Montchardon

Distance: 38.8 miles. Elevation: 3804 ft.

Col de la Madeleine

On my way back home, heading north from Briançon, I thought I’d squeeze in one more ride before my return to the UK. It had rained all night, and in the morning, but the weather looked OK for the afternoon.

This ride has been on my list for several years, back from when I was trying to find new routes in the Vercors. I had been fascinated by the buddhist temple at Montchardon after I had ‘come across it’ on google streetview.

Because of the late start caused by the weather, I had to redesign my original route, cutting out one climb and reducing the length. But I couldn’t resist adding in a quick col at the start of the ride!

When I left, at 2:20 pm, it was cool. I briefly considered arm warmers but decided against them. In fact I wasn’t impressed with the weather. It looked especially grey in the direction of the Vercors. I thought I’d see what it was like when I got there – there was an easy way to cut this ride short if necessary.

So I started the ride heading away from my destination, for a two-mile climb to ‘bag’ Col de la Madeleine.

Then I turned south to head over the rolling hills towards the massive Vercors massif, looking gloomy, grey and cloud-covered in the distance.

The roads were beautiful with hardly any traffic.  I saw several groups of cyclists, all out on club rides I expect, this being a Saturday. I was envious of them having these roads in their locale.

By the time I crossed the Isère river, nearing the Vercors, there were small slithers of blue sky appearing. Now I was closer, it didn’t look so murky.

There was a 2½ mile stretch along the D1532 main road towards Cognin-les-Gorges, a road I had last ridden back in 2016 on my way to the beautiful Gorges du Nan. But before getting that far, today’s route turned right to head up the steep face of the Vercors massif.

The climb started immediately after turning off the main road, and entailed 4½ miles at 7.5% on a narrow road followed by a flatter mile through meadows. The first bit of the climb basically consists of four mile-long straights between switchbacks, mainly through forest with occasional views over the Isère river basin. Turning one of the switchbacks I was pleased to see loads of blue sky approaching – it had been behind me so I hadn’t been aware of it. About halfway up I had periods of sunshine getting through gaps in trees.

As I rode through the meadows, the Isère view now out of sight, I spotted the temple nestled among the trees, further up the hillside.

Less than a mile later I had reached it.

I sat on a bench by the stupas and ate my store-bought ham, cheese and mustard sandwich. There was nobody around other than a monk who walked by. The sky began to look grey again.

The route back down is via an extremely steep, narrow and undulating road. The three miles average 10.5% but there are plenty of sections up to 15% and beyond. It would certainly be a tough climb.

Interestingly, for me at least, this road down fron Montchardon is quite close to the edge of the Gorges du Nan, but not close enough, and with too much forest in the way, to be able to see any of it.

At the bottom I rejoined the D1532 main road for a couple of miles before heading back over the Isère river via le Pont d’Izeron, towards the rolling hills via Saint-Marcellin and Chatte to Saint-Antoine-l’Abbaye where my van was parked.

The sun was out nearly the whole way back.

I’m glad my final ride had ended in sunshine.

I remembered that my first solo ride of this ‘tour’ was to Col de la Charmette, three weeks ago, when I rode past the Carthusian monastery. So my tour started with a monastery and ended with a temple!

STOP PRESS

A month after I was there, five miles further along the D1532 road that I’d been on, a huge section of the Vercors mountainside collapsed, completely covering the main road.

I’ve ridden on that section of the road back in 2019 on my ride to Tunnel des Ecouges, and have driven along it several times. Just goes to show, anything can happen!

Further reading

• Vercors Road Info Very useful site to check out the status of the main roads in the Vercors
• Montchardon Centre Presentation – loads of info about the Buddhist temple
• Landslide on the edge of the Vercors – news report of the landslide, including video
• New route for RD1532 Enquiry into new route for RD1532, post landslide
• Stupa – information about stupas (wikipedia)

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