Explore the Massif Central with a Cicerone guidebook

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Reviews
• Further Reading

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.

Most of the road sections of the route are along minor rural roads and lanes, with little passing traffic, although there are occasional stretches along busier roads. However, around 60 per cent of the GTMC is off-road on a variety of surfaces, from wide forest gravel roads to narrow muddy woodland tracks, from gentle, smooth paths to quite fierce ascents and descents on some very rough terrain, often exacerbated by tree roots, rocks and stones.

The majority of the route does not require any highly technical mountain biking skill, just concentration, care and common sense. Some relatively small sections are difficult and somewhat technical, but these can either be fairly easily avoided altogether by taking an alternative route, or the difficulties considerably reduced by simply dismounting and pushing your bike. Never hesitate to do this if you are unsure of your ability to safely negotiate a section, and if you are still unsure even about pushing, go back to the nearest road and rejoin the route of the GTMC later.

A lot will depend on weather conditions, not only at the time of your visit, but in the preceding weeks, as lots of heavy rain can quickly turn relatively firm tracks into quagmires of mud. Beneath a canopy of trees where the sun is unable to penetrate, the rate of drying of rain-soaked tracks and paths will be much slower than in open countryside. Generally, the further south you are, the fewer muddy tracks you are likely to encounter, as the warmer Mediterranean climate gradually replaces the wetter, more temperate climate of the northern Massif Central.