Stage 783 – Le Barp to Creon

Stage 783 nearly visits Bordeaux but doesn’t: it slides by the city on its south eastern side before heading inland towards the many small towns that populate the banks of the Le Dordogne river as it meanders its way east/north east past Bordeaux. In terms of heading back to the finish in Paris, it’s an ideal direction to be travelling in because once Bordeaux is out of the way, thereby bypassing the wide estuary of the combined La Dordogne and La Garonne that sits north of it, it’s a relatively clear run to Paris, albeit that there are still seventeen more stages to negotiate. It’s also a downhill stage, with fifty per cent more descending than climbing. It’s time to get the hammer down.

The rollout is lumpy flat for two miles before the D108 picks up the line of the Crast de Lias river and follows it downhill into Saucats at four miles where the Crast de Lias flows into the Le Saucats river which the road then crosses on its way onto town. The road weaves its way left/right/left/right/left through Saucats before emerging still on the D108, still heading north east and still descending.

The next community is Joachim at five miles where the D111 heads north to Leognan and the C7 heads east to Peyron. The descent gathers slope and hence speed at it passes through Le Sonat (six miles), Ninon (seven miles) and Terrefort (also seven miles) before flying into La Brede alongside the fast flowing La Brede at eight miles. The road crosses the Saucats river in the south of the town before running flat for a mile to the roundabout where the D018 meets the D1113 Avenue de Toulouse.

The road climbs steeply for a short distance between roundabouts but it descends again to cross over the main A62 autoroute as the route heads east. The road’s then lumpy downhill to the right hander between Beautiran to the left (north) and Castres Gironde on the right (south) and after taking the bend, the D1113 passes through Castres Gironde before remaining flat to Portets where it twists sharp left/right/right/left through the town before emerging into open terrain where a further right/left combo set up the crossing of the La Garonne as it flows north east towards Bordeaux.

Away from the river, the road climbs through Langoiran, Le Tourne and Au Canton (all) at seventeen miles before settling into more a gentle five mile climb that ‘s unrelenting all the way to the finish. That climb takes in Courcouyac (eighteen miles), Le Mopulin du Moustous (nineteen miles), Lubert (also nineteen miles), Le Bourg (twenty miles) and Creon (twenty two miles). On the climb, the road follows the Le Grande Estey river from Langoiran to Courcouyac where it crosses under the road flowing from right to left, after which it’s the Le Lubert river from Courcouyac to Le Bourg where it too crosses under the road flowing right to left.

At Creon, the road skirts around the town anti-clockwise before emerging heading north east on the D121 Route de Maurin bound for Le Genestat. The finish line is halfway between Creon and Le Genesat approaching the junction with the D803 Piste Roger Lapebie with the Ruisseau de Bonneau flowing in the opposite direction on the left.

Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres

Ascent: 315 feet / 96 metres

RGT Magic Road: 1B7kGcKSpuVb

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