T1me to Ride

It was with a mixture of sadness and blessed relief that we packed the bikes this morning. Our final day would take us to Nice over the Cols of Braus and Saint Pancrace before swooping down to meet the sea.  The weather, true to form, was hot and sunny - even at 9am. We found a shady spot and devoured our newly christened “breakfast of champions” - 2 croissants and a coffee.  Once done, we did a final bit of faffing before heading down into Sospel to start the climb up the Col de Brauss. The climb itself passed relatively easily: 11km at an average of 6% was a pleasant change from some of the beasts we’d tackled in the previous few days.  The top of the climb was fairly bleak so we quickly pointed our bikes downhill towards L’Escarene, 10km of downhill delight losing 640 metres through no less than 17 hairpin bends.  At L’Escarene we found a cafe who’s owners made such a fantastic job of ignoring us that we headed to the spar shop and enjoyed a brunch of coke, a muff...

  Groundhog Day.   Alarm: pack tent: breakfast: pack bike: ride bikes.  It was all becoming very straightforward. No less unsafe and efficiency, but straightforward nonetheless.  Breakfast was - by the high standards set by the Refuges - disappointing. Stale bread, jam and a bowl of coffee, which I eventually managed to convince them to pop some milk in. Yes, cold milk would be fine, thank you.  Sharing our breakfast table was a French couple who we’d met at dinner last night, and were exploring this part of the alps by e-bike. Good on them, it was fantastic to see them enjoying the trails, something which they both confessed they would be unable to do without the aid of a motor.  The ride had an unforgiving start, climbing for about 3km at around 8% across the gravel. Dare I say - it was already hot.  We were anticipating around 12km of gravel before hitting the road down to the Rova valley, and then following the turquoise river through a gorge....

  Sleep came easily last night, despite rolling off my sleeping mat several times, and the lower temperature that camping at 2,300m brings. Getting up to answer a call of nature in the middle of the night presented a sight to behold; the clear nights sky with zero light pollution.   Breakfast was served at 8am and we certainly weren’t going to miss it. We also had a big day ahead, 100km, 25km of which on gravel tracks.  7am was a somewhat rude awakening, which was quickly overcome with the view that greeted me when I unzipped my tent. Stunning.  Breakfast was quickly despatched and we sat about the first section of gravel: 12km through the section which is commonly described as “Little Peru”. No idea why but it was probably the most beautiful route I have ever ridden. The gravel was fairly rideable and we made quick time skirting along the undulating white tracks, our eyes not quite believing what we were seeing.  All around us were Marmotts. Most of which we co...