Back to solo rides

Today was the day to say "Au revoir" to my Exeter Wheelers friends who have been staying here for the week: though I've had just three full riding days with them (because of my delayed arrival), I think that Andy, Shane, James and Tom have had a good taste of the riding down here. They have done routes to all points of the compass, have gone over about a dozen cols over 800m, and done around 22,000ft of climbing.

We mixed and matched somewhat, as the heat has been a significant factor: yesterday it went up to 53C in direct sun, and 38C in the shade, and 700m ascents in such temperatures aren't to everyone's taste. Quite often when I have groups of riders with me, they end up finding different solutions for getting the most out of their stay: some focus on getting miles and metres in, and others prefer to take a bit more time for the sights and flavours. Chacun à son goût, as the cliché has it. Anyway, I think that each of them now knows why I keep on coming back.

Just a few of photos for this one; at Col de Rousset, on my first ride here with them (on the lovely little loop to La Chapelle-en-Vercors), an evening visitor to the house, and just as the Exeter péloton prepared to brave the holiday traffic back to Calais in James' spacious car.

And a footnote on that subject: it pays to time your travel down here in the summer holidays. Let's just say that their journey down here in James' car was a bit of an epic; I hope that the return is a little quicker.

Col de Carri - 1215m

I'm back in Die, though with bad planning on my part (work in Truro) I arrived the day after the Tour de France passed through town. In my absence I'm glad to say that four Exeter Wheelers (James, Tom, Andy and Shane) did get down here before me, and had the pleasure of watching the intermediate sprint in Die, and the whole festival spirit of the event.

They had also done a couple of my suggested rides on their first couple of days, but I lined up three good ones to take them on: up Col de Rousset and a loop to La-Chapelle-en-Vercors; the round trip to Mens via the Col de Menée and back via the Col de Grimone and the Gorges des Gâts; and today a 95-miler to Combe Laval via Vassieux and back via Col de Bacchus.

It was only once we were riding up it that I realised that we were ascending the 1215m Col de Carri (which I hadn't ridden since June 2012), and that I ought to document it.

So, a brief description: the way Tom, James and I rode it was from the eastern side,  with just a 300m ascent from the road between Vassieux and La-Chapelle (of course we had already had to get up Col de Rousset to get to that road). Once over the col there is an undulating descent to the junction with the road between Lente and Col de la Machine and Combe Laval. If you approached Col de Carri from St-Jean-en-Royans you would make a near continual ascent of about 950m. It's an extremely quiet road, and it has a few lovely views, especially on the eastern side of the col.

Last ride for now: Col de Menée and Mont Aiguille

Trusting Météo France's forecast, I decided that today I had to head in another direction and get some height. Certainly this week has proved what a great base for cycling Die is, as the combination of wind and changeable weather has meant an avoidance of the high cols (still cold), Vercors (shrouded in cloud and rain most of the week), and anything too far south east (long slogs into powerful headwinds to get home). There's something in every direction from Die, and as soon as conditions allow, it's time to head for the hills.

I did have an ulterior motive for wanting to do Col de Menée today: apart from wanting a rather shorter ride, I had not yet seen the top of Mont Aiguille, and I reckoned that today's forecast gave me a good chance of seeing it. (Incidentally, it was pointed out - pardon the pun - what a silly name it is: look at the photos, and you'll see it doesn't resemble a needle at all. A joke, maybe.)

As you'll see, my hunch about the weather was correct, and the view of the mountain, along with the eastern ridge of the Vercors plateau was a sight to behold. And on the return descent I had all 21km of the road to myself, and enjoyed real warmth from the sun at last.

It takes just one ride like this to remind me what a wonderful place this is to be. But now I've got the long wait till the summer before I can remind myself all over again. It's worth the wait though.

One for cyclists (mainly)

All the five-day forecasts for here for this week or so have veered on the optimistic: the temperatures and wind have been reasonably close, but the actual amount of sun has been much lower than predicted. Still, we've avoided the UK's weekend storms, and I've done 400 miles in the week without getting properly wet,  and have had enough sun to get some tan-lines, so I'll leave the complaining to the locals. (And yes, they do moan when it's not sunny and warm!) 

Today's forecast: rain in morning, clearing around lunchtime. So, after some morning shopping, off at midday for something like a 70-mile ride, with two purposes: to ride up the D70-D411 from the D93 near Aouste,  and to try the alternative road (the D202) from the Col de Lescou to St. Nazaire-le-Désert. 

The bits for cyclists:

1) The D70-D411 is a really nice little road to get up to the Saoû road,  but deliberately it is poorly signposted, to dissuade car drivers using it as a rat-run (I assume). If you use it the other way you'll easily miss it (see photo). As ever, use a map, or GPS, if you don't know your way around. You'll know I'm a map man. 

2) I wouldn't recommend the D202 from Col de Lescou as a way to get to St. Nazaire-le-Désert: the D355 is a lovely little descent, whereas the D202 is very gravelly and sketchy on the way down. If you're a col-bagger and must to the Col de Muse, much better to ascend from St. Nazaire, though still watch out for gravel on the descent to Col de Lescou. 

It actually was still a lovely ride, despite the less-than-scorching weather, my estimate of the length of the ride (it ended up being 80 miles), and the need for a rather more hasty return than anticipated. Fortunately my legs were game on this occasion.

Here's the route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7375230

The easily-missed turn

Looking back down to Col de Lescou from the Col de Muse

Weather passes by over the Roanne valley

Rites of Spring

Please excuse the musical pun, but today's forecast had been very Spring-like at yesterday's viewing, so I planned another longish ride to celebrate. (In fact, by this morning the forecast had altered to suggest rain by the evening, but my mind was set, so I stuck with my plan: a route to La Charce, then across to Saoû, and then back via the D93.) 90 miles, as it turned out, many of them warm and sunny. Spring. Definitely. Well, mostly. 

Weather-wise, this week has also been notable for the strong north-westerlies, and today's route was chosen to avoid any long slogs into an unremitting wind. 

It was certainly a good route, with plenty to enjoy, both on the cycling front, and from the geological viewpoint. Apart from the famous formation at La Charce, I tried to snap a few of the eye-catching and varied roadside examples of exposed geology, much of it trying to fall down or getting washed away, while the French road engineers try to stop the geology falling on the roads, or the roads themselves following the geology down the mountain-sides. 

And what of these rites of spring? From a cyclist's perspective: riding without leg- and arm-warmers; finding a café where you can sit outside and glow in the sun; finding routes with several cols; and getting home to find that you've got tan-lines that identify you as a cyclist. On those criteria, it was Spring today. But I need a little more convincing yet. 

In the photos you'll see the four cols (plus bike),  geological features from before the Col de Prémol then La Charce onwards, the change of the weather back in the Drôme valley, and a Springy primrose on the road back home, as they didn't feature in my autumnal collection of roadside flowers.

The route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7375252
 

On the ascent to Col de Prémol

Detail of the rock face - notice the vertical strata squashed in between the horizontal ones

La Charce's famous rock structure

La Charce

The ascent to Berlières

The bike takes a jaunty angle

Spring must be coming...

Let's say that this week hasn't been very Mediterranean yet. The verges are covered in primroses, the farmers have been planting green crops, the snow is melting on all but the highest tops, and yet it's feeling distinctly cool. There have been strong Mistral-type winds from the north, and the sun has been somewhat reluctant to show its face. Still (of course) I've managed a couple of 50ish-mile rides,  but today's forecast of unbroken sunshine meant I had to do something bigger... even if the forecast turned out to be very optimistic.

Still, if you're used to the vagaries of English weather, clouds and strong winds aren't enough to deter, so today's route of 85 miles (after some furniture moving for my English friends down here) went ahead as planned. It's still too early to do big cols (some of the higher ones on the Vercors plateau are turned into ski runs in the winter), so I headed west and north up to Barcelonne and back via the Col Jérôme Cavalli and Gigors. The main reason for the route was to try a different way up to the col, via Combovin. (I'm guessing this would be 'Sheepscombe' in English.) These ways up to the plateau take on extra resonance when you've read how crucial they were in the Second World War (there are just seven roads up: two in the north, four in the west, one in the south, and none in the east.)

Anyway, the route was a corker: the photos begin just after Crest,  from where I avoided the unpleasant D538 by taking lovely side roads via les Picoux, Vaunaveys, Ourches and La-Baumes-Cornillanes. This is a pretty, lumpy undulating route (poorly signposted),  but it gives magnificent views down to Valence and the Rhône Valley. Quite a different feeling from Drôme valley routes.

The climb to the col is spectacular too, first up the side of the combe,  then hopping over to the next combe, at the base of which you once again see the fort at Barcelonne. I was going to end the series of photos at the col, but Les Trois Becs, which so often overlook routes all over the area, caught my eye on the D93 on the way back from Mirabel, and just had to have the snow-capped peak of la Pelle snapped.

The route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7375434

The tower at Crest, in front of the Trois Becs

The tower at Barcelonne

Combovin

A hairpin on the ascent to the Col Jérôme Cavalli

Barcelonne tower from the climb up from Combovin

The northern bec of the Trois Becs