Vercors Balcony Roads

davidof
davidof Posts: 3,102
edited September 2015 in Tour & expedition
Despite living just north of the Vercors I rarely go there as it involved crossing Grenoble. However yesterday we made an exception to ride the Col de la Machine and the road over Choranche, Presles and down the Gorges de Cognin.

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The descent from the Machine has a nice unlit tunnel

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Lunch stops are few and far apart in September. One restauranteur didn't want to serve at 1.45pm and told us "there is a McDonalds in St Marcellin" - some 40km ride away.

The climb up to Presles is on a quiet but narrow road, we were forced into a ditch by a lunatic white van man though.

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Then a wide descent through the Maneval valley and the Gorges de Cognin

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A cyclist went over the wall somewhere round here in August and fell 250 meters to his death.

Here is a video of the ride:

https://youtu.be/hEjVMl02OHo

We started at Cognin les Gorges, road by the river on a series of back roads to St Laurent, climbed the Machine then Pont sur Royans, Choranche, Col des Autres, Presles, Maneval and back down to Cognin for 2300 meters of ascent over a reasonably 95km.
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