Vercors Nord (climbing week)

Last update: 1-Aug-2023 10:14

From the Hotel Beau Rivage in Pont-en-Royans, you first cycle to the Isère valley which you follow north via the west bank, which means you cross the Isère. From the bridge over the Isère, you have a view of the Château de la Sône. Finally, you cross the Isère a second time to enter the Natural Park of the north of the Vercors. In this area, it goes up and down, only once strongly (16%) up and down (a road sign says 30%!). In this region there are many walnut plantations.

After the second crossing of the Isère, you will climb 18 km to the highest cycling mountain of the Vercors, Mont Noir (1428 m), via the magnificent passage of the Canyon des Ecouges (a gorge). You also pass through a narrow 500 m long tunnel, which has only received lighting since 2022, and pass a waterfall. Please note that an assistance vehicle can only pass here if it is no longer than 2.6 meters! The second part of the ascent goes through a Forest Road to the summit of Mont Noir and is much less spectacular than the first part of the climb. The colbord is located in the middle of the forest area and you can even easily pass by bike.

The descent of Mont Noir passes through the magnificent gorges of the Nan (Gorges du Nan). For a support vehicle, this means that it cannot exceed 2.8 meters here. Arrived at the bottom of Cognin-les-Gorges, the route passes again through the Isère valley but this time on the east bank. However, you can also insert an additional climb to Montchardon (not in the gpx file), a steep climb (5.5 km long and 10% average climb) with a Tibetan monastery at the top. Finally, you climb to Presles (which is the first 9 km of the southern slope of Mont Noir (see the first 9 km of the profile)), the climb goes to the hamlet of Faz and is known as the Montée du Faz. What remains is the descent to Pont-en-Royans (descent of the Col de Pra l'Etang) in which you also pedal along straight rock walls on one side of your bike, and look into a gaping abyss on the other side of your bike (Route de Presles). Here, too, a height restriction applies to support vehicles: 3.2 metres.

Warning: the altimeters indicated by route are too high because of the many gorges on the road! A realistic estimate of the number of altimeters is 2400 hm.