Route Napoleon Tour - Day 4 Grenoble to Sisteron

Ride report
Day 4 Route Napoleon Tour.

317km
France.

We’re already all a little achy from yesterday’s ride, but today is a biggie!

After missing the junction off the motorway and having a tour of single junction peage’s, we headed west to Le Rivier to start our assent to into the Vercors Massif mountain range.

The road up was awesome! Twisting and technical, with no traffic to be seen. It was amazing seeing a wooded mountainside from the valley below and knowing we need to be at the top of it.

We continued upwards and found our first balcony road, overlooking Gorges du Nan. These roads are called balcony as they’re narrow and have a shear drop down the side. Carved into the mountainside (and sometimes through the mountainside), they have a low, limited barrier. Sometimes just a thin metal pole, or a low block wall.

After a coffee in Saint Laurent-de-Royales, we continued our assent up to Col de la Machine and the famous Combe Laval road. After many photos, the drone went up for some epic footage, that’ll go on YouTube at a later date, thanks to @mouldypix

Built in the late 1800s, it carves a path along the edge of the valley, offering a panoramic vista of the surrounding mountains. It’s listed in Europe’s top 40 most dangerous roads, but to be honest, it’s not dangerous at all, unless you’re being silly.

Once through the tunnels we continued winding our way south up to the ski slopes of Vassiuex. Out of season, the roads are wide, sweeping and empty. We had a bit of fun here. We thought our fun was done, but as we came out of a tunnel the valley below just opened up below us!

The D518 north of the forebodingly named town of Die is a downhill run of 9 tight switchbacks, descending around 500m over about 6km of road. Awesome fun!

A boulangerie lunch opposite Die station, and we now headed east to join the Route Napoleon.

But another Col beckoned us. Col de Menee is a tight road up to a peak of around 1400m then a flowing road through the woods on the other side. Little did we know that they had laid fresh tarmac patches that morning and the top dressing was thick and gravelly. All of us had sketchy moments as we came round a corner and lost traction. It was a genuine miracle that no one came off. We gingerly came down the hillside and found the road workers packing up after their shoddy half day’s work!

A short stop at Mont Aiguille, a huge plateaued block of mountain (looks a little like where the spaceship lands in ‘Escape from Witch Mountain’, then onwards!

We had been messing around and having too much fun, so zipped over to Gap for a quick coffee and then got onto the Route Napoleon.

Napoleon was exiled on the Island of Elba and when he escaped, he marched up from near Nice, up to Grenoble, amassing an army which then got defeated at the battle of Waterloo. For further information, please refer to a famous ABBA song.

The road is touristy and has a few non touristy bits. It’s a lovely run down to Sisteron and our hotel for the night.

Finding an open restaurant in France on a Monday night is ‘c’est impossible’, but we found a restaurant and the local slow cooked lamb went down well. We’re overlooking the Citadel de Sisteron, a foreboding looking fortress on the hill. Looks cool all lit up.

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