This summer has seen many professional cycling events come to the region. A stage of the Women’s Tour de France finished at the Lacs de Haute Charente. The peleton included the reigning World champion and Britain’s number one Nicole Cooke who went on to win the overall event. In July a stage of the men’s Tour de France finished in Angouleme and the next day hosted the finish of the final time trial between Cognac and Angouleme; In August the Tour de Limousin followed by Tour of Poitou Charente took place. Both events included top French and international teams from as far away as Japan! If that was not enough for a big cycling fan like me, I was in a very privileged position to have had two of these events pass my front door, literally! Then of these the Tour de Limousin finished a stage at Rochechouart, in the final kilometre climbing the 16% gradient at the side of the château. The town then hosted the start of the followings days’ event which went off to finish in Limoges later that day.

There have been many events for the amateurs amongst too throughout the year. From the relatively short randonnees organised by small communes often run in parallel to the village fete, through to the longer distance events such as the ‘Raymond Poulidor’ and ‘La Limousine’ cyclosportives which cover around 160 kilometers and have as many as 1500 riders per event.

If after reading this article you are possibly motivated to get on your bike, here are a few things to consider, assuming it’s not hidden at the back of the barn with a hundredweight of unwanted building materials on it or it has not been ridden since leaving the UK many moons ago.

You need to consider your health and fitness, if you are young, active an leavers, a pump, a drink and some money. You may want to take a mobile phone with you as an additional back up. After this you should be ready to start.

If you would like further information about cycling there are many clubs around the region. There is a list of clubs at www.velo19.com . Alternatively if you need any other information you can contact me via This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it I will do my best to help.