velotel
05-15-2015, 04:15 PM
It’s above my house, 7 K away, 500 vertical meters up. I know the climb intimately after 21 years of riding the sob. Still kicks my butt. Sunday late afternoon after another day in the garden decided I needed a longer ride than my usual end of day outing. The light washing over the summits was too gorgeous to ignore and the evening too advanced to bother driving anywhere for a ride. Col du Coq the obvious call, over the top and down the back side and up onto the small plateau about halfway down the back side, turn around, ride back. A tour of pain. The 500 vertical on the side above where I live averages around 9%. The climb back up the other side is harder with the last 2 K solidly in double digits.
Decided to cheat and take my camera along. Thought I ought to show all of you a bit of scenery from a local ride. I mean I’m always posting shots from these great places in the Alps but rarely anything from my daily rides. Well, not really daily since I don’t ride every day. Anyway, I’m insanely lucky to live where I live with immediately at hand the roads and terrain that I can cruise right from my door. Actually I’m not sure cruise is the verb to be using here, at least for me on the road to the col. Cruising and suffering seem a bit of a contradiction.
Camera in the pack, bowl and roll, off to the Col du Coq. Out of my drive, onto the road through the village where immediately it gets pinched between houses on each side and becomes a one-lane passage with the priority given to the direction I was going. Et voilà, what’s this having to stop for me! I’ll be go to hell. I’ve seen a lot of different cars on the plateau, from 2CVs to Ferraris, but this is the first time for a Dodge Viper! A bright, hard red that was practically vibrating with energy while this heavy thumping of power bounced off the walls on either side of the road. Usually I speed up to get through fast so the cars don’t have to wait but this time I slow just to take in the view of this beast. Rather good looking, in a steroid sort of way.
Past the bar that serves up excellent pizzas in the evening, past the church with its cemetery looking out across the valley and up at the mountain above. I told my wife she can plant me there. Seems like a good place to rest. Into the descent out of the village, across a tight curving bridge over a stream, and into the shortcut to the road to the col. A tight, twisting line up through two switchbacks then around a bend to the right into a section perched above another stream, this one carrying a heavy load of water crashing down over a series of pools and drops. I always take this road going up because aesthetically it’s wonderfully refreshing. Coming back down I stick to the main road because that’s a speed run with some fine turns. Also two lanes so no worries about cars coming up.
I stop in the first switchback to the right on the shortcut road to shoot. Realized not once in all the years have I shot a picture on this road. Get to where the shortcut crosses a bridge over the creek and where I’ve been thinking all spring I need to get some shots of the creek. Only I never have my camera. Today I do. Onto the main road, get ready to switch to one-speed mode, as in on the 27 cog from there to the col. Glance down and back, do a double-take. I’ll be damned, I’m on the 23 and feeling good. Around a swinging switchback to the right and the road ramps up, angling across fields on a steep hillside, straight ahead the mass of the Dent de Crolles, the mountain dominating the village where I live, summit elevation 2062 meters. The Col du Coq crosses a ridge butting into the Dent de Crolles. Around another wonderfully round switchback and now I’m heading back in the opposite direction and can see the Mont Aguille in the far distance to the south. The views from up here are vast and gorgeous. Through a set of tight stackbacks and into a long, angling traverse up the mountain. The grade steeper here, I’m on the 25 cog. Still feeling good.
The road enters the woods where there’s this fantastic combination of S-turns that I love screaming down through. Actually the entire downhill is a gas and a half. This is also the section where the birds start chanting at me, plus vite, plus vite, as faster, faster. It’s also where the grade has slid over into double digits and I’m maxed out to keep moving up the hill. Got passed once by a young rider through here. His pace and the ease with which he carried it made me feel twice my age.
A long straight, steep, woods on both sides, nothing to see but the road rising up. Into the upper half, looping switchbacks linked by curving traverses, and always above the summit cliffs of the Dent de Crolles soaring into the sky. Couple of the switchbacks serve up terrific views back down into the valley and across at the Alps, still white with snow. Lot of traffic coming down. It’s Sunday evening, the day was sublime, lots of people from the valley took advantage of the unusually warm weather to climb the mountain and hike the trails on the ridges. Now they’re heading home, leaving the col pretty much deserted by the time I get there.
On the col, roll across the saddle, dive into the plunge off the back side. A totally different road from the one I came up. Instead of two lanes (but no shoulders) and mostly smooth pavement outside of the wear and tear from harsh winters, the back side is a one-laner with a lumpy surface deformed by the passage of groaning logging trucks. Plus loose gravel and sand scattered over the road in lots of places, washed off the slopes by rains. A fast, technical descent. The fast bit is guaranteed by the road’s steepness. A descent I like, always interesting. Just have to watch out for cars coming up because a lot of drivers aren’t too good at placing their cars on the road.
Spring was in full rush at the house with a garden bursting with color and most of the fruit trees already into their leaves. Up here it’s early spring, lots of trees with nothing more than tiny buds of leaves, others not even that, the fields a carpet of plants breaking free into the air. The road dives into a pine forest where the shade is so thick that the road can stay damp all day long even on a hot day. Which is why there’s a sheen of green at times on the pavement, moss growing on the asphalt. Something else to watch out for. The steepness, the road’s narrowness, and the dampness and moss translate into lots of soft braking.
Into a hard switchback to the left, down into a drainage, then up into an angling traverse cut into a hillside of small cliffs. Back into the sun. Also back into climbing mode. An easy climbing mode. The road twisting up through a mixed forest of conifers and deciduous trees, S-turns linked into a long snaky section of blind turns. I love this section. Maybe because back here there’s zero traffic, the only sounds birds singing, the trees rustling and swaying with the currents of air moving up and down the slopes, my tires humming on the blacktop with the occasional pop of a pebble getting shot off by a tire. Every time I ride through here I remember watching Indurain in a small group ride past in the Critérium du Dauphiné. What struck me then was how relaxed they all looked and how fast they were moving. Somewhere I have some slides I shot of them.
Hit the top of the hill and turn around and stop. To drink but mostly just to listen to the silence. Maybe to gather some power for the climb back to the col. Less vertical than what I already did but steeper. But first there’s this rollicking bit of road back to the base of the climb. Only a K and a half or so, not nearly long enough, not sure 10 K and a half would be enough, that’s how much fun it is. Only today I need to back the fun gage off. Usually there’s zero traffic back here but today I’ve already crossed 3, maybe 4 cars since the col. Given the road’s narrowness and the blind turns, some speed moderation seems a good idea. Too bad because this is one of those roads built for cyclists who like to play.
Into the final climb, a short one, only 1,8 K, no big deal outside of the fact that the first K apparently averages 12% and the last 800 meters 11%! Note that those are only the average grades. On the bike I can guarantee the first K rides harder than the average because the last maybe 300-400 meters is a real leg crusher with ramps steeper than anything else in that K. Plus it’s in heavy shade so the surface is always humid which means that between the sheen of moss in places and sand and gravel washed onto the road in other places, it’s a real bear of pitch. Fortunately just after the road curls left and starts easing into the sunlight there’s a brief rest area, maybe 10 meters of single-digit grade where I always roll as slowly as I can while my heart and breathing rate calm down in preparation for the final 800 meters to the col.
This is in a small basin where years ago there used to be a small ski area, 2 ground lifts to drag skiers up the slopes. Maybe they should think about setting the place up to drag riders up the final pitch to the col. Nah, no one would use it. We cyclists are an odd lot, always searching out new climbs to torture ourselves on. As it turned out I actually rode all that rather well. Note I didn’t say fast, just well.
Arriving on the col from the west is pretty cool. There’s a switchback just before the col with a view back over the valley I just climbed up out of. Then it’s around the switchback, the road goes limp, onto the col and dead ahead is a gap in the forest, a window looking out at the Alps still white from the winter. Advance a little more and now there’s the Dent de Crolles soaring into the sky, the summit some 600 meters higher. It’s a view I love.
Time to stop, drink up the last of my water, add a wind vest for the plunge back to the plateau, look around and enjoy the views. Notice a rider coming up, looks like a good pace being carried. Rolls onto the col, stops, zips up, drinks, looks around, then heads back down the way he came up. Dressed in full race regalia. I watch him go and figure that’ll be the last I see of him. Finish drinking, shoot another picture, okay, ready to roll. This is a plunge I adore. Not all that long, only 6 K, but in that distance there’s just about everything I love in a descent. Long carvers, linked S-turns, round switchbacks, pure speed runs. With two lanes all the way letting the bike go is no problem. Which is what I do. Especially since I know it by heart after all these years. Plus it’s Sunday, well into the evening, no cars will be coming up. Might be one or two going down but unless the drivers are in aggro mode, passing them is an automatic. There are two long sections where I can hit 80-90 kph no sweat.
Shove off, a few pedal strokes to move into the highest hear then let gravity take over. Bend to the right, drift left into the other lane, setting up for the switchback to the right at the end of the bend. On the brakes, staying left deep into the turn, watching to see if the road’s clear, it is, dive into the apex, drift left exiting then slowly back to the right. Another switchback coming up, this one to the left, sharper but round, a curve to the right coming into it. Big acceleration between the two of them. On the brakes deep into the turn then as soon as I see the road’s clear, dive into the apex hard, only this time I stay left and ride the outside line through a lazy bend to the right leading into a sweet switchback to the right. Excellent sight lines in most of the turns make for high cornering speeds.
Whoa! What’s this, that rider I saw on the col. Never imagined I’d see him again. A descender he obviously isn’t. I blow by him on the left approaching a round, easy switchback to the left. Cut back right, on the brakes, lean over, carve through, gravity pulling hard. On and on. An insanely fun drop. And all the time fantastic views out across the valley at the Alps or right down to the valley floor way below. I’m not really looking for a particularly fast plunge, just letting the bike roll, searching out the smoothest lines, flowing down off the mountain on gravity’s leash. Turns out to be an evening when I hit all the good notes, it’s just so crazy easy, flying off the mountain. No clock working so don’t really know but in the end I think it might have been one of my fastest runs down.
Come into the junction with the main road up from the valley to the plateau where I live. I’m cooking. No cars coming down so I stay left and keep flying but with the fingers floating on the brake levers until I’m far enough that I can see no cars are coming up either. Oops, a bus coming up, but far enough away that I hit the pedals standing and blow across the road and up into a hard turn to the right then up a slightly harder grade that I take in a big gear. I can hear the bus behind me powering up the road, he waits until a short straight then accelerates past with a friendly toot. Riding in France really is a treat.
Back up the final grades into the village, decide to stop and shoot some views I’ve never grabbed before. Like the sign for the village. Then looking out across the fields towards Grenoble and the Vercors plateau. Oh yea, never, ever shot the church and cemetery. Why not now. And now the grand finale, a silly little climb up the village road. I almost always finish up my plateau out and backs with it. The road doesn’t go anywhere, just to the highest houses in the village where it ends. Three round switchbacks, one lane road, 60 vertical meters, 900 meters long, a mere bump, but excellent. With wonderful views. Shoot a few of them on the way up. Just a crazy good place. Still can’t believe the luck that landed me here. Seems like the perfect end so I always do it. The only other person I’ve ever seen ride it is my son. Get to the top, turn around, back down to the main road, turn left, maybe 200 meters away and I’m back at the house with views as sweet as any I’ve seen. Perfect.
Some pics, as usual in chronological order from the ride. The last one is the view from my house (actually taken another time). Enjoy
Decided to cheat and take my camera along. Thought I ought to show all of you a bit of scenery from a local ride. I mean I’m always posting shots from these great places in the Alps but rarely anything from my daily rides. Well, not really daily since I don’t ride every day. Anyway, I’m insanely lucky to live where I live with immediately at hand the roads and terrain that I can cruise right from my door. Actually I’m not sure cruise is the verb to be using here, at least for me on the road to the col. Cruising and suffering seem a bit of a contradiction.
Camera in the pack, bowl and roll, off to the Col du Coq. Out of my drive, onto the road through the village where immediately it gets pinched between houses on each side and becomes a one-lane passage with the priority given to the direction I was going. Et voilà, what’s this having to stop for me! I’ll be go to hell. I’ve seen a lot of different cars on the plateau, from 2CVs to Ferraris, but this is the first time for a Dodge Viper! A bright, hard red that was practically vibrating with energy while this heavy thumping of power bounced off the walls on either side of the road. Usually I speed up to get through fast so the cars don’t have to wait but this time I slow just to take in the view of this beast. Rather good looking, in a steroid sort of way.
Past the bar that serves up excellent pizzas in the evening, past the church with its cemetery looking out across the valley and up at the mountain above. I told my wife she can plant me there. Seems like a good place to rest. Into the descent out of the village, across a tight curving bridge over a stream, and into the shortcut to the road to the col. A tight, twisting line up through two switchbacks then around a bend to the right into a section perched above another stream, this one carrying a heavy load of water crashing down over a series of pools and drops. I always take this road going up because aesthetically it’s wonderfully refreshing. Coming back down I stick to the main road because that’s a speed run with some fine turns. Also two lanes so no worries about cars coming up.
I stop in the first switchback to the right on the shortcut road to shoot. Realized not once in all the years have I shot a picture on this road. Get to where the shortcut crosses a bridge over the creek and where I’ve been thinking all spring I need to get some shots of the creek. Only I never have my camera. Today I do. Onto the main road, get ready to switch to one-speed mode, as in on the 27 cog from there to the col. Glance down and back, do a double-take. I’ll be damned, I’m on the 23 and feeling good. Around a swinging switchback to the right and the road ramps up, angling across fields on a steep hillside, straight ahead the mass of the Dent de Crolles, the mountain dominating the village where I live, summit elevation 2062 meters. The Col du Coq crosses a ridge butting into the Dent de Crolles. Around another wonderfully round switchback and now I’m heading back in the opposite direction and can see the Mont Aguille in the far distance to the south. The views from up here are vast and gorgeous. Through a set of tight stackbacks and into a long, angling traverse up the mountain. The grade steeper here, I’m on the 25 cog. Still feeling good.
The road enters the woods where there’s this fantastic combination of S-turns that I love screaming down through. Actually the entire downhill is a gas and a half. This is also the section where the birds start chanting at me, plus vite, plus vite, as faster, faster. It’s also where the grade has slid over into double digits and I’m maxed out to keep moving up the hill. Got passed once by a young rider through here. His pace and the ease with which he carried it made me feel twice my age.
A long straight, steep, woods on both sides, nothing to see but the road rising up. Into the upper half, looping switchbacks linked by curving traverses, and always above the summit cliffs of the Dent de Crolles soaring into the sky. Couple of the switchbacks serve up terrific views back down into the valley and across at the Alps, still white with snow. Lot of traffic coming down. It’s Sunday evening, the day was sublime, lots of people from the valley took advantage of the unusually warm weather to climb the mountain and hike the trails on the ridges. Now they’re heading home, leaving the col pretty much deserted by the time I get there.
On the col, roll across the saddle, dive into the plunge off the back side. A totally different road from the one I came up. Instead of two lanes (but no shoulders) and mostly smooth pavement outside of the wear and tear from harsh winters, the back side is a one-laner with a lumpy surface deformed by the passage of groaning logging trucks. Plus loose gravel and sand scattered over the road in lots of places, washed off the slopes by rains. A fast, technical descent. The fast bit is guaranteed by the road’s steepness. A descent I like, always interesting. Just have to watch out for cars coming up because a lot of drivers aren’t too good at placing their cars on the road.
Spring was in full rush at the house with a garden bursting with color and most of the fruit trees already into their leaves. Up here it’s early spring, lots of trees with nothing more than tiny buds of leaves, others not even that, the fields a carpet of plants breaking free into the air. The road dives into a pine forest where the shade is so thick that the road can stay damp all day long even on a hot day. Which is why there’s a sheen of green at times on the pavement, moss growing on the asphalt. Something else to watch out for. The steepness, the road’s narrowness, and the dampness and moss translate into lots of soft braking.
Into a hard switchback to the left, down into a drainage, then up into an angling traverse cut into a hillside of small cliffs. Back into the sun. Also back into climbing mode. An easy climbing mode. The road twisting up through a mixed forest of conifers and deciduous trees, S-turns linked into a long snaky section of blind turns. I love this section. Maybe because back here there’s zero traffic, the only sounds birds singing, the trees rustling and swaying with the currents of air moving up and down the slopes, my tires humming on the blacktop with the occasional pop of a pebble getting shot off by a tire. Every time I ride through here I remember watching Indurain in a small group ride past in the Critérium du Dauphiné. What struck me then was how relaxed they all looked and how fast they were moving. Somewhere I have some slides I shot of them.
Hit the top of the hill and turn around and stop. To drink but mostly just to listen to the silence. Maybe to gather some power for the climb back to the col. Less vertical than what I already did but steeper. But first there’s this rollicking bit of road back to the base of the climb. Only a K and a half or so, not nearly long enough, not sure 10 K and a half would be enough, that’s how much fun it is. Only today I need to back the fun gage off. Usually there’s zero traffic back here but today I’ve already crossed 3, maybe 4 cars since the col. Given the road’s narrowness and the blind turns, some speed moderation seems a good idea. Too bad because this is one of those roads built for cyclists who like to play.
Into the final climb, a short one, only 1,8 K, no big deal outside of the fact that the first K apparently averages 12% and the last 800 meters 11%! Note that those are only the average grades. On the bike I can guarantee the first K rides harder than the average because the last maybe 300-400 meters is a real leg crusher with ramps steeper than anything else in that K. Plus it’s in heavy shade so the surface is always humid which means that between the sheen of moss in places and sand and gravel washed onto the road in other places, it’s a real bear of pitch. Fortunately just after the road curls left and starts easing into the sunlight there’s a brief rest area, maybe 10 meters of single-digit grade where I always roll as slowly as I can while my heart and breathing rate calm down in preparation for the final 800 meters to the col.
This is in a small basin where years ago there used to be a small ski area, 2 ground lifts to drag skiers up the slopes. Maybe they should think about setting the place up to drag riders up the final pitch to the col. Nah, no one would use it. We cyclists are an odd lot, always searching out new climbs to torture ourselves on. As it turned out I actually rode all that rather well. Note I didn’t say fast, just well.
Arriving on the col from the west is pretty cool. There’s a switchback just before the col with a view back over the valley I just climbed up out of. Then it’s around the switchback, the road goes limp, onto the col and dead ahead is a gap in the forest, a window looking out at the Alps still white from the winter. Advance a little more and now there’s the Dent de Crolles soaring into the sky, the summit some 600 meters higher. It’s a view I love.
Time to stop, drink up the last of my water, add a wind vest for the plunge back to the plateau, look around and enjoy the views. Notice a rider coming up, looks like a good pace being carried. Rolls onto the col, stops, zips up, drinks, looks around, then heads back down the way he came up. Dressed in full race regalia. I watch him go and figure that’ll be the last I see of him. Finish drinking, shoot another picture, okay, ready to roll. This is a plunge I adore. Not all that long, only 6 K, but in that distance there’s just about everything I love in a descent. Long carvers, linked S-turns, round switchbacks, pure speed runs. With two lanes all the way letting the bike go is no problem. Which is what I do. Especially since I know it by heart after all these years. Plus it’s Sunday, well into the evening, no cars will be coming up. Might be one or two going down but unless the drivers are in aggro mode, passing them is an automatic. There are two long sections where I can hit 80-90 kph no sweat.
Shove off, a few pedal strokes to move into the highest hear then let gravity take over. Bend to the right, drift left into the other lane, setting up for the switchback to the right at the end of the bend. On the brakes, staying left deep into the turn, watching to see if the road’s clear, it is, dive into the apex, drift left exiting then slowly back to the right. Another switchback coming up, this one to the left, sharper but round, a curve to the right coming into it. Big acceleration between the two of them. On the brakes deep into the turn then as soon as I see the road’s clear, dive into the apex hard, only this time I stay left and ride the outside line through a lazy bend to the right leading into a sweet switchback to the right. Excellent sight lines in most of the turns make for high cornering speeds.
Whoa! What’s this, that rider I saw on the col. Never imagined I’d see him again. A descender he obviously isn’t. I blow by him on the left approaching a round, easy switchback to the left. Cut back right, on the brakes, lean over, carve through, gravity pulling hard. On and on. An insanely fun drop. And all the time fantastic views out across the valley at the Alps or right down to the valley floor way below. I’m not really looking for a particularly fast plunge, just letting the bike roll, searching out the smoothest lines, flowing down off the mountain on gravity’s leash. Turns out to be an evening when I hit all the good notes, it’s just so crazy easy, flying off the mountain. No clock working so don’t really know but in the end I think it might have been one of my fastest runs down.
Come into the junction with the main road up from the valley to the plateau where I live. I’m cooking. No cars coming down so I stay left and keep flying but with the fingers floating on the brake levers until I’m far enough that I can see no cars are coming up either. Oops, a bus coming up, but far enough away that I hit the pedals standing and blow across the road and up into a hard turn to the right then up a slightly harder grade that I take in a big gear. I can hear the bus behind me powering up the road, he waits until a short straight then accelerates past with a friendly toot. Riding in France really is a treat.
Back up the final grades into the village, decide to stop and shoot some views I’ve never grabbed before. Like the sign for the village. Then looking out across the fields towards Grenoble and the Vercors plateau. Oh yea, never, ever shot the church and cemetery. Why not now. And now the grand finale, a silly little climb up the village road. I almost always finish up my plateau out and backs with it. The road doesn’t go anywhere, just to the highest houses in the village where it ends. Three round switchbacks, one lane road, 60 vertical meters, 900 meters long, a mere bump, but excellent. With wonderful views. Shoot a few of them on the way up. Just a crazy good place. Still can’t believe the luck that landed me here. Seems like the perfect end so I always do it. The only other person I’ve ever seen ride it is my son. Get to the top, turn around, back down to the main road, turn left, maybe 200 meters away and I’m back at the house with views as sweet as any I’ve seen. Perfect.
Some pics, as usual in chronological order from the ride. The last one is the view from my house (actually taken another time). Enjoy