[Closed] 8 days riding in the Ardeche - Get your sunshine pics here 🙂

Oh here and the bikes we took

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Muddy on the last day after the storms. The bikes take a hammering especially wheels. My lovely black carbon rims have been customised by granite and limestone in a 'attacked by angle grinder' motif 😉

Looks as lovely as that Cranfield is slack!

Slack you say? 🙂

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I thought my Aeris was pretty slack but not compared to that Canfield. One lad was riding a C456 Hardtail. And he was properly quick. I was very happy to have 160mm/150mm of travel thanks very much!

Nice. Any maps / route sources you used ?

Looks awesome, not even slightly jealous, honest 😀

@jamb - I can send you the GPX's. Others were navigating! Lots of different routes spread over quite a few locations. Local knowledge from people who've ridden there lots was the order of the day, so I didn't take much notice.

Thanks for sharing the pics of the trip, nice to see a more offbeat area getting some exposure.
Would like to check out more SE France next year,looks like i'll be IGN'ing the Ardeche...
As you did Ventoux did you cover any of the Luberon at all?

Those pics look amazing! Would you be able to email me the GPX files too? My parents live in the Ardeche (on the edge of the Cevennes) and I have a bike out there, but I've had a bit of trouble finding routes around there.

We didn't see many MTBs (loads of road bikes of course esp climbing Ventoux). The routes tho defintely suit them although many are pretty rugged. Definitely going to be a carry/push somewhere on most routes.

Lots of variation as well. And hundreds of trails to check out, either GR or hunting ones.

@lego - sure, email in profile.

Nice photos and I was there a couple of weeks ago near Vallon Pont D'Arc and there is some good riding around there. Good on you for going and searching it out.

Rode down the south face of Ventoux a couple of years ago and there is some great single track up there, but just take lots of water!!!

We were 5km from Vallon. Lots of great local trails but my favourite was the one we did from Les Vans. Even when we shuttled to the top, we still ended up climbing 1000m in 45km. And descending 2000km 🙂

For more good riding in the Ardeche, contact Yann from Salamandre bikes. He is a frame builder and I am sure he will show you round.

Incredible pics. Just for a moment I could almost feel the sun on my face and the dust on my teeth.

Wow!

that looks great Alex

My French cousin lives in the Ardeche.....

It certainly is a lovely area.

We stayed there a few weeks ago and did the full Kayak descent down the river. I took my road bike and it was great for that, but also wished I had my MTB as well.

Is that rock jump the one off the road by the tunnel? It's gonna hurt unless he closes his arms!

I recognise the bridge with the bikes against the railing as well, isn't it the one with the dam and the 'chute' for the kayak's?

3rd pic down you look very precarious al!

I'm not at all gutted that I didn't come 😥

Smugness alert, i live there/here
just beside Aubenas.
i've got an amazing little network of trails just on my doorstep; never get any further away than that! tho i'm now reminded that i should!

anyone's coming to the area give me a shout and i'll take you round.

Sorry been working.. the rock jump was a bit further up from the bridge where the old mill is. To be fair we'd depth tested the water. Sort of... The bikes at the railing is on the the bridge as you come into Vallon with the kayak chutes.

@squealer - that was one of my more composed pics! Actually I came to a bit of a hard stop after that. Cez has a pic of me 'full turtle' after an over the bars incident that I'm sure will get posted soon.

@jamie - will do we're already 'booked in' for the same time next year. Be interesting if there are trails we've missed. Must be, there are so many!

great alex, do that. i've got a 15ish km loop from my house, plenty parking room. aside form that i'd love to get a bit further afeild, but when it comes to it i always opt for what i know cos it's good!

be great if i could tag along for other rides tho. how did you plan your routes? following gps things?

Looks great! Visited the area a few years ago and had bikes with us for the Alps part of our trip the next week but never did anything there….Missed out on some good stuff by the sounds of it!

@james.. the guys who worked down there know the local routes about salvas etc really well. We also did quite a lot of 'trail scouting' based on what we'd seen on maps/google earth. One of those ended up being an 11km 'deep black' run dropping about 650m. Others were less good 😉

Sept 17th next year is already in the diary.

I'll not be doing this one again

[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/649/21391253019_26228b598e_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/649/21391253019_26228b598e_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/yAgLge ]Under Ventoux - scary traverse[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Ticked it off, not desperate to go back, here's why: http://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=3484

Updated the photo album here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115456004740368790827/albums/6195037468601920097

if anyone wants to see a few more 'can I go back there tomorrow' shots.

We spent a week there in June in the campervan, just outside Lamastre. Beautiful, beautiful place.

I'd move there tomorrow if a) there was any chance of a] gainful employment b) I could actually make a real effort to speak proper french and c) I had a spare liver because the wine is so good 🙂