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Weds 31 May: Castérino – Pigna (300m) (75km, 1800m ascent)

We awoke to see a thin coating of snow. The ridge was definitely off. In the hope of salvaging something worthwhile we decided to climb to the Col de Tende before retreating down the valley. We followed the tarmac road beyond Castérino, and turned right onto the gravel track which climbs to the pass. No doubt this too is part of the old military road system.

By the time we’d reached the Baisse de Peïrefique (about 2030m) snow was again falling gently. The temperature was –1, and Colin in particular was ill-equipped. We gave up on the Col de Tende and took the gravel road contouring round Mt. Chajol to the Baisse d’Ourne (2040m), where it starts descending through a couple of series of tight zigzags, eventually leading us through the narrow alleys of Tende.

We

Saorge

rode down the valley and climbed up to the impressive but stark village of Saorge, where we ate a good and very welcome lunch at the Bellevue.

Poring over maps Tracey found us a short cut to Pigna. We followed the track east past balises 161, 163 and 167 to a small stream crossed on a footbridge. From here a footpath heads up the Vallon de la Madonina. The path is well built, with a little tunnel and a delightful bridge on the early, fairly easy part. We heard a loud snorting below us, evidently some large wild animal – we hoped nothing threatening. A black boar ran across the path ahead of us and disappeared.

Then began
 

Madonina

the serious climb: and hour and a half dragging bikes up a steep set of zigzags. It was horrible.

The gradient eases off at the Madonina shrine, and the route becomes a ridable track climbing to the Col de Muraton/Passo Muratone (1157m). Here it meets the ridge road. Snow was again falling.

There is a track which would have taken us straight down to Pigna, but instead we followed the ridge south-west to the Colle di Scarassan (1226m). Here a road south leads to the Sella di Gouta where there is a small hotel and a good tarmac road down to Pigna. We arrived at our hotel at quarter past 7.

Note: We stayed in the excellent Grand Hotel delle Terme, which lives up to its name but whose facilities we had no time to enjoy. But if we had known of the hotel at the Sella di Gouta we could have saved ourselves some climbing. We have no details concerning the hotel, but it is presumably the same as the ‘Refugio Gola di Gouta’ mentioned here [dead link].

 

Ridge road

 

Chapel

Liguria

Peugeot

Thurs 1 June: Pigna – Sospel (350m) (76km, 2140m)

A beautiful hot sunny day. We were soon climbing back to the Scarassan and taking the ridge south. We had read that it was better to keep on a track below Tête d’Alpe on the eastern side but rashly ignored the advice in the hope of views into France side which we didn’t really get. But the green folding Ligurian hills are lovely.

Just south of the summit is a forking of paths. For our purposes we had to descend the zigzags to the east to join the lower path. They are completely unridable. When we reached the track below – another old military road – we followed it south en balcon, gradually losing height. The surface is a bit rubbly but nearly all ridable.

The road becomes tarmac near la Colla, and a right turn then drops down from the ridge through Verandi to the Roya valley near Trucco.

We headed north along the valley, sharing it with too much traffic. But a tunnel soon splits off from it, leaving an empty road for cyclists until the tunnel rejoins near Airole.

After a couple of km. we stopped for an overdue snack, and soon began the climb to the Passo Becche, higher than the Kompass map admits. Then we coasted down to Sospel and flopped into our hotel.

Sospel

Note: We stayed in the Auberge Provençale.

Fri 2: Sospel – Nice (0m) (59km, 990m)

We climbed wearily to the Col de Braus (1002m) and enjoyed the descent to l’Escarène. We headed out along the minor road along the Gorges du Peillon, but the road was closed due to a landslide, so we backtracked and took the D2204, almost instantly abandoning it for the minor road to Blausasc where there is a good restaurant but we were too early for lunch. So we made an entirely pointless climb to a chapel.

It was a short wait for a most enjoyable meal at the Moulin de l’Oliveraie.

The afternoon was consumed in a rather hellish return to Nice along the D2204, keeping off the new motorway part.

Notes: We stayed at the Villa Victoria, slightly preferable to the Grimaldi. We had a superb meal at the Âne Rouge in the old port.

Sat 3: back to England

We shopped and flew home.

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