Cycling in Le Coteau

hübsch, durch das Loire-Tal bis in die schöne Stadt Montbrison, ca. 30000 Einwohner

This was one excellent and beautiful ride on mostly perfect low-traffic roads. Only the climb on D496 would have been nicer with a little less traffic, though it wasn't bad after getting a few kilometers away from Montbrison. There was another road, D113 west from Montbrison that we could have used, but it with our heavy panniers would have been a much greater challenge...and we only had several hours to get to our chambres-d'hôtes before dinner started. 

To be added later... D504 had a lot of traffic including some trucks. D308 was fine and even had some bike lane in parts. D8, D64, D10, and D337 until getting close to Beaujeu and Belleville were great roads with very little traffic. D933 was OK with relatively little traffic. N6 (labeled D906 on the road) was terrible the closer it gets to Mâcon.

The parts of this ride on “white” roads were the normal outstanding kind.  Those on “yellow” or “red” roads were efficient in covering distance, but not so great otherwise.<br /><br />After leaving Roanne, we avoiding a tizzy of climbing on a “yellow” road in Thizy by turning north to some attractive looking “white” roads.<br /><br />The top of the first climb was Col de Pavillon at 755 M.  There was a nice looking hotel/restaurant there where I filled up water again.  After descending some through Thel, we climbed to Col des Ecorbans at 825 M.  On the descent to Les Echarmeaux, we passed Col des Aillets at 715 M.<br /><br />In and around Beaujeu, the vineyards covered the hillsides in a somewhat unique fashion that we hadn’t seen previously. <br /> <br />Despite it already being pretty late with us about ready to drop (or perhaps more correctly when on a bicycle, fall over) when we reached Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne, Helen was set on reaching Bourg-en-Bresse.  Accordingly, we continued while praying for flat roads since anything that climbed at this point was a minor torture.  Upon arriving in the city with our shadows already very long, we probably pedaled an extra two or three miles looking for this truly-difficult-to-find Etap.  Upon arriving, we found an almost empty parking lot, implying to us that others have similar problems finding the place.  We immediately paid for two nights, planning a rest day for Monday after these back-to-back metric centuries. During the ride, we passed from the Loire Department to the Rhône Department, and finally into the Ain Department.<br /> <br />Background:<br /><br />My wife and I have been doing self-supported tours in Western Europe (a majority in France) since 1993.  This series of rides covers our 2009 4.5 month route through parts of France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and then back to France.  Our beginning and ending point is near Chadurie (south of Angouleme) where our friends have a farm with Gites and Chambres d'Hotes.<br /><br />We rode our Dawes touring bicycles purchased in 1993 heavily loaded with 700Cx32 tires.  All of our riding was on paved roads, mostly with very little traffic.  Pretty much the only unpaved sections were some bicycle paths in Germany and Austria. Sadly, that wasn't so great as Helen fell a number of times on the unpaved paths.  Fortunately, though, no serious injury.<br /><br />If any questions, feel free to email me at jeffkadet@netdiving.com<br /><br />Jeff