The Vaucluse in force at the Roc d’Azur!
The Roc d’Azur, a leading event
Organized in Fréjus, the Roc d’Azur brings together more than 100,000 visitors each year around the stands of equipment and territories that come to promote their destination. This is THE unmissable meeting place for cycling enthusiasts, professionals and local authorities who find it a great showcase for their destinations.
Promote cycling, mountain biking and gravel
For this 38th edition, Vaucluse Provence Attractif and the Department of Vaucluse have come together under the banner “Vaucluse Provence” with their institutional partners: the collective La Provence à vélo, Vélo Loisir Provence, Destination Ventoux and Avignon Tourisme to present the event. Avignon Cycling Passion. The originality is to also associate private partners addressing bicycle customers with offers made in Vaucluse.
Are present: Escapade Vacances (organizer of mountain biking and cycling trips), Silvain (manufacturer of nougats and the energy bar “L’Endurante”), Kookabarra (producer of juice made from fresh fruit) and finally the Brasserie du Ventoux (beer local craft) which will allow visitors to quench their thirst. Note that the “Vaucluse Provence” stand is near Race Company, a company specializing in the sale of bicycles and equipment.
The Vaucluse Department Sports Service presents the range of services it is developing at the Rasteau Departmental Center around Gravel. Created in 2021, the latter is already recognized as a reference place for the discipline at the national level, and completes the cycling offer throughout the territory.
An extensive Vaucluse stand
This year, the “Vaucluse Provence” space has been extended (75 m2), and benefits from an all-wood layout. An atmosphere like a nod to “slowtourism” and the many outdoor activities in Vaucluse. The stand shines the spotlight on its flagship destinations: Luberon, Mont Ventoux and Avignon.
On the information side, the Roc d’Azur offers the opportunity to promote the entire cycling and mountain biking offer, at the global level with departmental maps, but also in targeted sectors: Ventoux, Rhône Valley, Grand Avignon and Luberon which is promoted directly by Vélo Loisir Provence. Among the offers, let’s highlight the Grande Traversée de Vaucluse (GTVTT), a facility that has enjoyed great success for eight years and the Rasteau Departmental Outdoor and Leisure Center (CDPAL), which hosts a Gravel base.
The Vaucluse, land of cycling
Each year, a hundred thousand bicycles take the three access roads to Mont Ventoux (via Malaucène, Bedoin and Sault), not to mention the Nesque gorges (46,000 passages in 2021), the Luberon or the Dentelles de Montmirail . Routes that are also well known to Vaucluse residents, The department has 85 departmental cycling and cycling clubs, i.e. nearly 4,000 members. A dynamic supported by the Department which created, in 2002, a departmental cycle plan in order to mark out dedicated tracks and to develop the roads.
Today, tourists and locals benefit from nearly 2,000 kilometers of secure and adapted cycling routes for all levels, as well as three cycle routes which will soon be linked together (ViaRhôna, Via Venaissia and Calavon cycle route), not to mention the Grande Traversée VTT and its 400 kilometers of routes in eleven stages.
A network of 400 professionals, brought together under the “Accueil Vélo” label, brings together hotels, bed and breakfasts, campsites, unusual accommodation, tourist residences, holiday villages and even stopover lodges.
3 cycle routes and 152 km of cycle paths
The ViaRhôna
Also called EuroVélo 17, it connects Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean, for a total of 670 kilometers in France (3 regions and 12 departments crossed) and 150 kilometers in Switzerland, along the waterways. In Vaucluse, the route covers 61 kilometers between the limit of the Drôme and Avignon on the left bank of the Rhône, including 50 kilometers which have been permanently developed and 11 kilometers, currently under construction, between the Ile de l’Oiselay in Sorgues and the Pont Daladier in Avignon.
The Via Venaissia
This cycle route uses part of the old railway line from L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to Orange. Built over several years, the route is now fully developed between Jonquières and Carpentras (over 15 km) as well as between Pernes-les-Fontaines and Velleron (4 km), making a total of 19 km. The section between Carpentras and Pernes-les-Fontaines and that between the old Jonquières station and the Multimodal Exchange Center (PEM) at Orange station are in progress. Eventually, by mainly taking routes with little demand, it will connect the ViaRhôna at Piolenc and Caderousse to the west, and the Véloroute du Calavon – Méditerranée à Vélo at Robion.
The Calavon cycle route
The Mediterranean by Bike – EuroVelo 8 covers approximately 680 kilometers in France between the Alpes-Maritimes and the Pyrénées-Orientales. Its Vaucluse section, historically called the “Véloroute du Calavon”, is 52 kilometers long, following almost entirely the route of the old Cavaillon-Apt-Volx railway line. The first 9 km section was completed between Saint-Martin-de-Castillon and Apt. It has been lengthened successively over the years from the 2000s, and is in its final configuration between Cavaillon and Saint-Martin-de-Castillon, i.e. over more than 80% of its route.
The Vaucluse champions in the spotlight!
Friday, October 7 will end with a convivial moment, alongside several Vaucluse champions, during a convivial moment (in partnership with Race Company) from 5 p.m. directly on the Vaucluse stand. Lucas Lagneau, Lais Bonnaure, Hugo Pigeon, Mathilde Bernard, Simon Chapelet, Kevin Miquel and Killian Demangeon will meet the public and professionals.