The birth of a new Cycle Route

A short ride in mid Autumn from the bastide town of Villeneuve.
I check out the progress of the construction for the repurposed railway line between Decazeville and Cahors which is bout to become a new dedicated cycle route forming part of the V86 Lot Valley Route.

Well here we are been a while but so I do one uh we’re in a place called vve D my wife’s doing a house clearance thing here so I said in A Brave way at the end of October we’re on a sunny whatever morning is Saturday I know I’ll ride

Back you take me up on the in the car and I’ll ride back so here we go so country to popular belief I haven’t been thrown in the dungeons you now as you can tell like a lot of these places it’s old fortified towns um we’re on the 100e wars area

Thing so um so I turn around and say good morning everyone um yeah it’s about 25 30k back to home some up some down over the top of the C as I say bright sunny end of October morning so I thought get your fat backside off the sa

Stop eating and do something so let’s go for a little wander around Veil nerve and then I’ll start riding back As you can see we’re up on the tops on the cost and an absolutely stunning day that’ll be whatever time it is 12:00 I guess um yeah so it should be a nice ride really looking forward to it I know I haven’t done nothing for a long time

But it’s due to laziness so bear with me he’s going to be a bit sweaty a bit panty but we’ll get there see you in a bit guys not a bad look country pad down there is it your own little towers and stuff I say it’s all defensive but look

At it up on the tops here absolutely beautiful and what a day for it really good oh man what are they right just done a decent climb up there I’ve got one of these Apple watch Ultra things and I have no idea how it works I’ve got the Wahoo I’ve lost the Cadence

Sensor so I guess the battery’s dead in that sort that out um but yeah what a day we’re nearly halfway there give or take a bit so well say I’m onfit I’m not that unfit um R Ola Hills I don’t know man I mean this is welcome to the lot

Valley look at this place it is just just mile after mile after mile of this I love this place right a little sign over there says 9ks together so that means we’re well over halfway now post office you my damn lapost um yeah last little bit down

There is quite steep actually some ups and downs on it about 7% but you get the Downs as well so I’m surprised actually I’ve ridden it all and not having ridden for a while so I’m just having a bit of a a breath uh just cuz I can because I’m a

Proper athlete I’ve Got The Vape out cuz you know you know it makes sense good for the breathing so the doctor doesn’t tell me anyway hope you’re getting to see a bit more of friends as I said the whole place is just stor wall scrub o up here um and bloody

Lovely onwards we go right I’ve just had about 3 or 4 K of S 2 3% climb and I’m coming now to the descending the Kaja which is going to be bloody wild cuz it’s steep so let’s see how it looks there you go no that’s where we’re

Going and we’re going to try and do it gently and safely cuz 130 kilos on this thing going downhill has got a hell of a speed F I’m go for that no crashes right last bit downhill then a flat be in the kajar and a drink there you have the shatow at svak salak rather so you can see that through there you all do in a moment there he is still prably home believe it or not

You don’t want the bloody window cleaning built for that booger would you and here we are coming into the bridge at kajak coming over the river now those who watch some of my stuff will now that I’ve talked about the railway line and hoping it would one day get

Converted it turns out they are Doing so what I’ll do is I’ll stop and I’ll show you but the converting it to change the route of the v86 uh I’ll give you a bit more on it in a minute didn’t never resist taking this shot this is the plor the W key side water side just coming in the

Kajar water skiing in summer little pleasure boats those over there are little bars that open up only in summer M but um it’s just lovely in it it’s really nice right I was saying about the cycle route if you look at any of my videos down the lot Valley with the ones you’ll

See that spend ages riding next to the Old Railway line that goes from Way Beyond kah 50ks up to here to Kaja and then up through cap atar up to daville they used to mine iron or or something up there I think and after the barges on the river finished it became Railway

For a long time it’s just been disused they used to have a tourist train but they’ve eventually sorted funding out and they’re doing it they’re turning the whole damn thing from deazi all the way down to kahor in the first phase now when I heard that I thought oh great a

Year or two and maybe I’ll be able to ride that year or two look at it this is or was a railway line with Railway sleepers you know tracks the whole deal on it and you can see it goes straight up the valley that way and if we look

Down here straight down the valley that way down to W cahall and all of that’s happened in a matter of months so I’m thinking we’re probably going to have a big chunk of this open you know we’re going into spring next year I’m going to stick some they’ve had to shut the road

On the valley up here up there um because to get the tracks off they’ve got to use cranes and trucks and things and there on the road isn’t big enough um so I’m going to try and come down and get some drown shots of it in construction but this is going to be

Absolutely stunningly excellent there’s going to be hundreds of Cs it basically modifies I understand what used to be the lot Valley Cycle route which is mainly sort of shared roads which I think is the v86 if you look at one of my videos I did it the cycl in a lot Valley um

Started here at home I’m going from K onwards but yeah there you go this is by next year from what I can say is going to be a cycle rout all the way down the valley tunnels Bridges the whole deal how cool is that going to

Be yeah I thought i’ throw a map up if you look top right you’ll see Captain a now de kazav is Upstream from there about 20 30ks so this red line that you see here is going to be this replacement it’s all going to be on the old railway lines all

Going down the valley down as far as kajar which I think from Captain a about 30 35k um the Caville as I say above that and then down the main Valley area which is you’ll normally see in my vids um right the way down all the way down to

Cahor which is what you see at the end there on the bottom on the left um that’s about another 50k so and apparently it’s going to continue past there so that’ll be good he yeah right well as you’ll see I’m at home I’ve coming side cuz we’ve

Actually got some rain showers um yeah well I hope you enjoyed the ride it’s um it’s a new one for me uh at least that part of it is and to be honest the valley coming in is interesting on that side and uh yeah the v86 thing I mean I

Hope um hope to be able to follow that I’m going to get some drum footage as I say it’s getting close to it hard because as I said they’ sort of blocked the road and kept everything up so once it gets past here um it should be okay

Um the idea is that we’ll see the birth of a new cycle route it’s going to be 100 odd kilom 150 hour guess to start off with um and then I’ve have no clue where it goes after mon after cahor but we’ll go and find out from somewhere um

But yeah so keep keep keep watching uh cuz it should be really interesting I’m really looking forward to riding it cuz going down the valley the main Valley you’ve got the old bridges the tunnels the hold I mean it really is going to be spectacular because that Valley is

Lovely and it’ll put a brand new perspective on it to be honest um so yeah she’ll be interesting anyway thanks if you got this far for getting this far um and uh yeah I hope to see you again I mean you could always send me a message

I never get any but you could do um the I think the standard thing you’re supposed to say is like And subscribe like And subscribe all of that sort of thing well do what you want really but um just hopefully enjoy it um hope to see you here soon guys cheers