One for cyclists (mainly)

All the five-day forecasts for here for this week or so have veered on the optimistic: the temperatures and wind have been reasonably close, but the actual amount of sun has been much lower than predicted. Still, we've avoided the UK's weekend storms, and I've done 400 miles in the week without getting properly wet,  and have had enough sun to get some tan-lines, so I'll leave the complaining to the locals. (And yes, they do moan when it's not sunny and warm!) 

Today's forecast: rain in morning, clearing around lunchtime. So, after some morning shopping, off at midday for something like a 70-mile ride, with two purposes: to ride up the D70-D411 from the D93 near Aouste,  and to try the alternative road (the D202) from the Col de Lescou to St. Nazaire-le-Désert. 

The bits for cyclists:

1) The D70-D411 is a really nice little road to get up to the Saoû road,  but deliberately it is poorly signposted, to dissuade car drivers using it as a rat-run (I assume). If you use it the other way you'll easily miss it (see photo). As ever, use a map, or GPS, if you don't know your way around. You'll know I'm a map man. 

2) I wouldn't recommend the D202 from Col de Lescou as a way to get to St. Nazaire-le-Désert: the D355 is a lovely little descent, whereas the D202 is very gravelly and sketchy on the way down. If you're a col-bagger and must to the Col de Muse, much better to ascend from St. Nazaire, though still watch out for gravel on the descent to Col de Lescou. 

It actually was still a lovely ride, despite the less-than-scorching weather, my estimate of the length of the ride (it ended up being 80 miles), and the need for a rather more hasty return than anticipated. Fortunately my legs were game on this occasion.

Here's the route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7375230

The easily-missed turn

Looking back down to Col de Lescou from the Col de Muse

Weather passes by over the Roanne valley

Rites of Spring

Please excuse the musical pun, but today's forecast had been very Spring-like at yesterday's viewing, so I planned another longish ride to celebrate. (In fact, by this morning the forecast had altered to suggest rain by the evening, but my mind was set, so I stuck with my plan: a route to La Charce, then across to Saoû, and then back via the D93.) 90 miles, as it turned out, many of them warm and sunny. Spring. Definitely. Well, mostly. 

Weather-wise, this week has also been notable for the strong north-westerlies, and today's route was chosen to avoid any long slogs into an unremitting wind. 

It was certainly a good route, with plenty to enjoy, both on the cycling front, and from the geological viewpoint. Apart from the famous formation at La Charce, I tried to snap a few of the eye-catching and varied roadside examples of exposed geology, much of it trying to fall down or getting washed away, while the French road engineers try to stop the geology falling on the roads, or the roads themselves following the geology down the mountain-sides. 

And what of these rites of spring? From a cyclist's perspective: riding without leg- and arm-warmers; finding a café where you can sit outside and glow in the sun; finding routes with several cols; and getting home to find that you've got tan-lines that identify you as a cyclist. On those criteria, it was Spring today. But I need a little more convincing yet. 

In the photos you'll see the four cols (plus bike),  geological features from before the Col de Prémol then La Charce onwards, the change of the weather back in the Drôme valley, and a Springy primrose on the road back home, as they didn't feature in my autumnal collection of roadside flowers.

The route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7375252
 

On the ascent to Col de Prémol

Detail of the rock face - notice the vertical strata squashed in between the horizontal ones

La Charce's famous rock structure

La Charce

The ascent to Berlières

The bike takes a jaunty angle