Late May 2026 and onwards.
KmM = Kilometer Marker
Albi, a city of about 53,000 to the North-East of Toulouse, has a very pretty downtown filled with large religious buildings. The Episcopal City of Albi has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2010.
The Episcopal City of Albi is dominated by the lofty fortified Sainte-Cécile Cathedral, built in the late 13th century from local brick in characteristic red and orange colors. It is the largest brick Cathedral in the world.
Other religious buildings include the Berbie Palace—the former bishops’ palace, now the home to the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, and the Saint-Salvi collegiate church.
Albi prides itself on the cycling around it, although there is no particular ride that you can point to and name. Instead there are lots of villages and lots of quiet roads, and so you can create many different loops. The area around Albi is very agricultural so you’ll be riding through farmland much of the time and will see fields here, fields there, fields everywhere.
Unlike the Luberon area where we stayed before Albi, the villages around Albi are mostly very small and non-touristy. In the Luberon, many of the villages prided themselves on their beauty and did what they could to attract tourists so it was easy to create rides going between the famous villages. Around Albi most of the villages are almost inconsequential. They just happen to be on a ride that you have chosen to do. There are, of course, exceptions like Cordes-sur-Ciel.
Since this website is mainly about cycling uphill, I’m only including a few rides that have significant amounts of uphill. For more loops, look at OpenRunner.
Tarn Northern Climbs – West side
This ride does all the climbs from the River Tarn to the east of Albi, between Arthès and Ambialet. It climbs then descends each climb. The loop is about 90 km with 5,800 feet of climbing. Sorry I didn’t take any photos on this ride but it has such a lovely profile 🙂
Here’s the ride on Ride with GPS, starting in Albi and returning along the south side of the Tarn.
Tarn Northern Climbs – East side
This ride does all the climbs from the River Tarn between Ambialet and Trébas, starting in Ambialet. It climbs then descends each climb. There are fewer climbs than in the west section, but the climbs are generally a bit longer. The loop is about 83 km with 6,400 feet of climbing.
Here’s the ride on Ride with GPS, starting in Ambialet and returning on the south side of the Tarn, with a big climb through St. André and a delightful descent back down to Ambialet.
Eastern Loop – north of the Tarn
I wanted to explore the hillier area to the East of Albi, and in particular the Notheast. This is the result. I made a mistake in Ambialet so ignore that part of the GPX file. This loop is about 103 km with 5,200 feet of climbing.
The road along the river, the D700 is almost like a bike path, very relaxing. But towards Albi, I rode up two completely unnecessary but fun and steep little climbs, just to make things a little more interesting.
Here’s the ride on Ride with GPS.
Eastern Loop – both sides of the Tarn
A great loop with lots of climbing on both sides of the river Tarn. The highlights for me were riding up the Côte du Croup, through the tiny hamlet of Cambon du Temple, the descent through Saint-André, the climb up the Route de Lesquiquié (have to love that name), and the climb up towards Assac (my favorite of the climbs). Probably the steepest climb was the climb to Sérénac. The whole loop was about 112 km with 6,300 feet of climbing.
There was a bit more cycling on the D999 than I’d prefer, but I rode it on Sunday morning and there was very little traffic so it wasn’t bad. At other times there can be a fair number of trucks on the road.
Here’s the ride on Ride with GPS.
C12 – Les routes de Laurent Jalabert
Laurent Jalabert is one of the great French cyclists. He never won the Tour de France but in 1995 he won the Vuelta a España, taking the sprint jersey and the climbing jersey as well. He won the points jersey in the Tour de France twice and the climbing jersey twice. He was born and raised in Mazamet, the start of this route.
The Tarn area celebrates him by listing one of their recommended rides as C12 – Les routes de Laurent Jalabert. It starts, of course, in Mazamet at Place Laurent Jalabert. The ride is about 80 km with 5,600 feet of climbing.
I drove about an hour from Albi to Mazamet and parked in the large free parking lot at 43.490659067140584, 2.379044459548387
I didn’t particularly enjoy the ride. There are two long climbs, one about 12 km and the other about 15 km. But there aren’t many good views except the short section around the high point at Pic de Nore. Most of the time you are riding in trees.
The road surface on the long descent from Pic de Nore is not always the best, and since you are in the trees, it can be difficult to see the rough road and occasional pothole. This road would be a better climb than descent, so maybe it would be better to do the loop in reverse.
Here’s the ride on Ride with GPS.
Cycle Uphill 