Читать книгу The Grand Traverse of the Massif Central. by mountain bike, road bike or on foot онлайн

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River l'Hérault (Stage 16)

INTRODUCTION

A Long Distance Mountain Bike Trail

The GTMC (full title ‘Grande Traversée du Massif Central’ in French) is a long-distance mountain bike trail in France that crosses the huge, largely remote area of mountain, high plateaux, forests and heathland known as the Massif Central. This region stretches from almost the very centre of the country right down to the south at the Mediterranean coast, a total area of some 93,000km2 (36,000 square miles). The trail runs for 718km (446 miles), from the large city of Clermont-Ferrand in the heart of France to the town of Sète, south of Montpellier on the Mediterranean.

Developed by the outdoor organisation Chamina and the FFC (Fédération Française de Cyclisme), the GTMC was the first long-distance mountain bike trail to be completed in France. There are now several other such trails, known as VTT routes (‘Vélo Tout Terrain’, or all-terrain bicycle, in other words ‘mountain bike’), in areas such as the Pyrenees and Alps, but the GTMC remains one of the most popular, rewarding and challenging long-distance bike trails in France. It may particularly appeal to British mountain bikers, as there are no similar long-distance routes designed for mountain bikers in the UK, only multi-user routes such as the South Downs Way and the Pennine Bridleway.