Every cycling trip has a signature cycle day. That day sums up your cycle journey, tests you both physically and mentally and often provides a satisfying reward that enhances the memory of your adventure!
Our planned "signature" day had been the cycle through the Gorge du Vedun a day that had been building up for weeks for all the wrong reasons. There was an underlying feeling that the day could be unrealistic I.e where the output would far outweigh the reward ! Gradients had begun to multiply, distances lengthen and road conditions deteriorate causing a fair bit of trepidation even before the ride had begun!
In short the day promised to be around 45 kms with some steep climbing sections of 6-9% for the first 12 kms. But it did provide for some outstanding rewards with reportedly some of the best scenery in Europe !
We'd set off leaving Les Salles and our beautiful resort after first stocking up with a few supplies from our small village supermarket as towns on en route today were few and far between.
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| Our beautiful resort |
We were soon into climbing mode bouyed by our strength and the doable 5-7% gradient for the first 5 kms into the village of Aiguines. Already we were getting outstanding views looking back down to the lake from the direction we'd come.
Then the bad news ! Readying ourselves to progress higher, Rick came across some travelers who indicated that the gorge road was closed due to a collapse of a section of road. Unwilling to believe the information having not seen any sign to indicate such, we took coffee in town while we checked out different sources. Sure enough the reply came back exactly the same, our gorge route to Comps sur Artuby was completely impassable !
With no wi- fi we had no choice but to go back down the hill we'd just climbed to our Les Salles Hotel so we could plot an alternate route using the hotels wi-fi.
Here we discussed the available options, either try the gorge road from the Nth side of the gorge (this had a couple of steeper sections and required about 5 more kms) or take a slightly longer but supposedly flatter ride to Comps.
It was no contest with the main expression of thought being that the group did not want to do more significant climbing having wasted 300 metres already.
So with the Gorge out of the equation we set off for Verignon a dot on our maps surrounded by little or nothing and only 20 kms away from Les Salles.
The ride didn't start well with a pretty steep 4kms out of town after we hit the main road !
The ride didn't start well with a pretty steep 4kms out of town after we hit the main road !
Verignon was where we expected to be able to recalibrate our route and pick up a shortcut shown on Google Maps that seemed to cut out a fair bit of distance. Unfortunately for us Verignon comprised about 3 houses, 2 barns and a few chickens with not a single person or shop to be seen let alone a wi-fi connection !
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| It's quiet in Verignon ! |
Thinking we'd somehow entered an alternate universe we took lunch to now discuss plan C which recommended adding another 20+kms to our route !
It was a tough call, either follow the suggested Google Maps route by guesswork through an area signposted as Military / Danger without an online connection or stick to the main road and a roundabout way to Comps sur Artuby !
After about 1 second of thought we chose the latter although this time all we had to follow was a road route with no elevation profile which I figured was kind of lucky because if we had we might have given serious thought to wading through land mines, bamboo pits and the like to avoid what we ended up riding.
Departing Verignon (if we actually ever entered it) after taking a lunch break we initially rode some lovely forest autumn scenery before a great descent to the plateau around Ampus.
Climbing again we reached Chateaudouble (a cliff side town) searching for a coke ("non Monsuier"!) before a small descent to Montferrat where our big climb of the day (10kms on a busy road) left Henley wishing that he'd enlisted in the French foreign legion !
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| No cokes in Chateaudouble ! |
Needing to push ahead from the top with the day now getting on and not wanting to be around when the guys told Henley there was still another 5kms of climbing to go, Noel and I headed off towards Comps eventually arriving at our centrally located basic hotel.
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| Nearing Comps |
Kev and Rick weren't that far behind.
By the time Noel had dragged his Strava out he'd shown that instead of us doing the 45 kms and 1450 metres we'd planned we'd ended up doing 83 kms with 1550 metres of climbing (as per attached profile) a hard day in anyones language !
After a short rest we ventured out into our small town ignoring our own hotel because we couldn't read anything we understood, walking to a cafe that said they were closed, going to a Pizza Bar that said they'd sold their last 2 pizzas before walking back to our hotel to find that they did in fact serve foods that we could eat !
Only a day and a bit now before we arrive in the centre of Nice.
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