Fri, 14 November 2025
Vertical Climbed: 1,720 meters (5,643 feet)
Vertical Descended: 1,672 meters
Rating: 3
It has been quite a while since I've done over 100km. Lack of time. Lack of motivation. Concerns about form. Excuses, excuses. As my manager says: it is not time you lack, but motivation! Today I had a secret weapon, a wind from the south, not too strong but it added a few km/h on the flat sections. The first 60km passed quickly although the road out of Lyon was a bit too busy.
Crossing the Saone just south of Belleville (gare TER) things started to get a bit more interesting. I crossed into the Unesco World Heritage site of the Beaujolais. A mechanical problem delayed me at Charentay and I nearly had to return to the TER station at Belleville. The transmission was completely blocked without it being anything obvious. In the end I think it was grit or something in the gears. I climbed over Mont Brouilly (458m) via a gravel track that had once had tarmac on it. If you go via Brouilly village there is a proper road. The descent is nice but a lot of sticks on the road.
Through the Morgon district and over the Madone de Fleurie and the Col du Labourons (436m) and then on to the principal piece. The climb to the Col de la Siberia. It was 14C at the col so not well named, today. A relatively easy climb but I had a bit of kms in the legs. Then rolling over to the Rocher du Roi Lion via the Col de Gerbet (612m) as everyone seems to call it (Roche de Solutré) and a descent through Poully Fusee country back to Macon... where I missed the train to Lyon by 30 seconds due to cars blocking the roads.
Very overcast, average 17C, still shorts weather, with a south wind to blow you along. Roads dry and generally good although the backroads have more pot holes.
