Beautiful Besancon

By Bob Roll
July 18, 2009

The Tour de France entered into the ancestral home land of the Roll clan on the stage to Besancon.

This is the part of the world where I feel most comfortable as far as the Roll family history; we are of German descent. This part of Europe being under German rule when my family emigrated to the U.S., it is now a part of France, although the most common language in this area is still German. I don’t know if that makes me of French heritage or German heritage. I don’t care -- it’s absolutely gorgeous here. The white wine in this region is among the best in the world, including fantastic rieslings. You can do a lot worse than drink the wine from the Alsace region.

The roads here are narrow, twisty and hilly – perfect for my physique and talents of a bike racer. Because of my bulk I would suffer in the high mountains and, because of my shoulders, I would suffer on the flat roads. But the moment when gravity gives way to aerodynamics and before the big mountains take hold, I had a few momentary flights of fancy in my career.

And some of the best wins in my career happened on the road to this region. Besancon is a beautiful  town with an incredible citadel nearly perfectly intact after 1,000 years of ramparts to protect the local inhabitants from the invading barbarians. My daughter and I were able to spend a rest day here a few years ago and walk all over to the citadel grounds. It was a great way to spend the day.

Bring your kids, enjoy the region, make sure to have a few adult beverages, especially of the white wine variety and enjoy the great terrain of this area. It’s not too windy, so don’t worry about that, but do indeed bring some rain clothing because it can get quite damp in this area when out on your bike.

It’s a beautiful region for the kids and fantastic for the parents. Anybody can enjoy a few days or weeks traveling around this area.