Col de Turini and Roya Edges

A 98 km loop from Sospel

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Why this ride

Rally-road mythology with sea-level start. A 98 km loop that starts and ends near Sospel, about 1 h 53 of riding. The climb of the day is Col de Turini. It tops out at about 1,750 m. It is a high-mountain day.

Roadbook

1. Sospel fuel gate fuel

   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.

   For riders Sospel is a crossroads of famous roads. To the west the road climbs to the Col de Braus, a little over a thousand metres, in a long series of hairpins. To the north, the Col de Turini, at over sixteen hundred metres, is the legendary rally stage of Monte Carlo, with miles of tight bends through pine forest. To the east, the road drops along the Roya valley toward Breil-sur-Roya and Italy, passing small villages perched on rock. With about three thousand people, Sospel has fuel stations, bakeries, cafés and small supermarkets, so it is the natural place to fill the tank before heading into the high country.

   The history is layered. The town was part of the County of Nice and later the Kingdom of Sardinia before joining France in 1860, and the baroque church of Saint-Michel with its arcaded square testifies to the wealth of the old trade routes. Above the valley, the Fort Saint-Roch, part of the Maginot Line of the 1930s, is now a museum and shows how this frontier was prepared for war. Menton, the nearest large town, is famed for its lemons and holds a lemon festival each winter.

   Eat on the main square if the weather is fine, where plane trees give shade and the fountain adds a little noise. Because this is both start and finish for the loop, the evening is the better time to enjoy it, when the light fades on the valley walls and the day's riders gather over a beer. Winter can bring ice to the passes, so check conditions before committing to the high roads.

2. Col de Turini pass

   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.

   The pass links the Vésubie valley with the Bévéra and Roya valleys, a mountainous hinterland that is only an hour or so behind the glitz of Nice and Monaco but feels like a different country. The villages here are stone-built and perched, with names like La Bollène-Vésubie and Moulinet, and the roads between them follow narrow valleys that smell of resin and wet rock. Nearby, the Mercantour National Park protects wolves, chamois and golden eagles, though what you are more likely to see are cyclists and other bikers, who make this a popular loop on weekends.

   The riding is technical rather than fast: tight, blind hairpins, a surface that varies from smooth to patched, and long shadows that keep patches of damp on the road well into the day. Cooler air at altitude also means that tyres may take longer to warm up in the morning. The road is generally open year-round, but snow and ice can close it in winter. On the descent toward Sospel and Menton, the air gets warmer and the vegetation changes to olive and lemon, which is a nice trick.

   Lantosque and La Bollène-Vésubie in the Vésubie valley, and Breil-sur-Roya on the other side, have pumps, though hours can be short in the villages, and Nice is the sure bet for services. The nearby hotel-restaurants at the top are a pilgrimage for rally fans, with photos of drivers on the walls, and a plate of local daube or ravioli is a fine reward. In autumn the forest is quiet, with mushrooms and woodsmoke in the air.

3. La Bollène-Vésubie food 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.

   For a rider the connection is more than trivia. The climb that begins here is long, wooded and full of rhythm, with a hairpin every few hundred metres and the big larch and fir forest of Turini closing in higher up. The pass tops out at around sixteen hundred metres, so the temperature drops sharply, and in spring or after a cold night you can find slush and old snow in the shaded corners long after the coast is baking. The tarmac is generally good, though a little rough on the upper section, and cars with rally ambitions are a hazard on summer evenings.

   As a food stop, be realistic. The village itself is tiny, and what you find will be a small bar or auberge with a short menu and limited hours, so check before relying on it. Lantosque and Roquebillière, a few kilometres down the valley, are larger and offer more choice, with bakeries, grocers and the sort of plain mountain cooking you expect here: ravioli with a meat or herb filling, daube, polenta, and a plate of the local cured meats. A coffee and something warm are the natural reward before the pass.

   The Vésubie valley is one that bears scars. Storm Alex tore through it in October 2020, wrecking roads and bridges, and much has since been rebuilt, but it is worth checking local conditions before committing to the route, because repairs and temporary closures can still apply.

   Fuel is the thing to watch. There is nothing you can count on in the village, and the nearest large town for supplies is Contes, a good twenty kilometres down the valley and out toward the coast, so arrive with a full tank and you will have all the range you need for the pass and the Roya valley beyond.

4. Vésubie scenic roads scenic

   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.

   One small detour is worth a lot. The hamlet of Venanson, perched on the slope above the road, has a little chapel dedicated to Saint Sebastian, whose walls are covered with late-fifteenth-century frescoes painted by Jean Canavesio, a painter from Piedmont. The pictures show scenes from the saint's life, vivid and a little rough, and they were meant to protect the village from the plague. The chapel is usually kept locked, so you may have to ask at the village or check the hours.

   The road itself is a series of tight bends and short straights following the river, with a surface that varies from smooth to patched. After the floods of October 2020, parts of it were washed away and rebuilt, and some sections are newer than the rest. Rockfall and gravel in corners are common, particularly after rain, and there are narrow points where a tour coach can fill the whole lane, so keep to your own side and watch the mirrors on blind bends.

   The air here carries the smell of chestnut leaves, wet stone and cold water, the sort of alpine freshness that makes the coast feel a long way away. In autumn, the chestnut woods turn the slopes gold and brown, and the local people go out to gather nuts. In summer the shade is welcome, and the river offers a few spots where a swim in cold, clear water is possible if you scramble down.

   For fuel, do not rely on the valley. Roquebillière and Saint-Martin have little, and Contes, over twenty kilometres south, is the sure choice, so plan your tank accordingly before heading up.

5. Back to Sospel finish

   Back at Sospel. That is the ride.

Where this sits

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