Watching some old videos of training rides around Lac du Bourget made me fancy riding around the lake again.

It felt ambitious for early season—just over 100 km on the bike but the route had a certain logic to it: two halves of roughly 50 km, stitched together by a single, steady climb of more than 1,000 met

Yesterday I went out for a ride in the Monts du Lyonnais, an area I know fairly well, but I have never actually ridden the famous lacets de Courzieu which have a certain reputation among local riders

The idea was to do a bit of vertical in the weather window. Unfortunately the window slammed shut 1.5km from the col. The sleet/snow was so heavy I decided it would be foolish to go further.

A Murianette with a vam of 700 with the very steep climb of Rocharey added to the end.

50 minutes for the climb ! Almost my mountain bike speed in 2015. A little afterwork to turn the legs. Nice views from the plateau.

The Crêt de l'oeillon is a bit like le Mont Ventoux for the Lyonnais. A mythic summit that you can see in the distance from downtown Lyon. The climate this autumn hadn't been bike friendly.

I wanted to tackle the Madeleine via Montgellafrey as I hadn't done this climb before. It is a little back road but not that quiet. On paper the climb is just 7.7% over 13km.

Been quite a while since I've cycled this way. Surprisingly slow. 1m04 for the climb to St Hilaire, record is 49 minutes (vam of 800m/h).

Cycling in the fag end of the year becomes pretty much opportunistic but some unexpected good weather gave me the chance to scratch two itches, a long ride (well long for me) and to visit an unknown s