, defensive feel of a frontier town.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Montluel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch near Montluel comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is High point in Chamagnieu.
This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Photo stop near Vienne.
Vienne has been a city for two thousand years and it still shows it. On the east bank of the Rhône, about thirty kilometres south of Lyon, the Romans built a prosperous colony here, and the temple of Augustus and Livia still stands in the centre, as complete as when it was built, with its Corinthian columns facing a small square of cafés. Nearby a Roman theatre climbs the hillside, and every July it fills with music for a jazz festival that has become one of the best known in Europe.
Read the complete Photo stop near Vienne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Photo stop near Vienne, about halfway. Next is Vercors Balcony Roads checkpoint 8.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Vercors Balcony Roads checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Food stop near Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise.
Food stop near Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise is where this day stops to eat. Next is Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return.
about 241 km into the recorded legs you reach Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return. Next is Back to Vercors.
North-east of Lyon, the land flattens into the Dombes, a plateau of glacial clay that is dotted with a thousand or more man-made ponds. Civrieux, Saint-André-de-Corcy and Mionnay sit on its southern edge, where the ponds, called étangs, glimmer among fields and woods, and herons and egrets stand in the reeds. Since the Middle Ages, the people of the Dombes have farmed fish in these ponds, draining each one every few years to harvest carp and then growing crops in the dry bed before refilling it, a rhythm that has shaped the landscape and the local menu.
Read the complete Vercors write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Back to Vercors. That is the ride.
This Scenic stretch near Montluel → High point in Chamagnieu stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
Photo stop near Vienne → Near Irigny is the technical section. Hairpins, gradients and mixed traffic can stack up quickly; use low drama inputs, stay wide of centre lines and expect buses or riders appearing exactly where optimism says they will not.
Food stop near Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise → Near Amplepuis, on the way back can flow quickly, but only if you keep village limits and junction sightlines sacred. Fast connectors are where rides get untidy when fatigue creeps in.