Published by Lyn on 9 February 2015
Chris emailed to ask about road bike hire for a cycling holiday near Bordeaux.
This type of scenery will be waiting for Chris south-east of Bordeaux (though the vines will still have leaves on them in September). This photo was taken near the Roger Lapebie bike path near Sauve Majeure. Photo: Dominique Garcin-Geoffroy
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Hi Lyn,
Good afternoon and thank you for putting up such valuable information on your website for cycling through France.
We are a group of 6 who will be renting a house on the edge of Bordeaux in September for rides up through St-Emilion and the wineries. We would like to rent road bikes but as I'm unfortunately not familiar with the geography in France, it is not clear to me which of the many bicycle rental companies you list would be best. Would you be able to point out the rental companies who could deliver bikes to us in Naujan-et-Postiac? Alternatively, we could rent a van to pick them up.
With thanks
Chris.
I wrote back:
You lucky thing – what a wonderful place to go cycling. The roads around Branne/Rauzan/Bellefond are super, with lovely rides through the vineyards. You won't even need to go to St-Emilion for vineyard routes as you'll already be in the middle of many lovely rides. But, as you say, St Emilion will also be within reach – the local tourist board has three downloadable wine routes here for cycling.
The roads east of St-Emilion are also lovely, up towards the bastide town of Villefranche-de-Lonchat. East of where you're staying, head out also to Pellegrue and Gensac for some lovely backroad rides. This is a good lunch/cafe stop if you get to Gensac. It's run by a friend of mine, Jenni – say hi from me. She will be able to advise you of local chateaux to visit as well.

The new Giant shop at Libourne has bike hire, just to your north.
Michelin map 335 (Gironde/Landes) – pictured right – has the bike path on it (see here if you're in the US). It's a good high-level map for the entire area, though you can get more detailed local ones.
If you get stuck, give me a shout. It would be great to hear how you get on.
Cheers,
Lyn.
Chris wrote back:
Thanks Lyn – this is incredibly helpful.