La Boucle de l' Artois

This is an annual three day stage race for elite amateurs which is run in the Seven Valleys area of the Pas de Calais.

I happened to be at the French house so I went to spectate. The attached photos are from the second stage - it was a tough day and a tough course - the first pic (Sains les Fressin about 15 miles from the start) is the lead group at that point and the field (about 100) was already very broken up.

The second pic is from the foot of the prime hill going out of the village of Lebiez, about another 10 miles further on. This gradient is at least 10% and reduces me to bottom gear. The riders have just come off the hill you can see in the background and they are about to climb to a similar height on this side of the valley.

I might have just posted these pics in 'My Weekend (non) Ride, but it occurs to me that there may be people here who would be interested in a trip to the Seven Valleys for next year's race, or possibly, since it's a good place to ride, any other time.

If there's interest, I would make arrangements about accommodation.

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That looks like a hard day out, and I think I recognise that 2CV!

This looks Stella.

What categories of rider/clubs is this for?

it's "la Boucle de l'Artois"

I think it's for elite amateurs, but I'm not really sure what 'elite' means in the French context. Judging by what I could see from the roadside the standard looked high

The club names on the start sheet certainly look like ordinary cycling clubs, but it's not easy to tell what their standard (or level of sponsorship) is.

I can only guess, but I expect the organisers would be pleased if they got an entry from a British team.

I've got a copy of the local paper (L'Abeille de la Ternoise) with this year's pre race write up. This would not be easy to scan (sheet size too big for my scanner), but I could probably get it to anyone seriously interested. This part of rural France is not yet fully into the 21st century and this year's write up is not yet on the paper's website, but you can read about last year's event here:

https://labeilledelaternoise.fr/2022/03/17/la-boucle-de-lartois-est-enfin-de-retour/

Answering my own question: Elite Nationales.

LOL, this race would be harder than a UK Prem. DN1 teams are required to have a budget greater than Eur 250k. "amateur" in name only.

Yes, you're quite right - I should have checked more carefully.

just saying it so that you can edit the title to show it up on google correctly

Yes, I'm most grateful to you for pointing out my stupid error.

I immediately tried to edit the title, but I'm not sure how to do it. It's not the same thing as editing ordinary text.

you should be able to find the "edit conversation" button somewhere, which will allow you to edit the title.

I used to have a house in Boubers sur Chanche in the Valle de la Canche, and would often watch the Boucle de l'Artois - usually in the rain.

I miss that part of the world terribly so could well be up for popping over next year.

Now done - thanks again for your input.

This was really annoying for me - in general I've spent quite a bit of time recently writing in French for one reason and another, and normally I'm careful to check the genders are correct - in this case I had it fixed in my mind that I knew the name.......and I didn't!