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Anyone been cycling in the Massif Central? We are considering a week around Le Mont-Dore in early April.
Thank you for any thoughts or advice.
Went a few years ago. There's a lot of marked trails but they are more like BWs in the Peak or Dales than trail centres. They are graded green, blue, red, black but these seem to be based on metres ascent per km as I've come across very technical sections on blue routes and vice versa. Each village has its own network - the tourist information centres will have maps.
The trails are marked by small (maybe 100mm square) signs that can be hard to spot, you have to check at every road and trail junction.
There's a ski resort on the highest top but I'm not sure if it runs as a bike park in summer as we didn't go there.
Edit: the ski resort is Mont Dore. We were in the valley to the east - there's a popular lake there - we could see the top of the ski lifts.
There is a bike park at le lioran (a nearby ish shy resort) but only for 8 weeks in the summer.
Cycling road or MTB?
MTB there are trails - Super Besse has the best over the hill from Mont Dore. Lots of natural riding - but do buy a good map, I found a few of the 'evening explore' rides a bit confusing, and I wasn't sure of the land access rules... Some very traditional XC routes - so mix of forest track, a random rooty line through the forest, open grass field and occasional 'proper' singletrack.
Road - lots of amazing riding. Hill, lots of dirt roads to explore (even the car sat-nav took us down a couple...), steep, small and peaceful villages. Busy towns. Surprisingly compact area. The riding and roads felt like a cross between Devon and the Lakes - tiny lanes, but big hills... I was really surprised how few people we saw (week before French and English holidays for us), but very few road riders really. I would have expected it to be more busy.
It is still our best holiday as a family IMO.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_outandabout/albums/72157655197686658
Not done any riding in the main Massif Central, but walked there. I've ridden a reasonable amount on the SW fringes on the Causses.
Generally, local towns will have a number of routes "waymarked" with little painted marks on trees/gates/walls/rocks etc (both walking ones and cycling ones, so you need to know the difference you want triangle and two dots, see here,scroll down: https://www.quechua.co.uk/advice/mountain-signing-a_84380). In theory these are easy enough to follow, but if you lose them you're stuffed! There are sometimes leaflets in tourist info offices, ask for VTT routes (Velo Tous Terrains), but the directions can be basic. As said above, grading is as much about effort and distance as about technical nature of the ride, and you can get boulder gardens on blues, though I'd expect them to be short. You can also get reds that are smooth as Swinley Green for the whole route, but have numerous steep long climbs on them. The grades are still a decent guide to the nature of the route though.
I recommend the IGN 1:25k maps, similar to our OS. What I would say is that the maps do not show "bridleways" as such, just some "tracks" of unknown sort. Often it feels you are venturing a bit into the unknown, though this is part of the fun of exploring.
I'm guessing that the "resort" areas will be a bit more obvious. I watched a couple of blokes dropping from the summit of the Plomb du Cantal once, down sweeping, flowing singletrack, they were in the valley in minutes and it looked awesome.
Matt: Allier from Langeac?
Did a road tour there in 2002, loved it.
“and I wasn’t sure of the land access rules…“
Outside the national parks the French approach to land access seems to be hope the farmer doesn’t mind. And mostly they do, and shout at you...
Thanks all.
I'm thinking probably road bikes as early April is likely to still have a lot of snow about.
Any must-do climbs or really pretty routes?
What were your highlights Matt and Al?
I have bought the IGN for the area round Mont-Dore. We won't stay in the same town for the whole week so would welcome recommendations for a second base.
Thanks again
We camped near Lake Aydat which was pretty nice, only a 10-15 mile ride to Clermont Ferrand.
Lots of nice riding round there. The highlight for me was riding up Puy de Dome. There is an access road running up next to the train to the top. You're not supposed to ride up it but plenty do, you just have to get there close to sunrise before the train is running or too many people are around. Great views from the top, even if you don't ride it its wroth getting the train up there.
Otherwise just ride anywhere around the chain of Auverne volcanoes and you'll have a good, if hilly, time.
The snow is nearly all gone. Le Lioran has only a few runs open. Due more snow next week though.
Road bike climbs - Puy Mary near Salers is quite a popular one and shouldn't be too busy around that time - gets packed in the summer.
Highlights for me: the canoeing was just amazing. I'd go back and paddle more. Tepid/cool water, hot sun, great rapids, lush picnics, amazing scenery...
Riding - rattling around Super Besse in the dirt was our first uplift riding, loved it. As the kids did too.
Couple of local rides around where we stayed in Tourzel-Ronzieres inthe evening were just bliss. As was riding down to the Boulanger early in the morning.
I also did a longer than expected bike shuttle alongside the Allier River when french workmen sent me over the local hill on bike, rather than show me the locals only field cut-through... Despite being 39*c it was an ace ride.
I did a 6 day loop, I don't remember much detail other than the gorge (Dordogne?) near Clermont Ferrand being a magical suprise.
France is hard to beat apart from the people IMO.
Al, really? I like the French. Veey considerate drivers around cyclists.
Not sure about their cheese though...
All things considered, I'm happy to pack two blocks of Wensledale and not be crushed under a skip lorry 😉
Their driving is fine, but enough French are hostile to tourists (ie me) that I have given up going, even tho it's the only 2nd language I speak. That's from quite a few trips and some time working there, bringing them business.
Mont Dore is a beautiful place and being a spa town has life all year round. Generally at that time of year, the trails will be mostly snow free, especially below the town, and the uplift won't be open to bikes.
A few years ago I went skiing there for a day over Easter in April and my parents brought their road bikes and did a route
We had 2 weeks in france last summer, and 1 of those was in the limousin national park. I didn't do much cycling that week (though we took bikes) but we had a fantastic time. We spent a lot of time swimming by lakes and generally exploring the area. Restaurants weren't particularly good or we closed when we wanted to eat so we ate at home (we rented a place) or took picnics. It's a lot hillier than I expected, the roads are epic and very quiet.
I'd planned to follow some of the cycling tracks and explore but didn't have the time in the end. The only MTB trip I tried solo was just on fire roads and it got boring quite quickly as I had to get the bike over and under lots of fallen trees