Wed, 18 July 2018
Vertical Climbed: 600 meters (1,969 feet)
Vertical Descended: 600 meters
Rating: 3
The 4S (seigneurs) summit is a classic for road cyclists and MTBers in the area, short, sharp but quiet roads with a great view. This route tackles it climbing the shady road from Gieres to Uriage les Bains (cyclepath). The climb is a reasonable 4%, more a false flat in places. The road can be quite busy. After cycling through Uriage with its many cafes and ice cream parlours you take the first right at a round-about to climb to Villeneuve. Things are immediately more serious with the first two hairpins in the 13% range before flattening a bit. You climb 150 vertical meters to the col de Noyaret where you take a right (chemin des terres) at a farm on a link road to join the south facing 4S climb. You are already quite high so in the summer heat it is not too hard. The final climb is about 2km at 9%.
Descend to Gieres to complete the loop, around 22km in total or about 1 hour cycling. Note that the descent can be leaf covered in the autumn or have gravel chip and seal patching in the late spring.
Covered 65km with 1350 meters of climbing from home taking in this loop. Warm temperatures but not too bad given it is more or less shaded to Villeneuve and shaded on the descent in places.
