Bordeaux built its cycling infrastructure early, and the city now opens directly onto two very different rides. East, past Latresne, runs the Piste Roger Lapébie — a 47-kilometre former railway line through the vineyards and bastides of the Entre-deux-Mers, named for the Girondin rider who won the 1937 Tour de France, the first edition raced with a derailleur.
That race had its own Bordeaux drama: the Belgian team withdrew from the Tour after a time penalty to their leader Sylvère Maes, handing Lapébie a decisive advantage on the way to the yellow jersey.
West of the city, cycle paths follow the Garonne out toward Margaux and the Haut-Médoc's classified châteaux, or continue through shaded pine forest to the dunes of the Bassin d'Arcachon. Between the two directions — vineyard bastides one way, Atlantic pines the other — Bordeaux offers a rare combination of genuine cycling history and almost entirely flat terrain.
