Shelter From The Storm

June 20, 2010: 36 miles, 2 hours 30 minutes ride time.

View this ride on MapMyRide.

This is a great route, part of which my friend Connie and I rode last year from the opposite direction. Today I was hoping to add on some more mountain villages and was really looking forward to the ride. That all went to hell about one kilometer into the ride.

I left Vence a little after 9:00 am and headed up the Col de Vence. The climb has been featured several times in the famous Paris-Nice cycling race as well as the Nice Ironman race. There appeared to be rain and thunderstorms scattered all around the area and the forecast was not good, but I decided to head out anyway and see what developed. The Col de Vence begins immediately upon leaving Vence, there’s no warm up. It’s about nine or ten kilometers to the summit and this was my first time climbing it. The first kilometer seemed to be about 8 to 9 percent grade and then things eased off a bit. It began to sprinkle about one kilometer into the climb and that soon turned into a steady, light rain. I kept going, passing a few riders on my way up. There were quite a few riders coming down the Col, they had obviously gotten an earlier start than I had. Most of the climb seemed to be about a 7 percent grade. I kept a nice steady pace, not too hard, and reached the summit in about 40 minutes. Towards the end of the climb I could see lightning and hear thunder all down along the coast to my left. The sky was almost black and the lightning was impressive. Luckily, all I had to endure was the steady, light rain, some rather strong winds and rapidly cooling temperatures. By the time I reached the summit I was soaked through and through and it was 45°. Not a great way to begin a fast descent. I had my light jacket with me and a pair of glove liners which I immediately put on. With those temperatures and as wet as I was, they weren’t a lot of help.

Since things looked so bad behind me I decided to go over the summit and down the other side rather than returning to Vence. The sky looked a little better in that direction. The first village on the north side is Coursegoules, about eight kilometers down from the top. It was tough, it was still raining and I was very wet and very cold. I pulled in Coursegoules, found a little market and bought some orange juice. I noticed a little bar that was open, so I went in there for some warmth and to escape the rain for a little while. My bike odometer said it was 47°. I bought a bottle of Badoit (French fizzy water) and rested up for a spell. I was chilled and shivering a little bit and all my clothes were soaking wet. After about 20 minutes I was feeling a little better and it seemed the rain had subsided so I headed down the road towards Bouyon, about 12 kilometers away. See the view back from where I came at the top of the Col and you’ll understand why I chose not to go back that way. Click on the image for a larger version.

Once again, it was all downhill from Coursegoules to Bouyon. I would have actually preferred to climb at this point as it would have kept me warmer. Connie and I stopped in Bouyon for lunch last year on a much different day, warm and sunny. I ducked into a small grocery store that was open and was greeted warmly by the man and woman running it. “C’est eté, oui?” I said (“It’s summer, right?”). The man laughed and replied, “Demain, demain.” (“Tomorrow, tomorrow.”) I asked if it had been raining all morning and they said yes. He pointed to the mountains in the distance and said there was lots of fresh snow, unusual for this time of year. This was the point at which I was hoping to head off towards a village named Les Ferres, where I haven’t yet been. But the sky looked quite dark in that direction, whereas here and on towards the route back to Vence things were looking much better. I decided I had better head back in that direction and save Les Ferres for a better day.

Next stop, Le Broc, again, all downhill. The sun actually started to come out, the temperatures were up in the upper 50s and the rain was almost gone. By the time I passed through Le Broc and then Carros Village everything was much better. It’s still mostly downhill from Carros Village to Vence and thing steadily improved for the rest of the ride. By the time I arrived back at my hotel the streets were almost dry, the sun was out and it was in the mid-60s. See the view on the left of Bouyon from the road to Le Broc. If you look closely you can see the fresh snow on the mountains in the distance. Click on the image for a larger version.

Overall, not the best day. The climb up the Col de Vence was nice, but the weather sucked. I really didn’t get to enjoy this ride as I would on a warm and sunny day. My plan is to make the same trip tomorrow. When I get to Bouyon I’ll head up to Les Ferres, then over to Conséqudes, Roquesteron and Gilette before returning to Le Broc, Carros Village and Vence. That will add a bunch of climbing to the route and take me to at least four new villages on my list of those I want to see. Hopefully, the weather will be better.

June 19, 2010: 70 miles, 4 hours 45 minutes ride time.

Great ride today! I slept in later than I usually do, but I got a good night’s sleep and I’m now on France time I think. I finished putting my bike together (really just needed to tighten everything up and tweak a few things), got organized and was on the road around 9:30. It’s mostly downhill from Vence to Nice, about seven miles to the coast (Cagnes-Sur-Mer) and then another three miles or so to the Nice airport. It was so wonderful to be riding in France again. I cruised along the Promenade des Anglais which runs for about five miles along the coast of Nice. Around the Nice port, up a short hill and before you knew it I was in Villefrance-sur-Mer the next town over. It’s just a mile or two of our Villefranche-sur-Mer that you turn up into the hills and head for Eze and a nice little climb it is. I’ve written about Eze (and La Turbie) before and it sure was nice to see it again. Then on to La Turbie, only a few kilometers away.

The weather was great, mostly sunny, warm but not hot. I was considering heading on up to Peille, but it looked like it might be raining up in the mountains that way, it was very dark and grey. I stopped and got an Orangina, called Carole and rested in a little park. A man and woman turned into the park off a steep side street, riding on hybrid bikes, clearly tired but in a good mood. I asked them where they had climbed up from and they said Monaco. It’s a nice climb (Les and I did it once years ago) and they were quite proud of themselves. The guy was German, living in Monaco and the woman was Italian, living in Beaulieu. We talked for a little while and then I was ready to head back out. By now the weather in the mountains looked better, so I decided to head on up to Peille. See the photo on the left of La Turbie as I headed up the road to Peille (click for larger version).

The road up to Peille is not that long, about nine kilometers. At about eight is the turn off for the Col de la Madone, famous as one of Lance Armstrong’s training rides. I’ve ridden up it three times from the other side, but never from this side, so I turned off and headed up. It’s not a long climb at that point, only about three miles and not real steep. During the ride up from La Turbie and on the Madone I kept seeing a lot of cyclists with little paper numbers on their handlebars. Clearly there was some kind of organized ride or race going on. I passed several riders on the climb, including two women. At the top I stopped to put on my light jacket before heading back down the way I came. It was significantly colder up here and there was even some fog. One of the women I had passed reachd the summit and I spoke with her. It turns out a club in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin had a big organized ride today, 100 kilometers over a lot of the same climbs I was doing. She and her friend were participating. They gave me a copy of the route and I’ll plan on doing this ride one day, maybe next year. The descent down Madone was great. Years ago Les and I had done this same descent for the first time, coming in from the St. Agnes side, and the road was a mess. It’s been repaved since then and is in great shape. From the bottom of the climb it’s a short two kilometer ride over to Peille. A quick stop there and then off to Nice. All downhill at this point. See the photo on the left of Peille from the climb up the Col de la Madone (click for larger version).

I stopped in Old Town at Nice and had some lunch, a typical French pizza, at one of my favorite restaurants there. Then I took a quick trip over to La Roue Libre, the great little bike store we discovered years ago in Nice. Turns out the one thing I forgot this year was my ride drink. I’d left the bag of powder on the hutch after my last ride in Nashville on Wednesday and forgot to pack it. They didn’t have the brand I use (of course), but I bought a can of some French stuff, poured it all into a big plastic bag, tucked it into my jersey and headed back towards Vence. It’s all uphill now. The climb to Vence isn’t that steep, up until the last two or three kilometers where it does get a bit steep. It’s a nice little kick at the end of a long ride. I got back to the hotel very happy with my first ride of the trip.

One of the things that is absolutely imperative before a cycling trip to France is giving my bike a very thorough cleaning. Today I broke it all down and did just that. Generally, I’ll remove the rear cassette (the rear gears) and the crankset (the front gears) along with both wheels. I give the frame a good cleaning, clean the chain and the wheels and then really scrub all the gears well before reassembling everything. This time I also put on new tubes, new tires, a new chain and new brake pads. Everything is clean, clean, clean and ready to go.

I like to do this about a week before I actually leave, just so I can make sure there aren’t any problems. One year I did my big cleaning the day before I was leaving and when I got the bike back together again there was a problem with the gears. That was no fun, figuring out what was wrong and getting it fixed knowing I had to leave the next day.

Here’s a photo all squeaky clean. I’ll take it out for a good hard ride tomorrow and make sure everything is running smoothly, but right now everything looks good.

Our first day of cycling in France (on this trip). We’ve just put two full days of travel behind us (plane rides from Nashville to Charlotte, NC and then on to Paris and a long car drive from Paris to Nice) and we’re more than ready to get on the bikes. This is the fifth cycling trip I’ve made to France and I have a little tradition of heading up to Eze and then on to La Turbie as a kind of warm up day. It’s a great little ride, a bit of climbing and it’s not too far. Both Eze and La Turbie also hold some sentimental memories for me. Carole and I accidently stumbled upon La Turbie during our honeymoon in 1995. We were looking for Peille and Peillon, two wonderful little “perched villages,” got hopelessly lost and ended up spending the night in La Turbie. We discovered Eze a few years later. They are two of my favorite places in the Nice area and if you go to Nice you should definitely visit both.

We head out from our apartment to the Promenade des Anglais. In English it means “Walk of the English” and it’s a much celebrated promenade along the Mediterranean coast in Nice. It’s quite wide and has a bike path its entire length. There’s plenty of room for lots of walkers and bikers. We head east, towards Italy. As the Promenade ends the road makes a small little turn into the Nice port. We circle around that and headed up a nice little climb. The weather is perfect, in the mid-70s with lots of blue sky and sun, a few clouds here and there to offer an occasional bit of shade.

After working our way around the port we come to Villefrance-sur-Mer which is the first town on the road to Italy. It’s about 4 miles east of Nice. It’s a beautiful little “commune” (city or municipality) with a wonderful bay. Very scenic. Exactly what I think of when I picture the Côte d’Azur. Just after we circle around the town and are heading out along the coast road we come to the road that climbs up to Eze. Eze is one of the most famous of the southern French “perched villages,” probably in part because it’s so close to Nice. These are tiny little villages/towns that were built hundreds of years ago on the top of a very high cliff or mountain. The inaccessibility offered some much needed safety and defense to the early inhabitants. These little villages have fascinated me ever since I first saw Peillon many years ago and I’ve made a hobby out of trying to visit as many of them as I can via bike.

The climb up to Eze is not too long and not too steep, but it’s a good little climb nonetheless. After traversing a series of switchbacks we connect with the “Moyenne Corniche” (the middle road that runs along the mountain coast) and that takes us up to Eze. We cross a big bridge and there we are. The Paris-Nice cycling race almost always passes by Eze on the final stage of the race and it’s fun to watch it on TV and recognize this road and bridge we’re now cycling over ourselves. The road up to the entrance of the town itself is very steep, but fairly short. We make the quick climb and hop off the bikes. Eze proper is only accessible via foot. No cars, no bikes. It’s a series of twisted stone paths that wind in and out and around. It’s a little bit of a tourist destination these days with lots of little craft shops. Even so, it’s still a spectacular place. We carry our bikes up the little paths to the top where the ancient ruins of the original city are. It costs €5.00 to get into this part, which is also a big garden, but Connie says, “What the hell, I may never be here again,” so we pay the money and wander around for a little while.

From Eze it’s a very short trip up to La Turbie, only 5K or so. We’re there in no time. La Turbie is built on a cliff that overlooks Monaco and Monte Carlo. There’s a nice little scenic spot where you can get a spectacular view. There’s also a very famous ancient ruin named “Trophee des Alpes,” a Roman monument which was built in 6BC to mark victory over the local tribes. We consider visiting it, but it’s closed for lunch. So, a quick look around the town, a stop at a small grocery store for Orangina, a stop at the town fountain to refill our water bottles and we’re headed back down to Nice. We take the back route, over the Col d’Eze, which runs through what I think is a National Forrest. It’s a beautiful ride, not much traffic at all. A very nice, fast descent down into the back side of Nice and we’re done. “Is that all we’re going to ride today?” asks Connie. We’ve only put in 25 miles or so. “Well, we can do more if you want,” I reply, “but we’ve got some big days ahead of us and I think this is a great little warm up ride.” She seems satisfied as we head back to the apartment.

Approximately 25 miles.

Here’s a map of the route via www.mapmyride.com.

Last Saturday (May 23rd) I rode the Clarksville Rotary Annual Metric (known as the CRAM) in Clarksville, TN. Clarksville is about 45 miles north of Nashville, very close to the Kentucky border. I finished the 100 mile route with a ride time of 4:31 minutes. That’s a pace of 22.2 miles an hour, a record for me on a century. I rode mostly with a group that Les Wooldridge had organized of about 10 core riders, though that group went up and down in size as the day progressed. The Clarksville ride is very popular with people looking to complete a fast “century.” It’s almost completely flat and allows for some really good finish times. I’ve been doing a lot of riding this season and the CRAM makes my 5th century this month, another record for me.

The ride began at 7:30AM and we made sure to start out at the very head of the pack. Our goal was to complete the ride in under 5 hours “real” time. We figured that would mean about a 22 mile an hour average with 3 stops of about 7 or 8 minutes each. We wanted to hang with the lead pack for at least the first 20 miles or so and then back off and keep our 22 mph pace. Things progressed very nicely and I found I was hardly having to work much at all. Because of the flat terrain, the large group, and the amount of training I’ve been doing this year (I’m stronger than I’ve ever been) my heart rate stayed mostly in the 60% to 70% range (116 to 135), which is very easy to maintain. Les and a few others tried  to organize a double paceline, but the large group could never really get it together.

We stopped at the 40 mile rest stop for food, drink and bathroom breaks and then headed back out. Unfortunately, a crash occurred at about the 50 mile mark. One of the turns was not marked very well. I was actually leading the group at this point and I completely missed the turn. As others noticed it some of them slowed down and attempted to make it and the crash occurred. No one was seriously injured, but several folks were scraped up pretty good and Jay’s back wheel was bent. Les was able to get it back into shape enough for Jay to ride and we continued on. Somewhere around this point we were finally able to get a good double paceline going and that really helped with speed and effort. Another stop around the 70 mile point and then we were off to the finish. At about 85 miles a small group of 5 of us took off from the front and we never looked back. I rode harder the last 15 miles than I had the entire ride up until that point. We dropped one more rider somewhere around the 95 mile point and so there were four of us who finished together. It was a good ride, the fastest century I’ve done. We didn’t quite make the under 5 hour real time goal due to the crash and a flat tire a little later on. But, even with those problems we came pretty close, I think it was 5 hours and 5 minutes real time.

There was a strong possibility of rain forecast for the day but thankfully it held off and we had great weather. Mostly cloudy and not too hot which was just perfect.

I’ve ridden the CRAM at least 3 or 4 times before. It’s a great ride and always a lot of fun. It’s well organized and there never seem to be any problems. The only complaint I have is that the rest stops are not noted on the cue sheet, which is really, really strange. None of us understand why this is and they can’t seem to explain it. For what it’s worth, rest stops should always be noted on cue sheets so the riders can easily plan their stops and strategy. Maybe they’ll wise up and get them on the cue sheets next year.