Eurovelo #1 in Brittany

[bluenotebob]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve cycled about 100km of the central section of Eurovelo #1 in Brittany between Poulhibet (just south of Guerlédan) to le port d’Oust (south of St-Congard).

There are no major closures/diversions apart from in Malestroit where work is going on (yet again) on (and under) the main bridge. The towpath is closed which means an unpleasant and time-consuming wait to cross the main road to rejoin the towpath. The good news is that that work should finish by 10 April.

There has been a lot of élagage (branch-lopping) undertaken this spring. I wish they’d invest less money on trimming trees and spend a bit more on improving the surface of the towpath. Once again, flooding of the river Oust in January has caused the towpath to deteriorate even more.

Two notably bad sections – on the western approach to Josselin (opposite Caradec) there’s a 300m section of washed away towpath, patchily refilled with gravel – and between the écluse de Blond and the Pont-des-Deux Rivières. This is the section that was closed for months last year (with an 8km diversion) – it’s now even worse than it was last year. Speed down to less than 10kph and you’d need to be very careful on a fully-laden tourer (you’d probably be better off dismounting and pushing the bike over the worst bits).

I’ve attached a couple of photos from the section the écluse de Blond and the Pont-des-Deux Rivières – but they don’t really portray the awful state of the towpath (and I forgot to take photos of the muddy section where the towpath surface has completely disappeared).

I hope to do the section from St-Congard down to Redon before Easter … Redon was badly flooded in January so it’ll be interesting to see how the towpath survived ... and also to push west from Guerlédan towards Rostrenan. If there are any problems with either of these stages, I’ll update this thread.

It’s still a really nice ride (despite my grumbles) – I just thought that anyone planning on doing all (or part) of Eurovelo #1 this year should be aware that it’s not all easy and fast cycling.

@DCLane .. I think you may be cycling this in June (if I understood your post elsewhere correctly). I’m sure the organisers of your tour are aware of these problems and on-road diversions exist to avoid the worst of them. You provided a link in one of your posts which I read – and laughed when I read the bit about “Eurovelo-grade tarmac surfaces” …

 

[DCLane]

Thanks @bluenotebob - I should be down there at the end of June. The plan was to be on road tyres - is the route if like this that plan will need some re-thinking as the bike options I have, apart from the cyclo-cross bike, only take up to a 28mm tyre.

 

[bluenotebob]

The plan was to be on road tyres - is the route if like this that plan will need some re-thinking as the bike options I have, apart from the cyclo-cross bike, only take up to a 28mm tyre.

That’s the question .. will this be the route? There are certainly roads that avoid that particularly bad section and it may be that the tour organisers will use them.

It’s only one stage of your tour – the ride between Loudéac and Redon (stage 4?). The other stages may well be fine for a road bike and I have seen road bikes on other stretches of the canal (but not the section photographed).

FWIW ... I won’t ride on the canal towpath now on any bike with less than a 32mm tyre.

I’d ask the tour organisers for advice as to bike selection – mention that you’d heard of some very poor cycle path surfaces on the Nantes-to-Brest canal and see what they suggest …?

 

[bluenotebob]

They’ve closed Eurovelo #1 again between the écluse de Blond and le Pont-des-Deux Rivières. The lengthy and tedious 8km diversion in place last year has been reinstated.

This is the dreadful section of canal towpath that I posted about (and photographed) in March this year. The closure has only just been effected as the towpath was open as late as last Wednesday (2 April).

It’s unclear how long it’ll stay barricaded off – hopefully not too long. I was squinting into the sun so it was hard to be sure … but it did look like they’d already started work on repairing the towpath.

I find it bizarre (but also typical) that they waited until the very start of the school holidays before closing the towpath.