After a couple of days off I felt strong enough to try a 75 km/5000 foot loop. The idea was to combine the first portion of day 3 along with a large backwards portion of day 2’s route. Elevation would be gained by riding North up the Gorge de Loup, then East along the a high alpine ridgeline. You can see the un-used Col de Vence bisecting today’s loop.
… and climbing is exactly what I got. The main climb started 37minutes into the ride and continued non-stop for 21km, taking me almost exactly 1.5 hours to haul my ass 2700 feet up into the sky.
One interesting feature riding at this time of the year is the seemingly changing seasons all within a single ride. The temperature/smells really varied on this loop from fall/winter/spring. Here the air was warm and leaves still dropping & blowing around – similar to a mid/late October ride.
Riding up the gorge/canyon was a lot of fun. The grade was manageable and traffic minimal.
I’m certain this picture would look totally different in the spring/summer. What looks like brush is actually a lot of trees waiting for spring before budding.
Lots of sections were cut into rock and the road build out with concrete.
I love those mileage markers, they tell you what road you’re one, the distance to the next town, and present altitude.
As I got higher the air naturally got fresher, add the singing birds and it really felt like a late April/early May spring ride.
Town of Coursegoules plunked right on the side of the mountain.
In the shade the temp dropped >10 degrees and frost was frequent. The risk of black ice was ever-present. Winter had returned until I rode out of that ravine and back into the sun.
The cool hill-top town of Carros.
Today’s route even found a few kilometers of gravel! My Cannondale CAAD 10 equipped with 28mm Panaracer Gravel King handled this with ease.