Anyone been biking around the Ventoux area any recommendations? Heard that the Baronnies hills have some good trails but not tried them.

Baronnies are not too bad, but there are amazing trails in the hills behind Pernes-les-fontaines, just to the south of Carpentras. We have a ride every thursday night if that’s your thing. Frankly they’re a little hard to explain in terms of navigating yourself, but the area in question is called “les monts du vaucluse” and it’s kind of the continuation of the ventoux as it sweeps around to the south and then west.

The ventoux itself isn’t that great (my opinion) as most of the singletrack gets trashed by quads… most of the trails are hunters tracks, so large enough for a little renault van and therefore not that exciting on a mountain bike – although they can lead to interesting places.

When are going to be here? spring is great, summer is a little hot and some areas are closed for fire reasons.

Does any of that help?

Hi thanks that’s great information thanks…

I am staying in Entrechaux so not too far away from Carpentras..I’ve not heard of Pernes-les-fontaines so will check that out. We are going at the beg of June for a few days but will mix it up with some road cycling too.

We do a lot of night riding but alas it’s only in Kent. Are there any tour companies that you know of that would be able to take us down there?

Thanks again..

I found some lovely stuff on Ventoux cycling to le tour last year. I left from a village to the north west called Malaucene. Then headed southish eastish which was up and over the western ridge of Ventoux. A bit of a push up but the down was great, it went down the Combe Obscure or something along those lines. Needed a map for this. Once at the bottom there was a way marked VTT trail that headed along the south side of the Ventoux. I didn’t follow all of it mind so no idea if there was round route or not. Also some great singletrack from the top of Ventoux once you’ve cleared the massive rock field.

Useful for exploring the area I think it allows you to overlay gpxs too.

Combe d’obscure is fun for sure. the top of the ventoux is a little more restricted in terms of access now (it being a unesco biosphere and all) so depending on how legal you feel….

And don’t get me wrong there are trails all over the place, 1250km or something like that – it’s just that there are better ones elsewhere. in my opinion obviously.

That’s quite a winch up from Malaucene whipsnp.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time riding in the hills above Pernes, and as svensvenson says navigation is tricky. I used tracks from Utagawavtt.com to find some of the singletrack up there. Look under Vaucluse departement, and anything around the Le Beaucet, Venasque or Gordes area should be good. I personally think it’s one of the best places I’ve ever ridden, so definitely worth exploring.
There’s also the Grande Traversée de Vaucluse to have a go at… I bikepacked some of it last year…nearly killed me 🙂

Crewlie, do you live here too? I was serious about thusday night rides…

I keep coming across signs for the grand Traversee de vaucluse, usually on some really good bits of trail, but haven’t found the time (lazy me) to actually try and follow it properly. I usually end up bailing out to where I originally planned to go. one day…

Cheers all, will take a look at Utagawavtt.com, I seem to recall a friend suggesting that site too.

I’m going to be over there next week too for the Easter break so hoping to get a few rides in.

re Pernes is it doable on a Cotic Soul i.e not too extreme as I don’t have a full sus to use at the moment?

svensvenson, no don’t live there (would quite like to) but spend around 6 weeks there every February into March. You should do the GTV, some great tracks, but the off road up Ventoux is a bit of a drag!
bickie, I ride a Solaris, so you’ll be fine on a Soul 🙂

There’s some really good trails around Roque Alric and Beaumes De Venise. Also fun stuff around the Dentelles. If you ask in Cycles Louison in Beaumes they can point you in the right direction. They also sell a Vaucluse trail guide book.

There are some waymarked trails around Buis les Barronies just down the road from Entrechaux, a map in the market place shows them. When I tried exploring using the IGN maps (French equivalent of OS) a lot of their bridleways were impassable or v difficult to follow on the ground so a bit of local knowledge goes a long way. There used to be a local MTB group set off from the market place on a Weds evening, but that was about 10 years ago, not sure if they still do. You could try asking in the lbs in Buis, or just give the waymarked trails a go. To be honest, I found the road riding around there fantastic so when I went last year I just took the road bike, and that’s not something you will often hear me say (partly this was because my wife wasn’t keen on MTBing there, but I was happy to go along with it)

cotic soul is perfect – that’s what I ride! (but I ride with people on 29ers, single speeds, hardtails, full sus etc etc.) Cotic’s still the best though…

Excellent, thanks for all the information looking forward to getting out there…will keep an eye out for you 🙂

ha. Bright green helmet and orange Soul…

Snap on the colour Soul

There might be another Soul making a trip there 1 weekend in June from Grenoble 😆

I did the VTOPO route around Crillon Le Brave. Just west of Bedoin. I have the VTOPO guides for 5 areas of France and every route I have done has been 100% worth it.

You can download their GPS routes for a few euros.

Work out either the area or the level you want to ride, then download the routes same as the guidebook.

http://www.vtopo.fr/vtt-vaucluse-edition-2014.html

Plenty to go at, this pic is the older style VTOPO guides, newer ones have the full IGN 1:25k maps.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/SjUjM1]DSC_0549[/url]

Cheers I’ve just downloaded the GPS routes…look good.

I’ll probably invest in the book too for reference as I am hoping to be down there quite a bit.

mugsys_m8 – good on ya!