Loop ride: Gorges du Nan

May 24, 2025

I had a couple of day rides planned that I wanted to do while we’re here—both repeats of rides we did on our previous visit in 2017. As far as we’re concerned, there’s not a lot else to do in Pont-en-Royans if you’re here with a bike and not a car. But the cycling is spectacular!

I was feeling much better this morning though not 100%. So Gorges du Nan seemed like the choice for today. I remembered a beautiful climb on a scenic quiet road (easy to stop and admire views/catch one’s breath) and a thrilling descent. I didn’t remember all of the climb, though. There were some great switchbacks (how could I have forgotten those?) and then a flat straight bit into a headwind today, followed by an equally long climb through forest (selective memory at play as these parts weren’t spectacular).

In any case, Al waited for me a few times and then at the top.

Spectacular scenery on the lower part of the climb. You know things might get interesting when you see the limited-height sign on a narrow road. In this case, there’s a short tunnel 6 km ahead.

I only took the one photo on the way up; no idea why! I know all the other photos are from the descent because we are both wearing all our warm layers. When we’d packed them in the morning, we had wondered if we were bringing too much. No! It was c-c-cold at the top and zooming down. For the record, the added layers included tights, gilet, rain jacket serving as windbreaker, warm gloves, and toque.

The upper part of the descent, like the climb, was through trees. But unlike the climb, there was the occasional spectacular view through openings in the trees—but they went by before I could think to stop.

Nice, but this isn’t Gorges du Nan (yet)

The sign on the right, with the stickers and greenery in front, tells us that *this* is the Gorges du Nan.

When we rode down this in early July 2017, we saw exactly one vehicle, a small La Poste van. Today we saw a few, travelling in both directions. The road surface today was better than I remembered.

Waiting to get an action shot as I pass (I thought) but didn’t work out.

That’s the road barrier wall on the very right edge of the photo.

It was down, down, down until suddenly we were down as we arrived in Cognin-les-Gorges. No longer chilled by the wind of our speed, we took advantage of the little park area on the Place de l’Église to divest our extra layers for the remaining 20 km back to Pont-en-Royans. I’d routed us on a quiet road but said road included a climb that was more than my legs appreciated at the end of the day.

After descending from that last climb, just before the last turn onto the road into Pont-en-Royans.

Back at the hotel, there were two other bikes in the bike room. One was a Bike Friday and one an ebike, so we deduced that Rachael Anderson had gotten a lift with Janos and the others, Scott, Susan, and Suzanne, would be arriving soon. They have their own journals going: Team Anderson at https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/sevenandseven2025/, Susan Carpenter at https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/circlinghexagon2025/, and Suzanne Gibson at https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/frenchalps2025/

Al and I met up with Susan for a drink before dinner and the whole group had dinner together at the hotel. It was great meeting everyone, especially the three we hadn’t met in person before.

Seven-person CycleBlaze meet-up: photographic proof!

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Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 177 km (110 miles)

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Kirsten KaarsooHappy that all of you met up. I hope you are feeling better.
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