Day 5: Nyons to Chichilianne
Mont Ventoux was really fun; seeing stage 16 was really fun. Clearly I should see another stage. The map and the schedule suggested that I should aim towards Grenoble-ish, to see the start of stage 18. I just had to get there. I picked a route through the mountains, across two passes. I wanted to maximize the mountain time, so decided to finish day 5 on the descent down to the stage 18 start, but not all the way down at the start. I'd roll downhill to stage 18 in the morning.
From Nyons I went up some river valley. Cool geology everywhere.
Here there was some sort of cave or mine or something, directly at the side of the road
The line for the flood of August 1868 is marked. There's a boy scout songbook inside
I don't know.
One of the quaint old towns has a public squat toilet in its town center! Never seen one before.
As usual, this place is civilized. The road markers have distances from the start and to the next town and the elevation. The climbs have signage for cyclists, indicating the size of the climb and the grade
There're also signs every km, telling you how much is left. And obviously, there's a sign at the top
The geology is cool, and it's generally very pretty
This town has a monument for the WWI dead (a lot of towns have those) and some sort of cyclist/motorcyclist town mascot.
There's a map of the major trails in the area
The mountain views around are majestic. To the NE:
The big thing in the middle is Roc de Peyrolle and Le Dôme, and to the right and behind is Serre de Beaupuy (all in the Vercors). Today's ride goes over Col de Menée, just to the right of Serre de Beaupuy.
A bit further down, looking N:
From left to right: But de Nève, But de l'Aiglette, But Saint-Genix, Roc de Peyrolle (again).
I ran into a supply problem: I needed calories, all the stores were closed for a siesta, and if I waited too long, the rain would catch up to me. Once that was figured out, I started climbing the Col de Menée:
Bigger than the other one. This is in a really nice forest
There's some sort of construction
You pass by a lot of cliffy things (I think the first one is called Rocher de Combau; the second one is unnamed)
and the trees get much sparser on top
Eventually you get near Mont Barral
And the top
The other side of the summit is 1m lower, and they use a different color for their (also very civilized) signage.
At first the views on the other side are awesome
And then they get very awesome
The big dominating thing on the left is Mont Aiguille. The thing directly above and behind it is Grand Veymont (this is the last time I would see it not in a cloud). On the right is Platary. I descended down the other side of this pass, through the magnificent forest and fantastic views on all sides. I kept getting closer and closer to Mont Aiguille, until I realized that Chichilianne, the town I'm spending the night is right at its base. Could not have planned this better if I tried. Mont Aiguille has an interesting history; read the wikipedia page linked above.
Day 6: Chichilianne to stage 18 to Grenoble
The mountains looked awesome, but it was time to go check out stage 18! Unlike stage 16, which I saw as it passed through, here I was at the start. The stage start is unsurprisingly also a party. Before the caravan starts going, the sponsor people just walk around, throwing swag into the crowd. Some require you to spin the wheel, to select which swag you'll get. Some people came prepared with pre-made targets to attract the swag throwers. I camped out next to the coffee sponsor, to get free coffee. Good time. Eventually the riders all come up to the stage, one team at a time, for an introduction and interviews.
This is a big event, so naturally it takes a while. Most of the interviews are in French, but some are in English, with immediate translation to French. It's all essentially "it will be hard, I hope I can do it, I'll try my best, we'll see". It will be hard: stage 18 has 3 HC climbs of 5kft each.
Most of the riders are European or Australian or something. There's one dude with a special jersey with stars on it, with a handlebar mustache and a mullet. He's probably the exception from the US.
Then I went to check out Grenoble. It's nice. It sits low in the Isère river valley, but is surrounded by high mountains. I didn't have an agenda. There's a dominant hill seen from the city that has some sort of old fort visible on it.
And the map shows a switchbacky road climbing up to the top, so clearly that's what I'm doing. This turned out to be a stiff 14% climb. Wakes you up. There's a memorial to some king-of-the-mountains dude on top
You could also take hiking trails or a gondola to come up here. Looking up, there're more ruined things above, but that's accessible by foot or MTB only. So I walked. Can't complain about the views
The descent sign promises 30%.
It's not that cool. I rolled down the hill, and took a train back up the hill to Chichilianne, where I had grand plans for the following day.
On the train ride up, I read wikipedia, and it told me that I was never in the Alps, and was actually in the "Pre-Alps". Was already feeling kinda soft with the credit-card touring and train-taking, but maybe that's ok.
Next: part 3.