Cycling the Alps

 

Cycling the Alps – Day 7

 

Day 7 from Barcalonnette to Saint Martin Vesubie including the climbs of La Col De La Bonette (1700m) and La Col Saint Martin (1050m).

 

 

Originally a trail linking Barcalonette with Nice, the Col De La Bonette was widened into a road and used by successive armies, most recently Napoleon III in 1860, who used it as a vanity project so he could claim the highest paved road in the Alps. This record still stands, and hence it is an immense climb. Famously Robert Millar lead over the summit from the Northern side during the 1993 Tour De France.

 

 

The climb starts from just outside Barcalonette, and goes on for 25km. Initially the road follows a relatively gentle climb parallel to the a gorge, then gets steadily steeper until it is a straight 9 percent into the high mountain. The views are sublime though, after 2 hours of grinding it out, the top comes as a welcome relief.

 

 

I chose to take the left hand route, the road loops around the Col itself, and was punished by a final section approaching 18 percent. The guy in front of me was furious and stopped his bike in disgust at the indignity. I ground it out as a snails pace though the thought of stopping has rarely seemed so appealing.

 

 

 
Aside from the incredible views, the 25km run down into Saint Etienne De Tinee has to rate as the most incredible descents of the trip, with immense views and winding corners, an average speed around 57km a testament to it.

 

 

By now the scenery really feels Mediterranean, and with the temperatures getting close to 26 degrees and the sun shining it started to feel a lot like a summer holiday.

 

 
Once down, the hot slog down the valley on the D62 turned out to be almost as hard as the climb. By mid afternoon the wind tends to blow very hard up the valley, and we found ourselves pushing hard just to get down. At times like these I found that Ross’s wheel was the safest place to sit, as he used his extra few kilos to maximum effect. Every time I tried to sit on the front I found myself at 170bpm, higher than I had managed on the 20 percent incline earlier!

 

 
Climbing the Col Saint Martin it started to sink in that our work was almost done. Nice was not far away and this was the last real climb left.

 

[rps-include blog=127.0.0.1 post=30120]

 

Next page is the last leg in which we tackle Day 8 into Nice…