2010 first MRC maskinongé ride

Ride map (bikely map here) of the ride. A nice 100km ride.


The road/route verte #5 east of St-Barthelemy follows this terrassed escarpment


Looking back at scenic valley north of St-Severe, we always take a break on this hill.


Vegetable crossing near St-Paulin/Hunterstown


Swimming hole near St-Leon-Le-Grand at bridge across the Riviere Du Loup.

We have had a lot of vey nice rides in the Maskinongé region just west of Trois Rivieres (and just east of Montreal and the Lanaudiere region). Today was our forst visit here in 2010. As always, we wanted scenery, quiet country roads, not too many hills, and nice quality road surface.

This particular ride does a lot of zig-zagging as it goes east through the middle of the region. There are direct highways east-west and north-south, but the quiet roads are a bit less direct. That's of, we have cycling the map of the MRC Maskinongé, and all secrets are revealed within. (It would be best if we got a new copy of the map, ours is falling apart).

Some highlights of today's ride include the awesome tailwind for the first 2/3 of the ride. We were averaging 25 km/h for a couple of hours, and after yesterday's hill-fest, we weren't pushing the power very hard. To our advantage, the return leg has many downhill sections which countered the headwind.

We've done many variants to the basic Maskinongé giant loop ride, and we pretty much like them all. You can do a shorter (less east-west distance) by starting in Louiseville or Yamachiche, and going up to Ste-Elie-de-Caxton. In Ste-Elie, be certain to ride/walk up to the lookout at the Calvaire behind the church (the less-steep road to the top turns right immediately after the cemetery).