CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
1077 km from Ospedaletti to Olivetta San Michele, about 19 h 16 of riding. The stops in between: Cuneo, near Sambuco, near Draguignan and Cagnes-sur-Mer. The climbs: Antibes, Théoule-sur-Mer, Cap-d'Ail and Ospedaletti. It tops out at about 2,100 m. It crosses Italy, France and Monaco - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 72 km this is Col de Turini, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Palms, pastel houses and a bay that faces due south: Ospedaletti is the Riviera dei Fiori at its most relaxed, a small Ligurian town tucked between Sanremo and Bordighera with its feet in the sea and terraced hills behind it. The old coast railway has been moved inland into a tunnel, and its former line along the shore is now a cycle and walking path, so the seafront is quieter than you might expect on such a crowded coast.
Read the complete Ospedaletti write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mercantour High Roads is where the day begins. Next is Nice / Côte d’Azur return.
Cuneo announces itself from a distance: a long, wedge-shaped town perched on a terrace where two Alpine rivers, the Stura di Demonte and the Gesso, cut deep beds on either side before joining just to the north. The name comes from that shape, cuneo meaning wedge. This stop lies just south-west of the town, on the open plain between Castelletto Stura and Beinette, with the Maritime Alps standing up as a wall along the southern horizon.
Read the complete Near Cuneo, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nice / Côte d’Azur return comes up about 108 km into the recorded legs. Next is Food stop near Sambuco.
Sambuco is a tiny village in the Valle Stura, one of the Occitan valleys of Piedmont, on the road that climbs from Cuneo to the Colle della Maddalena, known to the French as the Col de Larche, and on into the Ubaye valley in France. It is a place of stone houses, wooden balconies and steep meadows, surrounded by mountains, where life has always been tied to pastures and flocks. The village has given its name to a local breed of sheep, the Sambucana, whose lamb is a prized speciality of the valley.
Read the complete Food stop near Sambuco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Photo stop near Draguignan.
Draguignan is a market town in the heart of the Var, set in a basin among wooded hills about thirty kilometres inland from the coast. It is a working town rather than a tourist resort, home to France's artillery school and a large military camp at Canjuers on the plateau to the north. The old town has narrow lanes, plane-shaded squares and a distinctive clock tower, and the Saturday market is one of the best in Provence.
Read the complete Photo stop near Draguignan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Photo stop near Draguignan, early in the day. Next is Mercantour High Roads checkpoint 8.
Love them or hate them, they are one of the landmarks of this coast, and they make an unmistakable meeting point for rides heading into the mountains.
Read the complete Near Cagnes-sur-Mer write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Mercantour High Roads checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Mercantour High Roads scenic road.
Théoule-sur-Mer is a little town squeezed between the red rocks of the Esterel and the sea, and it looks like a painting from the early days of the French Riviera. The houses are pink and ochre, the harbour is small and crowded with boats, and the hills behind are covered with pines and cork oaks. A fortified château with round towers, dating from the fourteenth century and now used as the town hall, stands near the shore, and the old fishing quarter has narrow streets and small terraces. The population is only about thirteen hundred, though it swells in summer.
Read the complete Near Théoule-sur-Mer write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mercantour High Roads scenic road comes up about 503 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mercantour High Roads high point.
Old ramparts rise straight from the sea at Antibes, and behind them a tight knot of lanes, markets and ochre houses climbs toward a castle on the shore. The town sits between Nice and Cannes on the bay of the same name, facing the snowy line of the Alps on clear winter days, with the long wooded peninsula of Cap d'Antibes to the south and the jazz town of Juan-les-Pins on its western flank.
Read the complete Antibes 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 Back to Mercantour.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ospedaletti write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Mercantour. That is the ride. Next is Col de Turini Morning Attack.
Olivetta San Michele is a small Ligurian village in the valley of the Bevera, right on the border between Italy and France, a few kilometres up from Ventimiglia. The village clings to steep slopes covered with olive terraces, and its stone houses and church tower look much as they have for centuries. The French town of Sospel lies just upstream, across the border.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Olivetta San Michele write-up.
High above the Tinée, south of Saint-Étienne, the country turns into great bare shoulders of grass and scree. This stop sits on that upland block between the Tinée and the Cians, under the mass of Mont Mounier, with the villages of Roubion, Beuil and Valberg scattered around its flanks. It is a long way from anywhere: the nearest proper towns are down in the Var valley, and the coast is a good hour and a half away.
Read the complete Near Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nice / Côte d’Azur return comes up about 782 km into the recorded legs. Next is Food stop near Seillans.
Seillans clings to a hillside above the plain of Fayence, a perched village of ochre houses, narrow lanes and fountains, with a castle and a church at the top. It is one of the officially recognised most beautiful villages of France, and it has attracted artists for generations; the surrealist painter Max Ernst spent his last years here, and a small collection of his work can be seen in the village.
Read the complete Food stop near Seillans write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Col de Turini Morning Attack photo pull-off.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Near Théoule-sur-Mer write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Col de Turini Morning Attack checkpoint 8.
Until 1860, the river at Saint-Laurent-du-Var marked an international frontier. On the west bank lay France; on the east bank lay the County of Nice, part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and travellers along the coast had to cross the wide, shifting bed of the Var to pass from one to the other. For centuries there was no proper bridge, and the village made its living from the men who carried travellers across on their backs or guided them through the shallows. When Nice became French, the border vanished, but the river is still the dividing line between the town and the city.
Read the complete Near Saint Laurent Du Var write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Col de Turini Morning Attack checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Col de Turini Morning Attack 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.
The high point of this section. Next is Col de Turini Morning Attack scenic road.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ospedaletti write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Col de Turini Morning Attack scenic road tops the climb. Next is Back to Col de.
Sospel sits in a deep, green valley of the Bévéra river, in the hills behind Menton, and it is one of those Provençal towns that has been quietly pretty for centuries without making a fuss about it. A fortified bridge with a toll tower, dating from the eleventh century, crosses the river, and the old centre has arcaded houses painted in faded ochre and rose. It is a market town of about three thousand people, with several good bakeries and a calm, small-town rhythm, and the sea is only about twenty kilometres away.
Read the complete Col de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Col de closes the day.
Food stop near Sambuco → Photo stop near Draguignan is 228 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Draguignan → Near Cagnes-sur-Mer is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Fuel stop near Olivetta San Michele → Near Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée, on the way back is 133 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Seillans → Théoule-sur-Mer is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.