September 2000 Diary
September 10th - The Eastern Edge of the Vercors
The cliffs of Vercors mountain range run south from Grenoble for over 50 kilometres. If you don't take the road that climbs from the city to St Nizier, the only way into the range from the southeast is to follow the road around the massif till the town of Die, and then to climb back over the Col de Rousset. That's over a hundred kilometres away and a two hundred kilometre round trip.
The day's route took me on part of the route to Die and over the Col de l'Arzelier (1154m) and the Col des Deux (1222m). They are not high cols, but it is a route through some lovely cycling countryside and a little bit off the beaten track.
I joined my cycling partner, Jerome, in the city centre and we cycled along the flat country roads and till we reached the sleepy village of Vif. The Col was signposted from the village centre and it was another three kilometres of flat riding till we turned onto the climb of the Col de l'Arzelier in the exotically named village of La Gua. It is a 15-kilometre climb to the top from Vif and the weather was sunny and warm. The first five kilometres of the climb were relatively steep and took us to the hamlet of St Barthelemy. We turned right here and also took the opportunity to fill water bottles at the fountain and dunk our heads in the water trough before carrying on with the climb and cycling up the hairpins above the village.
The road averages eight percent for the next four kilometres taking us to Prelenfrey, the final village before the top. The road was horribly steep for the two hundred metres before the village but the slope thankfully eased and we began to climb through woods on the easier six-percent slopes till the Col sign.
After the Col, the road descended for two kilometres to Chateau-Bernard before we turned off towards St Andeol. There is the option here to descend to Monestier, but we stayed high and took the road that followed the contours of the mountainside at around 900 metres in altitude. It was welcome relief to cycle on predominately flat roads for a few kilometres, passing through small communes and past fields of inquisitive cows. The numerous walnut trees along the road were laden with nuts, and the apple trees were full of ripe apples. I took the opportunity to quickly pick an apple from a tree overhanging the road, hoping the unhappy owner wouldn't rush out of the nearby house.
It is certainly a dramatic piece of road as the 2000 metre cliffs of the Vercors range tower above the road to the right, including the peak of the Grand Moucherolle. Then there are the views of the high Alpine peaks to the left, and we were able to see the snow capped mountains of the Ecrins range over 40 kilometres away.
You can see the Col des Deux as you approach St Andeol, and it is a climb that has a real sting in the tail. You only climb 200 metres from this side of the Col but it is certainly a tough 200 metres. There are two hairpins in the final two kilometres and the gradient gradually gets steeper with the last kilometre ramping up to an average gradient of around 11 percent. From the top of the Col des Deux, there were excellent views towards the highest mountain in the Vercors range, the 2350 metre Grand Veymont. The winter ski resort of Gresse-en-Vercors is nestled at the bottom the mountain, with the imposing cliffs of the Grand Veymont high above the village.
From the Col, we descended on a narrow road for a kilometre before turning left at a junction just outside Gresse-en-Vercors. By turning right at the junction, it is possible to add another Col to the route and climb the 1352 metre Col de l'Allimas. It is a Col that is certainly worth riding for the views of the Mont Aiguille but time constraints left it off the day's itinerary. We instead turned left and descended for ten kilometres through the woods to Le Monistier and then left again in the village for another ten kilometres of descending on the main road to Grenoble.
There were great views towards the city from this final descent as there are the cliffs of the Vercors to the left and the Alps to the right, and then the city of Grenoble with the backdrop of the all southern Chartreuse peaks and Cols.
