Montélimar à vélo

The first fifty or so kilometers of this ride were outstanding low traffic roads and cycling path, much of that being along the ViaRhôna, which had some paved and some hard-pack dirt sections. In also included some very low-traffic roads. Overall, the ViaRhôna was a great find. From Pont-Saint-Esprit, there was a cycling route (not part of the ViaRhôna) on some really quiet country roads that we took until the cycling route took a turn away from our intended direction. At that point, we took small roads to St-Nazaire, where we had a snack before beginning to pedal on N86/D6086, which took us a little over 30 kilometers to Remoulins, where we did some shopping at a Carrefour. While all of the riding up to our arrival in St-Nazaire was simply outstanding, things riding-wise went downhill once we were on N86/D6086. There was too much traffic and what little road shoulder there was was often measured in inches rather than in feet. Fortunately, during the lengthy climb on that section, there was a little more shoulder. We advise any interested person to try to avoid riding on this portino of N86/D6086. Find smaller roads if possible.

This was a relatively easy ride with gentle climbs, excellent low- and zero-traffick roads, and wonderful scenery. We highly recommend this route.

Once out of the city traffic, we had excellent road all the way. We were on D540 for a while, which is a somewhat major road (though with little traffic), but it had excellent shoulder for the entire time we were on it.