The 'Tour du Neron' has long attained the well deserved status of an all-time classic for cyclists around Grenoble.
My second try in geolocalized videos:
Why classic?
There is the fact that its a beautiful itinerary around one of the most emblematic mountains that dominate Grenoble: 'le Neron', also called 'le casque de Neron' which translates roughly to 'Neros hat'! The meaning of this lesser known nickname became obvious in 2003, when lightning struck and the mountain was on fire for weeks.
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Le Neron: one of the most emblematic mountains dominating Grenoble.
Seen from the top of Chamechaude another all time classic - on skis.
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There is the reasonable distance: 27 km in the mountains are just right. Enough to get really going, but short enough, not to be discouraging for a short spin after work.
There is the reasonable elevation gain. Barely more than 600 m. And the nice elevation profile: 400 m from Grenoble to 'Col de Clemencieres', and another 200 m from 'Pont de Quaix' to 'le Gua' after a short descent.
There are the small backroads with very little traffic once beyond Col de Clemencieres.
There are the nice little villages of Quaix and Proveysieux along the way across the Chartreuse Mountains.
And there is the cycle path along the Isere with the an almost guaranteed tailwind to push one back the last 8 kms of flat in the valley from St. Egreve to Grenoble. Just right to relax the muscles after the climbs.
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Effortless coasting back to Grenoble from St Egreve on the cycling path
along the Isere river.
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