CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
786 km from Sospel to Bordighera, about 15 h 25 of riding. It goes by way of La Bollène-Vésubie, in Bordighera and Aisone. The climbs: Col de Turini and Cap-d'Ail. It tops out at about 1,950 m. It crosses France, Italy and Monaco - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It is a high-mountain day.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 19 km this is Route des Grandes Alpes, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Sospel lies in the deep valley of the Bévéra, a small river that cuts through limestone mountains about twelve kilometres inland from Menton, and it feels like a different country from the coast. The air is cooler, the light is softer, and the town has a pleasant, slightly sleepy character with colonnaded squares and painted houses. Its medieval bridge, the Pont-Vieux, carries a tower that was once used to collect tolls from the traders, and although it was blown up in the Second World War and rebuilt, it remains the town's postcard image. Rows of pale and ochre buildings crowd along the river.
Read the complete Sospel fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sospel is where the day begins. Next is Col de Turini.
Turini belongs to the Monte Carlo Rally more than to any map. For decades the rally's night stage over this pass has been one of the most famous in motorsport, the Nuit du Turini, when spectators light fires in the forest and cars appear out of the darkness with a wall of floodlights. At 1,607 metres, the col is not especially high, but it is wrapped in a dense forest of fir and larch, which is why the hairpins on both sides are so intimate, with rock walls and tree trunks flashing past close to your shoulder.
Read the complete Col de Turini write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is La Bollène-Vésubie food.
Rally fans know the name Turini the way footballers know Wembley, and La Bollène-Vésubie is the village at the foot of that legend. It sits on a spur above the Vésubie, a small cluster of stone houses in the lower reaches of the Mercantour foothills, with the road to the Col de Turini leaving the valley right beside it. The Monte-Carlo Rally used to send its cars up here in the dark, and the night stage over the Turini, with fans lighting fires along the hairpins, became one of motorsport's great spectacles.
Read the complete La Bollène-Vésubie food write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Vésubie scenic roads.
Between Roquebillière and Saint-Martin-Vésubie, the valley road tightens and rises, and the scenery stops being merely pleasant. The river drops into a narrow gorge, the slopes steepen into dark chestnut and pine, and the villages that were built on spurs above the water start to look like they were fitted into the gaps. This is a landscape that rewards a rider who slows down, partly because the road demands it and partly because there is a great deal to look at.
Read the complete Vésubie scenic roads write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vésubie scenic roads, early in the day. Next is Back to Sospel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sospel fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Sospel. That is the ride. Next is Route Napoléon Northbound.
Route Napoléon Northbound is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Nice / Côte d’Azur return.
282 km in you reach Nice / Côte d’Azur return. Next is Food stop near Annot.
Annot sits in the valley of the Vaïre in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, a medieval village of tall stone houses huddled beneath a backdrop of extraordinary sandstone boulders. These are the Grès d'Annot, huge blocks of sandstone scattered through the chestnut woods above the village, some of them with houses built right into them. The rock gives its name to a geological formation that is studied by geologists from around the world.
Read the complete Food stop near Annot write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, 329 km in. Next is Photo stop near Saint-Raphaël.
Saint-Raphaël is the starting point of one of the most colourful roads in France, and the colour is its subject. The Esterel massif, a low range of volcanic rock behind the town, is made of red porphyry, which glows an almost unreal brick-red against the blue Mediterranean and the dark green of the pines. The town itself is a relaxed seaside resort of about thirty-five thousand people, with a promenade, a casino, a harbour and a handsome church in Neo-Byzantine style, Notre-Dame-de-la-Victoire, built in the nineteenth century.
Read the complete Photo stop near Saint-Raphaël write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Photo stop near Saint-Raphaël sits at 376 km, about halfway. Next is Route Napoléon Northbound checkpoint 8.
On 1 March 1815, Napoleon, having escaped from exile on Elba, landed on the beach at Golfe-Juan, a few kilometres west of Antibes, with a small band of loyal soldiers, and began his march to Paris. The route he followed through the mountains of Provence to Grenoble is now the Route Napoléon, one of the classic motorcycle roads of France, and Antibes is where rides along it begin and end.
Read the complete Near Antibes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Route Napoléon Northbound checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Route Napoléon Northbound high point.
Cap-d'Ail is the last French town before Monaco, and you can feel the principality pressing against it. The Basse Corniche winds in from Èze and Beaulieu between villas and pines, the rocks drop to clear water below, and then, almost without warning, you are among the towers of Fontvieille. Cap-d'Ail itself is quieter than its neighbour: a scatter of Belle Époque villas, gardens and newer apartments on the slopes above a small cape with coves and a little beach.
Read the complete Cap-d'Ail write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Route Napoléon Northbound high point is the summit of this stretch. Next is Route Napoléon Northbound scenic road.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cap-d'Ail write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Route Napoléon Northbound scenic road, late in the day. Next is Back to Route Napoléon.
Palm trees are the first surprise. This is Italy's Riviera di Ponente, a narrow strip of terraced hills and sea, and it makes a gentle finish to a ride that started on the French side.
Read the complete Route Napoléon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Route Napoléon closes the day.
Sospel fuel gate → Col de Turini is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Col de Turini → La Bollène-Vésubie food is 9 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Bollène-Vésubie food → Vésubie scenic roads is 9 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vésubie scenic roads → Back to Sospel is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Sospel → Fuel stop in Bordighera is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop in Bordighera → Aisone, on the way back is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Annot → Photo stop near Saint-Raphaël is 102 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Saint-Raphaël → Near Antibes is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.