Quick Word on the Rest of the Weekend

Sunday 22^nd August was actually an easy cycle day. We rode up to Vence via an area called the Hauts de Cagnes. Cagnes sur Mer is divided into 3 areas. There’s the part by the sea, Cagnes sur Mer, then there’s Cros de Cagnes, slightly further in and then there’s Haut de Cagnes at the top of a very steep hill that we went up. I hadn’t been expecting to ride up such a steep hill so early on in the ride! The photo Fred took of me was one of shell-shock!

The ride into Vence was quite straight forward. It’s only about 10 miles if that – maybe 12 miles, it’s quite easy to find. We took the long way round because we wanted to ride around the suburbs of Vence, which is quite a spread out town. Once we reached the historical centre we found it to be a very picturesque artistic town. There were a lot of people there on an afternoon out looking at the buildings etc so we stopped and had a little lunch there before heading back to Nice via La Garde and St Jeannet, plus other little picturesque villages. It was quite a pleasant afternoon. I think it was a good antidote for both of us from the previous day. I had spent the whole week riding through France, and Fred who had probably not had much sleep the previous day, trying to get to Nice from London.

Once we returned to Nice we sunbathed for a while on one of the private beaches attached to a bar. It’s always much more pleasant than the public beaches in Nice. At least you’ve got somewhere reasonably nice to sit and it’s quite secluded and neater. You can relax more than being piled towel to towel up against loads of screaming kids and families!

The following day, Monday 23rd, we rode quite a long way. We had thought of riding up to Sospel ski resort but we didn’t get that far. What we did do was long enough anyway.  We set off on our usual Grand Corniche route which is always very pleasant, though I always underestimate how tough it is to get up those inland slopes! There's also the col d'Eze to get up during the ride. The ride is always very rewarding though on account of the views over the coast and the various villages and Monaco. We didn’t go into Monaco. We got as far as La Turbie and then turned up North, away from the sea and went to a small town called Peille. This involved more climbing and we also went up to a place called St Agnes which involved going over the col de Madone de Gorbio. This is apparently a well known climb as it’s the one that Lance Armstrong uses to train on when he’s in the cote d’Azur. I don’t think there’s anything massively special about it, but it’s just the fact that Lance does this climb so everyone now does it, and it’s got a cachet. Admittedly it is a good climb to train on, but it’s no nicer than any of the other climbs in that area. In terms of difficulty, it’s like a long version of Box Hill. It’s probably a climb you could train up at speed and hurt yourself on, though in absolute terms it’s not that steep.

So we went from Peille to St Agnes and then it was a long quiet road to get to the col de Braus. This road is marked on the map as not very well maintained. In some areas it was actually a decent road with a decent surface, but there were other areas where it turned to dirt roads for off road bikes. In fact if we had wanted to ride the col de Castillon to get to Sospel, which was not far away we would have been on an off-road trail – what Italians would call a strada biancha. So we were on a road with a reasonable surface. It was very quiet and on single carriageway. We may have only seen two cars over the 10-12 miles that it we rode. It was all uphill, but it was very gentle climbing. There were probably 3 cols that we crested, but none of them were long or onerous.

Then, just when we were thinking “this is brilliant riding on decent quality roads” we hit a dirt track. Oh dear, we had around 4 or 5 miles of this to get through to reach the col de Braus. It wasn’t particularly hilly but it was a dirt track with lots of stones and potholes and I was just worried about getting a puncture. At least Fred had turned up on his cross bike with hard wearing tyres. I was on my cross bike but with smooth road tyres. I just wasn’t in the mood to be dealing with punctures especially as it was coming up for 6pm.

So we pressed on to the dirt track. Fred kept suggesting we turn back and maybe ride to Menton and catch the train to Nice. But I really wanted to ride over the col de Braus because I was looking forward to the descent. It’s one of the best you can get. The hairpins look impressive from a visual and photographic point of view, so we continued anyway and I managed to get through it without any problems or punctures. We went down the col de Braus. For Fred it was a real joy for him and he just couldn’t believe the road he was on. The hairpins were literally just stacked on top of each other. The descents were quite steep – between 12 and 15% in gradient on the hairpins. It was a real whizz down! I’d forgotten just how good the descent was. I’d say that’s one of the best descents you can do on a road bike. There’s a real adrenaline rush and in fact we barely did any pedalling from the summit until we reached Nice. It took about an hour to get from the heart of the mountains at over 1000m, into the suburbs of Nice. This descent failed to disappoint! Once in the surburbs we had to pick our way to the centre of Nice. I’d forgotten how busy and sprawled out this town is. I guess it’s no different to riding in any major city. We reached the Promenade des Anglais, just at sunset – around 7.30pm. It had been a long day but we were pleased we had done it.

Our last day in Nice, Tuesday 24^th was spent riding along La Basse Corniche, the coast road, to reach Monaco. It was a nice ride but it’s not an adrenaline rush. The road is slightly busy and once we got into Monaco it was a bit of an anticlimax. There was a lot of traffic and not much fun to ride through as a cyclist, with all the various busy tunnels as seen in the Forumula One races!  I guess you do there more because it’s gotta be seen. We returned to Nice, sunbathed a little and then rode back to the airport to get our flight to London.