Cycling from Montpellier to Brighton

Final preparations (otherwise known as mad panic) are now underway for our biggest cycling adventure yet, a trip from Montpellier in France to Brighton. Our bikes have been serviced and paniers test packed for departure on Friday morning.

Montpellier to Brighton
The route looks brilliant. There are hardly any hills and my guess is that 80 per cent of it will be traffic free. From Montpellier we head west along the coast to Sete and from there head along the Canal du Midi tow path to Toulouse. From Toulouse we follow the Canal du Garonne up to Bordeaux and then the Eurovelo Atlantic route up to La Rochelle. From La Rochelle to Ouistreham we follow the new long distance cycle trail the La Vélo Francette before catching the ferry back to Portsmouth. From Portsmouth it's about 50 miles back to Brighton.

Travelling light on the Genesis Croix de Fer 2015
We have a 'window' of 22 days to complete the trip and have broken the French part of the journey into 19 stages averaging around 75kms. We are not booking accommodation ahead but have identified places where we could stop.
Croix de Fer at rest on the Loire 2015
This is my third French cycling adventure and Christine's second but this is the most ambitious. Not only is it the longest but it's also the first time we have attempted to transport our bikes by plane and if it works it opens things up for future trips.  Descriptions of our previous efforts can be found here and here.
Christine looking the wrong way
It is slightly strange to be heading off at the same time as my daughter Hannah is herself on a huge cycling adventure. Hannah is currently cycling back from Catania in Sicily to London. She should be in Rome by the time we set off but as already discovered that, compared to France, southern Italy at least is not cycling friendly. I'm hoping she is past the worst but if you would like to know how her adventure compares to mine, than please follow her blog at the following link.

We will be blogging every day from Friday onwards so please have a look if you want to see what happens.

5 comments:

  1. Hello John,
    Thank you for your nice sharing. I like the story you write here. I like to ride in cycle. Hope you post your next article soon.

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  2. Great post! I love bike. I like your post. Thank for sharing nice post

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  3. Long journey cycling is my favorite hobby. Although it is very hard for us but it is interesting work. you can try it.
    Many many thanks for sharing this post.

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  4. We always use the rule of thirds in long ride. Divide the ride into three more or less equal distances. Go easy in first, feel the muscles working in second, whats left in third.. Thanks.

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