France: Col de Vence

Bennie suggested that the way to train for the Tour de Tour was to start putting hard days back to back - so it was a second 6am start in as many days this morning, this time with a clear objective - the Col de Vence.

They are quite fastidious about public sector hygiene in Nice. Every morning at 5.30 am a water truck hoses down the Promenade while a boat cruises along the shore and hoses down all the unfortunates sleeping rough on the beach. They are quite adept at this, avoiding the clothes piles of the early morning swimmers but are giving the snoopers a good spray. This is all well and good, except that the route to Vence starts along the Promenade so you begin with a wet backside. From sea level there is a gradual climb to St Jeannet and then a traverse along the excellent mid-level road that links the towns of Vence and Grasse.

Vence provides an opportunity to top up the bidon at the fountain and scoff the only banana. There won't be any more food until the hilltop village of Coursegoules. A sharp turn right from the fountain and you are straight into a 10% gradient climbing out of the town. Houses give way to open country and the gradient settles down to a more reasonable 7% for the remaining 9 km and 700 metres of ascent. The terrain is a karst limestone, giving an open landscape of heath, bare rock and many Spring flowers. Every kilometer there is a sign with the remaining distance and ascent, plus the average gradient of the next kilometer (thanks!).

You top out at 950 metres and, unlike the Col de la Madone, no one has pinched the sign yet.

From the col the road drops a little through wild mountain scenery and then climbs to the 11th C village of Coursegoules. Fortunately the 20th C grocer had some bananas so I re-stocked, donned the arm warmers and enjoyed a 25 km downhill through the back blocks into the valley of the Var and so back to Nice.

93 km, 1,300 m, https://www.strava.com/activities/148521270

Vino

...so when the nice young woman at the Italian food and wine fair said they were all out of the 2012 Dolcetto, made a trip back to her car to check for spare bottles and, instead, offered a tasting of the 2007 Barbera - what could I do? I bought a bottle, of course. A touch more expensive at 15E, rather than the 12E of the Dolcetto but a relative bargain nonetheless. Rich and spicy like the Dolcetto, but with smoother tannins from the extra years of bottle age.