Grenoble Day 13 - Mont St Martin on Bastille Day

Day 13 in Grenoble was Bastille day in France which is pretty much the equivalent of Australia day back home. What better way to spend it than climbing one of the more local climbs in Mont St Martin, often referred to by the locals as the baby to Alpe d'Huez. With it's 17 hairpins and average gradient of 9.8% the climb definitely lives up to this reputation. 

The climb itself is just on the outskirts of a small little town called Le Fontanil-Cornillon which is approximately 13kms from the centre of Grenoble on the northern side of the river. The town was nice and quite and was a cool little town to pass through. It was a lot cleaner than the rest of the area around it which currently has a lot of construction work happening. 

The climb itself is a lot shorter than most of the climbs we have done to date at approximately 5kms (hence much more suited to my climbing abilities). As a result I decided to have a bit of a dig up this one, unfortunately my legs didn't quite agree with this decision and I blew up pretty badly with around 2 kms to go after going out a little bit to hard. Despite this the climb is very similar to Alpe d'Huez with several sections around the 11% gradient mark and the hairpin corners providing a very brief but welcome chance to recover in between the straights. 

At the top there is a very small town with plenty of walking tracks leading further up the mountain for the hikers. The pinnacle of the town is the nice little church at the top and plenty of large fields that would be perfect for a picnic with views back down into the valley.

Overall a short but good day in the saddle and a good way to spend Bastille day. 

Upon returning to the apartment, we decided to take a walk down to Parc Paul Mistral to check out the Bastille day celebrations and we are so glad we did. The park was completely packed out and we now understood why the city had been such a ghost town all day. We got a nice hearty feed at one of the food stores and sat around on the grass taking in the atmosphere for a while with a couple of bands playing in the park. Once it finally got dark we made our way over to the large tower (which i believe is linked to the Fort de la Bastille) in the centre of the park for the fireworks display. The display was hands down one of the best fireworks display any of us had ever witnessed and despite a significant amount of shrapnel falling from the sky onto us, it was well worth the wait. Unfortunately none of the photos we took do the show any justice what so ever.

A great day out was had by us all and we are all grateful we happened to be in France to experience the celebration that is Bastille day.

Grenoble Day 12 - Le tour spectating in Lyon

Day 12 in Grenoble saw us venturing out to our first stage of le tour for the trip. The stage saw a 191km race from Saint-Pourcain-Sur-Sioule to the city of Lyon. While not expected to cause much of a shake up for the GC, the stage is far from a pure sprint stage with 5 Category 4 climbs and 2 Category 3 climbs along the way making it a likely stage for a breakaway. 

We caught the train from Grenoble to Lyon to watch the finish of the stage which took about 1.5 hours. With Lyon being the 3rd largest city in France by population, we were expecting quite a bit to be happening in the city. To our surprise the city was much more like a ghost town when we first arrived in the morning with most of the city shut. Despite this, our walk to the finishing line of the stage was fairly scenic as we made our way along the river that runs through the city. 

We decided to try and get as close to the finish line as possible and park up a good spot to watch the race from. As a result we managed to get a spot about 350 metres from the finish line which was a fairly good spot to watch the finish from as the leaders fought for position for the final sprint towards the line. It was a long wait in the hot sun but the freebies being handed out and the parade about an hour before the race arrived provided some entertainment while we waited. 

Unfortunately, the day went a little downhill when a local French guy tried to push his way into our spot against the barriers. Upon telling him that there was no room for him, Andrew unfortunately coped an elbow to the mouth for his troubles. After a bit of a heated exchange we managed to settle the situation but it certainly put a bit of a dampener on the mood. 

As expected, the race finished with the breakaway managing to hang on for the win with Orica Greenedge's Michael Albasini just getting pipped at the line. 

Overall it was good to finally get to our first stage for the trip however we were left with a pretty dull first impression of Lyon which was a little unfortunate. Tomorrow we tackle the climb up to Mont St Martin which is meant to be a baby version of the Alpe d'Huez.

Grenoble Day 9 -10 - Aborted Col du Coq x 2, La Bastille Climb

Day 9 finally saw the weather getting back to normal so we decided to make the most of it. The plan for the day was a 60km loop into the Chartreuse mountain range to the north of Grenoble which we have yet to venture into. The loop for the day consisted of 2 main climbs up the Col du Coq and the Col de Porte. The commute out saw us crossing over the river to the north and following the edge of the mountain range until we got to the town of Saint-Ismier. It follows a bike path along the D1090 and all the way to Saint-Ismier however we initially found ourselves taking a wrong turn and accidently ended up on one of the national highways. Safe to say we could not have gotten out of there quickly enough. 

We finally made our way to the bike path and headed towards Saint-Ismier where we will make a left turn up into the mountain range towards the town of Saint-Pancrasse and the summit of the Col du Coq. Unortunately, about 200 metres from the turnoff, Benny had an issue with his rear derailler hanger resulting in the bike being unable to use the lower gears. Obviously not an ideal situation when your about to start climbing into the mountains. As a result we had no other option but to abort the ride for the day and search Grenoble for a bike shop to have the hanger replaced. 

Initially we made our way to a store called Pinsello in Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux which we had previously visited to pick up some new tyres. A pretty nice store but unfortunately they do not stock Cannondale and were unable to supply us with a new hanger however they were kind enough to point us in the direction of a shop called Neway in Echirolles on the other side of town. So we made our way across the town to Neway which turned out to be a pretty cool little bike store and the mechanics there were extremely helpful and the end result was extremely cheap. With a new rear derailleur hanger and the bike back up and running, we made our way back home. Unfortunately, the commute was through the remains of a storm which had come over while we were in the store.

With the bikes back in working order, we decided to give the Col du Coq / Col de Porte route another crack on Day 10. This time we made it to the turnoff from Saint-Ismier with no issues and began our ascent up to Saint-Pancrasse. On our way up one of the locals shouted something out to us but we could not understand what she was trying to tell us. About half way up the climb we discovered what she meant. The climb is currently undergoing significant road works. Despite this the road is still open and it didnt look to bad so we decided to continue in the hope we could get past it and continue on our way. Unfortunately this turned out to be a poor decision with all of our tyres getting completely covered in a thick, fresh, sticky coat of tar from the road. This then resulted in every loose bit of gravel on the road getting stuck to our tyre. We pulled over and tried to scrape as much of it off as we could but this proved to be harder then anticipated. We decided that if we kept on going hopefully the heat from our tyres would be enough to clean the tar off our tyres but we quickly realised this was not going to be the case. And with that, Col de Coq was abandoned for the second time in two days. We had to take the descent fairly easy to begin with as the loose gravel on our tyres made it rather slippery. Thankfully the heat from the descent managed to get most of the tar off our tyres and by the time we got back to our apartment they were not to bad. 

As a result, me and Andrew were determined to get in some climbing for the day. We decided this would be the perfect opportunity to try the brutal climb up to the Fort De La Bastille. The climb is to the right hand side of the mountain when facing the mountain from Grenoble. To get to it you cross over the river and head towards La Tronche until you come across the Chemin de la Bastille. The climb is a 2km stretch of road which averages over 13% with sections that are over 30% gradient. This makes for a real leg burner and even on my gearing setup I had to grind at a pretty low cadence through signifcant points of the climb. Despite this, it was well worth the trip up and a much more satisfying way of visiting the top of the Bastille then the cable cars we had previously ventured up on. Definitely worth a crack.

All in all, not the couple of days we had planned but Day 10 still produced a great ride none the less. With the brutal climb up the Bastille behind us, it was time for another trip to our favourite place in town, the London pub. Another great night out in Grenoble which ended in a trip to the hospital for Tommy after having his arm slammed in a wooden door. Thankfully nothing is broken however it may affect our plans for a few rides we have coming up.

Grenoble Day 5-8 - Grenoble Nightlife and the Bastille

Day 5 in Grenoble saw us celebrating Tommy's birthday and what better opportunity to explore what the Grenoble nightlife has to offer. The day kicked off with a trip to the local Monoprix (supermarket) to stock up on a few well earned brews for the weekend. We spent most of the day watching Le Tour on TV with the days stage being the first real mountain stage of the tour and was set to quickly show who was on form. Unsurprisingly, the Sky team dominated the race and Chris Froome obtained some significant time gaps over the rest of the GC contenders. As a result Sky once again have a stranglehold on the yellow jersey which looks like it could make for another boring tour in terms of the GC. None the less we enjoyed the race over a few Heinekens.  

After the race we took a stroll through the town to see what Grenoble has to offer. We came across this cool little bar called the London Pub, which much to our relief, had bar staff who actually spoke english. The staff were extremely friendly and I would recommend this place to any english speaking travellers venturing to Grenoble and looking for a good night. The picture below was take by one of the bar staff and was relatively early on in the night.

For the first few hours the pub was relatively dead however seemingly out of nowhere, and as the bar staff had suggested to us, the place erupted and was completely packed out. The night quickly got out of hand (as shown in the photo below) with a few free shots complimentary of the bar staff. A number of various local french drinks (including a drink called pasties, which was not much of a hit) combined with a few big days of cycling and we were well on our way.

After the London, we ventured to a place called Vertigo which was suggested to us by the bar staff at the London. Vertigo was more of a night club and was a bit of a change up from the London. Unfortunately the memory is a bit lacking at this point in the night but safe to say a good time was had by all. A big happy birthday to Tommy, hope you had a good night mate.

Needless to say Day 6 in Grenoble was a complete write off with a few sorry faces stumbling around the unit and most of the day was spent inside watching le tour on the tv. The day ended with our first experience of a Grenoble thunderstorm with some pretty crazy lightning. One of the boys even saw lighting strike a pole a few hundred metres from our unit. Unfortunately the weather forecast is for more of the same over the next few days and with the storm approaching very fast out of nowhere we are a little cautious with the riding as we do not want to be stuck up in the mountains when one of these storms  comes through.

Day 7 saw us feeling a little better then the day before however the forecast was again for storms from the early evening. As a result we decided to give riding a miss for the day and make the most of the sunny weather in the morning by taking a ride up the cable cars over the river and to the summit of the Fort de La Bastille. At the top there is a few restaurants, a museum and a whole range of high rope activities such as a flying fox, rock climbing and various acrobatic swings. However, the best attraction at the top is the views back down into Grenoble as shown in the photos below.

 

There is also a few little tunnels and caves along the way which make the walk to the top a little more interesting. Be sure to take a torch or iphone for lighting though as the lighting in the tunnel is not great.

All in all, it is well worth the 7 euro for the return trip to the top. Alternatively, you can climb up one of the steepest roads in Grenoble to get to the top (Something we are saving for another day).

Day 8 was unfortunately ruined by the weather and resulted in the day spent in doors watching the tour.

Grenoble Day 4 - Alpe d'Huez

Well today was the ride we have all been hanging out for, the most famous climb of all up the 21 twisting hairpins of the Alpe d'Huez. The climb is one of the most famous climbs from the Tour de France and the pinnacle of this years tour will be Stage 18 which will see the peloton climb the mountain twice with the second time up to the summit being the finish line. A rather fitting stage for the 100th year anniversary of the race. The climb itself is 13.8 km in length at an average gradient of 7.9% (although most of it is actually a lot worse with the gradient being brought down by the 21 hairpin corners which allow for some quick recovery) and finishes in the ski resort at the top of the mountain at an altitude of 1,860m. Unfortunately we were one man down for the ride today with Tommy suffering from an inflamed knee after the Chamrousse yesterday.

Unlike most of the rides on the trip to date, today's ride required a much longer commute to the base of the climb (50km each way). The route out to the climb was a long, mostly straight ride down one of the main highways out of Grenoble and was at times a little sketchy with no bike lane on a number of long stretches of road. Despite this, European drivers are certainly a lot more respectful and mindful to cyclists and always give you a significant amount of room when overtaking. Australian drivers could really learn a lot from seeing how bikes and cars share the road over here. As a result we were never really concerned about the fact that we were riding down a busy highway. The ride generally follows the river as it winds through the valleys with several views of waterfalls coming down from the mountains making for a rather scenic commute. The ride out is also generally a false flat the entire way out which made it a lot more tiring then we had anticipated.

The base of the climb begins from the small town of Le Bourg-d'Oisans and upon arriving into the town it was quickly apparent that this town very much thrives on the cyclists which are attracted to the climb each year with masses of cyclists throughout the town. A short ride through the town and to the outskirts brings you to the beginning of the climb itself, where the real fun begins.

We came into this climb expecting it to be significantly easier then the Col du Granon however our mind set was very quickly changed. The start of the climb was a bit of a shock to the system with the first three kilometres, 6 hairpins, seeing gradients consistently above 10%. While the hairpins allow for a very brief recovery, this quickly took its toll on the legs. 

As well as the brutal start to the climb, it was also one of the hottest days we have had to date and we were very quickly put into the hurt locker. About half way up the climb I ran out of water which, along with an increasingly bad left knee, proved to be my undoing. With the average temperature for the ride well above 30 degrees I quickly became dehydrated, and as a result I have never been so relieved as I was when I came around to see the final hairpin of the climb.

Upon reaching the ski resort, we were a little confused as to where the official summit of the climb was with signage rather poor at the top. As a result, it turns out we went the wrong way and continued up further then we actually needed to. Upon finally working out where the finish was, it was somewhat of an anticlimax with the only real indication of the finish being a small yellow Tour de France sign marking the finish. Not quite what I was expecting given the profile of the climb but the town at the top is extremely nice anyway. Thankfully we managed to find a sign just after the final hairpin where we took the opportunity to stop for a few quick snaps as evidence that we made it to the top.

After a few well earned and much needed refreshments at the summit we began our descent back down to Le Bourg-d'Oisans. The descent was unfortunately a little frustrating due to the significant traffic on the mountain and we got stuck behind a few trucks which can't take the sharp hairpin corners as quickly as we can. A few hand cramps and brake pads later we eventually made it back to Le Bourg-d'Oisans where we stopped at a very nice little patisserie for some freshly made sandwiches to refuel the energy stocks before heading back to Grenoble. The bread here is seriously tasty to the point where you almost don't need to put anything on it.

With the batteries recharged we made our way back to Grenoble along the highway and with the false flat the whole way out, we enjoyed a nice downhill run most of the way home. Our legs were very much appreciative of the downhill at this point. Along the way Andrew had a pretty bad flat with a rock ripping the sidewall of his rear tyre to peices. Fortunately it was nothing that a $20 euro note inside the tyre can't fix and with our makeshift repairs we made it back to Grenoble in one peice.

All up it was a significantly harder day then we had originally anticipated but an experience none of us will forget any time soon. I cannot wait to return to the mountain to watch stage 18 of the tour which should prove to be an awesome atmosphere. We now look forward to a few well earned beers over the weekend to celebrate Tommy's birthday and see what the Grenoble night life has to offer.

Grenoble Day 3 - Chamrousse

Day three in Grenoble saw us finally getting back on the bike after a much needed rest. The first ride on the agenda was the climb up to the ski resort of Chamrousse situated in the Belledonne range to the east of Grenoble. It was our first attempt at navigating our way through the main arterials out of Grenoble and into the mountains and this proved to be more difficult than expected. As a result of our poor navigation skills we ended up doing an additional climb up the Fort du Murier, a nice little leg loosener which was 2.8kms in length at an average gradient of 7.3%.

We finally managed to get back en route to the Chamrousse and before long we had begun our ascent. The main climb for today was the longest we have done to date with the full climb totalling 27kms in length with an average gradient of 5.6% and a total elevation gain of 1,520. This makes it by far the biggest climb I have done to date since I started cycling. The climb was incredibly scenic as we made our way through a very green and lush rainforest which reminded me a lot of the Springbrook climb back home but on a much larger scale. 

While the average gradient seems relatively tame at 5.6%, there were a number of sections with gradients consistently upwards of 8-9% and after 27kms it quickly begins to take its toll. The climb also featured a relatively long unsealed section which appeared to be due to significant road works which are currently being carried out up the climb. Thankfully we did not have to descend back down this side.

As we made our way further up the climb we were rewarded with beautiful views back down into Grenoble through the thick rainforest which surrounded us. 

After a long climb and some tired legs we finally made it to what we thought was the top of the climb at an elevation of 1,650.

At this point we were very much looking forward to the descent down the other side of the mountain and back into Grenoble. To our shock we discovered that the climb actually continued a little further up the road with an additional 100 metres of elevation. At this point we were well and truly into the cloud cover over the range with visibility becoming a bit of an issue. The photo below gives a better idea of the type of cloud coverage we were surrounded by.

  

This time we really had reached the top and began our descent back into Grenoble. The descent was super fast. We had to play it a little safe at the start with the visibility issues and several large hairpin corners but once we got through that we were able to have a little bit of fun.

Once out of the cloud cover, the last section of the descent was seriously fast with several long, straight stretches of road that made the long ascent well worth our efforts. This was the first time I really wish I had some higher gearing to really make the most of it.

Overall, todays ride would definitely have to be up there with one of my favourite rides to date with a seriously fun and scenic climb followed by a super fast descent. Tomorrow we head to the most famous climb of all, a 130km round trip to the Alp d'Huez.

Grenoble Day 1 and 2 - Resting up

I thought I better check in for a quick update on what we have been up to for the past couple of days. We have worked our way from Briancon into the town of Grenoble. We are still in the Rhone-Alpes region of France and Grenoble is often considered the "Capital of the Alpes". With a total population in excess of 156,000, it is significantly larger and more lively than Briancon and has a significant student population as a result of the large university campus in the town. The change in demographic has been noticeable since our arrival with the town consisting of a much younger population.

The last few days have been fairly low key with the aim of resting up for the much longer rides that we will be doing in Grenoble. The mountains here are not as readily accessible as in Briancon and as a result we will be doing some much longer rides. These will be highlighted by Alpe d'Huez and a trip into the Vecors for the very scenic roads of the Grand Goulets. We have spent most of the time over the last two days walking around the town and doing a little bit of shopping. The town is very scenic with many cool little parks and squares spread throughout the town.

We have also taken the opportunity over the last few days to reward ourselves with a couple of beverages after the significant climbing we have done in the first week of our trip.

One of the main attractions in Grenoble is the Bastille which has cable cars that take you up to the top of the mountain where there are a number of cool little restaurants for lunch and some amazing views back over the city. We are going to keep this one until a day where the weather is perfect as the weather has been a little bit miserable over the last couple of days. The Bastille also features a nasty little leg burner on the bike with a 2km stretch with gradients over 20%. The picture below is a view looking over the river and up to the Bastille.

In summary, Grenoble looks like a nice lively town with plenty more things to do than in Briancon. It should make a fitting place to celebrate Tommy's birthday on Saturday night. Today we get back on the bike and head to do the Chamrousse.

Briancon Day 5 - Col du Granon

Day five saw the final day of riding in Briancon before we head to Grenoble. The feature of today's ride was the brutal Col du Granon. The profile of this climb looked seriously hard when we were doing some research on it and looked set to be one of the toughest climbs we are going to come across on this trip. We knew that if we made it up this climb we can easily do any of the other climbs we have planned over the next few weeks. For that reason this climb was a must.

The climb didn't disappoint with 11 long kilometers of brutal climbing averaging a gradient of 8.6% and reaching a total altitude of 2,413m. By far the hardest section of the climb was the 7th kilometer which averaged over 11% making it very hard to get comfortable and a lot of time out of the saddle. Sadly, we were actually releived to see a gradient of 8-9%, something I don't think any of us have experienced before. 

The top of the climb proceeds through a military base which appeared to be some kind of training camp. At the summit lies nothing more than an empty car park, somewhat of an anti climax after the pain we had just put ourselves through. Despite this, at an altitude of 2,413m there is always going to be some spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. 

The roads up to the summit of Col du Granon are extremely narrow and the road is a little rough in sections with a lot of loose gravel and no guard rails. For this reason we decided to take the descent relatively easy. To our suprise the descent was actually quite an enjoyable one, despite a few blind corners where it was a little difficult to ascertain any oncoming traffic. I would love to give this one a crack with a closed road allowing for full use of the road into some of the corners.

Overall it was a pretty tough but extremely satisfieing day in the saddle and we are all pretty sore as a result. That brings to an end our adventures in Briancon, it has been a blast and definitely one of my favourite places I have visited in my journeys so far. We now head to Grenoble where we will eventually link up with a few stages of le Tour de France and do some more riding including the most famous climb of all, Alp d'huez. I think all of us are looking forward to a couple of well earned rest days and a couple of cheeky beers.