This hilly bike route is a traverse of the Massif Central, but don’t confuse it with the Grande Traversée du Massif Central. That’s a storied mountain bike route, justly famous for panoramic views from rarely travelled mountain tracks.

This is an on-road route, following a westerly course compared to the GTMC. It’s 100% tarmac, all heather-blanketed moorland, twisting valley lanes, tiny D roads used by farmers who need to get from one field to another. It’s relentless: there’s 3500m climbing in its 300km.

It’s also worth it. This is an area particularly rich in rare species and moorland fauna – not unconnected to the fact you’ll see very few people up here; the few villages rarely top 1,000 in population, if that.

In its southern half the route reaches into the Dordogne, an area that, for all its popularity with tourists, has yet to develop many signposted cycling routes. At the historic town of Cahors it crosses the immensely scenic Lot valley.

Its southern terminus is Montech on the Canal des Deux Mers, the Atlantic–Mediterranean waterway – a world away from the Bourbonnais start point of Montluçon. If country lane riding is your thing, you’ll find this traverse has some of the most remote, rewarding cycling country France has to offer.

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