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So lucky me gets to move to Grenoble in about 5 weeks to study the second half of my architecture degree there for 3 years, hurrah!
I was wondering if any of you had any information on the city. I have visited it and also have a friend who lives there but she is not a mountain biker, so as much as she has been amazing with helping me apply to uni and moving there, she doesnt know much about the mtb scene.
So was wondering if any of you have any idea about any local riding there? any websites might help? anyone live there??
Lucky you. A mate of mine moved there 20 years ago, he never left ! There is so much outdoor stuff to do there I'm sure there's a great mtb scene. From memory the nearest ski resort/lifts was 30 mims from the city and it's surrounded by mountains.
Try a search on vttfrance or uttawagavtt
Git!!
I'm sure there's someone on here who lives not far away. Mugsy maybe?
Bar steward !!
Have fun.
And get a road bike.
I visit with work lots. From the city riding is immense. Up behind the bastille in the chartreuse is very steep and rocky. Other side up the vercors is a bit less steep and definately less rocky. From my hotel to the nearest ski was 90 minutes on a mtb so maybe 15 mins in car. Traffic in town is a nightmare but everyone rides. Get a crap bike for this. City has lots of students and is vibrant in summer but seems dead in winter.
It's in France.
HTH.
A quick look at this French site for GPS traces : http://www.utagawavtt.com/gmap/carte-generale-topos-vtt
shows loads of routes starting in the city. Nice.
A few Strava segments round there too, but they mostly seem to be road climbs.
the Velo Vert forum has a ride section .
Hello!
Yes, kind of. We live 5km from Grenoble airport. Which is N. of the city just off the autoroute towards Lyon. We live in the sticks really. When we go into Grenoble we fell all bumpkinish and always think it has a young, studenty outdoor sports feel to it.
Anyway, feel free to e-mail me: Danj.Heywood AT gmail DOT com.
Chartreuse and Belledonne will be where all the steep bits are. Lift stuff at 7Laux in the Belledonne and over in the Vercors.
From ours, the road cycling is probably one of the best places I've ever ridden road in a very quiet undulating lumpy way. Road is mostly what we do. But on hand to help, I'm sure there will be multiple riding groups at the university.
I KNEW there would be someone! always is on here... two years ago I went to live in Slovenia for a year and managed to find someone on here that lived out there. Mugsy I am sure I will be in touch to go for a ride sometime... I am bringing my bike(s), got an ibis mojo hd and having lived in London for a year a SS road bike, so might need to ditch that for some gear I imagine, the actual city is pretty flat though so it might be ok for just using around the city...
Alpe d'huez is 45 mins drive away.
Some nice churches.
Has a supermarket.
This is what I know
and and thanks for the links to the sites, they are a great help
SS road bike will be just the ticket for riding around in town.
There's some really good bike paths leading out of town, along the isere valley for example and up towards Chambery which are generally flat. Driving around town is a nightmare and there's long (20 years odd) ongoing debates about new ring roads and other transport solutions.
We're about an hour away in some lumpy hills just above the isere valley. Lac du Paladru is where our nearest signed bike trails are but not ridden them yet. They are quite rolling rather than steep rocky technical as they are on glacial deposits. We live on the edge of a large forest 'Chambaran' which in the UK would have built trails all over it. I've always thought it needs someone with a lot of time and drive to open it up. It could be very good.... in a flowy tight twisty singletrack style rather than shredding gnarr. As it is there's some little bits of singletrack but linked up with tracks which are predominantly formed of rounded glacial style pebbles.
MTB wise I ride rigid ss and it's fine round ours....
Of course, as has been pointed out Bourg d'Oisans is about 40 minutes drive away!...
and in winter, the town is circled by ski resorts that are great for day-skiing: Les Sept Laux, Chamrousse, Villard de Lans etc.
@anus have a look at genoblevtt.com too, forum seems reasonably active
Huge debate on the crime in the city, over on ukclimbing.com
We did a cool Freeride ride last week, near Bourg Doisans. There is free guides to Oisans vtt available in the Office de Tourisme. This is the free guide. We did the 84 seitchbacks of Chemin Malaine.Route 21.
http://oisans.com/activities/summer-activities/mountain-bike
Stacks of bolted rock climbing around Grenoble.
The ex did a years work placement in Grenoble. She worked I rode...awesome riding right on the door step did all the tops that you can see from town by riding up the roads up the piste then off-road back to town I need to go back !
Here is a link to the route I mentioned above. Other routes on there too. Good to see how much is Singletrack as well.
http://www.vttrack.fr/?layers=Sentiers|&urlGPX=http://www.vttour.fr/topos/gpx/download.php?id=69