Col de Nice, Col de Turin and Ornellaia

After a last hard week of serious training this was supposed to an easy week - the first week of a two week taper - to arrive in the Alps fresh and ready to go. The first six days were indeed easy, with only 100 km covered in two rides. On the seventh day, instead of resting and contemplating my labours, I let Eric (Eh-reek) talk me into the Col de Turin.

We arranged to meet 7am in the Place Massina. I waited until 7.15 but no Eric so set off to find the Col on my own.

Getting out of Nice in that direction is not easy. You keep getting sucked onto high-speed dual carriage ways with underpasses, overpasses and no bike lanes. Even early on a Sunday morning there was enough fast traffic to be intimidating. Once out of the city there is a gradual climb to the Col de Nice and a descent before the climb to the Col de Turin begins. En route I fell in with a pleasant guy, coincidentally also called Eric (a bit like Bruce and Australia?), who was riding 30 km to Escarene to do a 40 km run and then ride home again.

With new riding buddy at Escarene, the start of the climb to the Col de Turin...

He changed out of his riding gear and entered this mountain race...

From Escarene it is 30 km and a 1,532 metre climb to the Col, at an average gradient of 5.1% - good preparation for next Tuesday's trip up the Col de la Madeleine which has 12 metres less climb and is 10 km shorter, but quite a bit steeper at 7.7%.

The climb included this sequence of switchbacks up the head wall of a valley. It was steeper here at around 7 - 8%...

But the col itself was a bit of a let down, with hotels and cafés, rather than wild alpine country.

Then it was 30 km of downhill back to Escarene, passing the runners and new buddy Eric making his way up, followed by a short climb back over the Col de Nice and another not altogether successful attempt at finding a relatively safe route through the city.

96 km and 1,900 metres climb. One week to go to the 'tour'.

Wine

It has been a while since I mentioned anything about wine, probably because the bike riding has taken precedence. However there was occasion to comment this week when I spent a couple of days with our daughter at her house in Juan-Les-Pins. I assembled some wine racks for her cellar and in return she pulled out a bottle of 05 Ornellaia. 

A vague knowledge of the name and the dusty tannins led me to think it was a Sangiovese. It was indeed from Italy and Tuscany, but a quick Google identified it as a 'super Tuscan', a Bordeaux blend of cabernet and Merlot - rich, complex and a bit over the top as an aperitif on a warm summer's afternoon.