Sat, 1 September 2012
Minimum altitude: 230 meters
Distance: 1.9 km
Slope Aspect: North-East
Vertical Climbed: 248 meters (814 feet)
Vertical Descended: 0 meters
Rating: 4
The Bastille is an uber-steep but thankfully short climb from la Tronche in the Suburbs of Grenoble to the fortress that overlooks the city. After a rolling start from the primary school along the Chemin St Jean the climb begins in earnest with the Chemin de la Bastille with a 500 meter 15% climb to the first hairpin. It gets harder afterwards with the next two hairpins covering 300 meters at 20% gradient with sections at 25%. If you survive that the second act seems almost flat, in the 12-14% range. Overall it is around 1.8km from the school at 14%.
You can continue through the car park and down to the fortress whether there are great views over Grenoble and the French Alps. Days of low valley fog are spectacular when only tall buildings are visible in the valley.
You can also try man vs bike. Starting at the dragons head fountain in Grenoble race to the fort to see who comes first, runner or rider!
Raining, made the road slippy both on the up, and the down. 16m36 for the prise de la Bastille climb.