Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS) was looking for inspiration for a new book. He also needed to escape from a real world story of unrequited love.

He chose the Cévennes mountain range and a donkey as a travelling partner.

The Cévennes covers four departments and includes the famous Mont Aigoual, which is also the scene for Tim Krabbe's cult classic and much replicated story of The Rider.

These mountains, it would appear, would move a man to words...and wheels.

RLS hiked 200kms in 12 days, slowed significantly by his mule companion. The subsequent report is one of the leading authorities on travel writing and the Chilkoot Pioneers (whom we've previously joined at Ventoux, the Massif des Maures and across all of Europe already), thrive on such tales of adventure.

And so, they created their autumn classic.

The Cévennes offer empty roads, open vistas and, at this time of year, voluminous colours. Escapism during a period of transition, just like RLS sought.

There is a trail that follows the path forged by RLS and his donkey around and over Mont Lozère. The locals of the Cévennes reportedly stated that, 'he showed us the landscape that makes us who we are.'

It's a maxim that applies to locals and cyclists alike. Where we ride moulds not only our bodies but our minds too.

The Causses of this region - the open limestone plateaus - might not have the peaked profiles to illustrate the challenge. But these wide open hills sculpt legs and free minds.

From the source of the Tarn river on Mont Lozère to the Gorges du Tarn down below, it's not as regular as the Alpes-Maritimes, but it's just as hard.

So hard, in fact, that like our own Col de Vence, vultures circle here.

And they probably did so in 1960 when Roger Rivière crashed on the descent off Mont Aigoual whilst chasing the yellow jersey.

Rivière had been stuck to the wheel of the Gastone Nencini, who was known for his incredible descending skills. They summited the Col de Perjuret together and Riviére followed Nencini as the road plummeted. He didn't make it far.

Antoin Blodin reported , 'he was lying 20 or so metres below with a broken spine that forbade him the slightest gesture, the least call. His head was resting on a bed of rocks, his eyes open to the mountainous (rugueuse) countryside that surrounded him.'

Poor Rivière's body was changed for life by Mont Aigoual.

The neighbouring Mont Lozère, still moulds the lives of those who seek to make a living off it. It's one of the last places in the world where the traditional transhumance - the move to lower lands for the winter - is practised.

The Tour de Lozère is one of the last cycling dalliances with the mountains before winter comes. Thoughts might start to turn already to the darkness and cold, but for one last weekend, as RLS said himself:

'...when the present is so exacting who can annoy himself about the future?”