Tag Archives: Lot

Day five in the Lot, and an evening shift. After a morning walk along the river from Bouziès to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, the village I’d ridden to on day two, I clipped in just before quarter to six on Thursday with one job in mind: filling in the gaps. I’ve now ridden out of Cahors in most directions, so this loop went north-west into the one corner I hadn’t covered, wine country dotted with small villages.

It was cloudy and mild, with a light southerly breeze. I left town to the north, swung west through Mercuès and out to Caillac, where I paused by the war memorial with the church tower behind it.

Between Caillac and Crayssac the sun went down behind a château, and the first proper climb of the evening, a Cat 4, took me up to Crayssac and its church. Summitbag logs it as the Col de Crayssac, all 291 metres of it.

From Crayssac the road dropped to Caïx, on a loop of the Lot below Luzech. By then the phone on my bars read 7:00, and someone had painted “Le Lot, plus qu’une étape” across the lane: more than just a stage, which felt about right for a ride that was all about the in-between bits.

The vines around Caïx were turning and the sky was going pink over the hills. Then came the hardest climb of the night, Garmin’s only Cat 3: 2.9 km at 5.8% up from the river. Its steepest stretch is the Laborie climb, which I rode in 7:11, past a line of cypresses with the moon already up.

By the time I reached Labastide-du-Vert it was fully dark, and I stopped for the statue in the village, lit up against a deep-blue sky. Lights on, I carried on through Saint-Médard to Catus: a Cat 4 at La Sole, a quick drop to Nuzéjouls and another Cat 4 up to Mas Delleu above Calamane.

The roads out here were quiet, with just 94 vehicles passing me all evening. The reward came on the old Paris road above Laroque-des-Arcs, where I stopped to look down on the lights of Cahors spread along the valley.

Then it was the long descent into town, where the streets had their own night-time gallery: a painted mural under a streetlamp, a graffiti-lined underpass, and my own shadow thrown up the road by a car’s headlights behind me.

Saint-Cirq-Lapopie was the reason for the ride, and it didn’t disappoint. I stopped first at the viewpoint above the village to look out over the Lot valley, its pale cliffs standing out against the wooded hills, then again for the village itself: the church tower and a jumble of stone houses perched on the edge of the drop, set off by the reds and golds of autumn.

Even under a grey sky it lived up to its billing as one of the most beautiful villages in France, and my Strava comment said it in one word: stunning. Then came the reward for the climbing, a quick drop down to the bridge over the Lot below the village and the turn for home, downstream along the valley, past a road painted with the department’s slogan, Le Lot, bien plus qu’une étape.

At Bouziès I made a short detour, crossing the Lot on the old suspension bridge to the village and its church, the Église Saint-Léger, stopping for a photo and then riding back over to pick up my route. From there the road became the highlight of the second half: cut into the foot of the cliffs, with a low stone wall on one side and the rock face hanging over the other.

The Lot was perfectly still that morning, mirroring the cliffs and the troglodytic Château des Anglais, a medieval refuge built into the rock face and best seen from the bridge. After all the climbing on the way out, the way home was almost flat, so I settled into a steady rhythm and let the scenery do the work.

Downstream the valley opens out through Saint-Géry, Vers, Lamagdelaine and Laroque-des-Arcs, now part of Bellefont-La Rauze, past its old stone tower and long lines of plane trees dropping their leaves onto the verges.

Then it was back into Cahors, past the big black-and-white mural near the finish, with the afternoon still free for a trip out to the caves at the Gouffre de Padirac. Sixty-one kilometres, one Cat 3 climb, a hilltop village and a cliff road, all before lunch – grey skies or not, a stunning morning in the Lot.

Cahors is home for the next week. After the half-way stop in Tours, this was the first proper day in the Lot, and I rolled out just before quarter to ten on a chilly Sunday morning: a touch under 9°C, barely a breath of wind and a clear blue sky. The plan was simple: follow the river west to Puy-l’Évêque and find a hillier way back.

The Lot loops back on itself so often that you never stray far from it. Out through Pradines and past Douelle the road stayed close to the water, and after 17 km I rolled into Luzech, where the old square donjon looks down over the river, the bridge and the dam.

Luzech was the coffee stop: a cappuccino and a croissant in the sunshine on the terrace at Le Luz d’Olt, the bike propped up behind the table and twenty minutes of doing very little. It was the only proper stop of the day.

Beyond Luzech the route joins the Véloroute vallée du Lot, where the signs ask everyone to share the road, and the traffic was kind all day: just 92 vehicles passed me in 84 km.

Albas was the first of the villages that make this route. Its church sits on a cliff straight above the river, and I stopped twice to look back at it. Then it was on through Castelfranc, with a short pause by the river, and Prayssac, the valley opening out between vineyards and wooded hills.

Puy-l’Évêque was the turning point, a town of honey-coloured stone stacked up the hillside above the water, and it looked its best in the late-morning sun. I crossed the river and turned for home.

Home meant hills. The first climb, which Garmin rated Cat 4, wound up through Grézels to the hilltop village of Bélaye: 3.4 km and nearly 120 m. After dropping back down towards the river, the second Cat 4 was the hardest part of the day, almost 4 km and 145 m up onto the plateau around Sauzet. Its steepest stretch, the Sarnau climb, took me 6:26 at 240 W.