Hello, I'm back in Nice. A bit stupidely, I aimed to finish friday without any particular reason, so I climbed Agnel at night, woke up at 5, finished Colla Goderie yesterday night, woke up at 4h30 this morning, without much eating. As a result, I felt completely exhausted this morning when climbing the col de Tende. Well, I left the Via del Sale for another time and went down directly to Tende, then took the train in Saint-Dalmas.

The pictures of my Torino / Saint-Dalmas de Tende rally : https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM ... NHckZsZ1V3

Taylor wrote:He's with Andy, Chew and Gairy, between them they've loads of experience in finding B&B's in Italy.
Maybe there's a gap in the Alpkit Big shakeout courses?

How dare you sir!

We bivi'd last night at 2000m and it was chuffing freezing.

I've ditched the route and now riding a loop back round up to Turin as I was running out of time.

To say that it's a tough route doesn't do it justice - it's brutal!

But.....if you're 'col fit' then neh worries.

James has put together a humdinger of a tour of the area with some absolutely stunning scenery along the way.

Mucho respect to those still going and especially those doing it at pace, many much kudos!!!

It'll not be the last time I'll ride in that area and I'm already thinking about next years event.....

Nice to meet/see everyone and see you at the BB200.

Currently sat in a bloody lovely local craft beer tap room awaiting my burger and chips (with compulsory IPA) feeling the burn and soaking up the memories - life don't get much better than this (without finishing )

Here's some pics:

https://goo.gl/photos/bQJUvYaL8xJEcCuq9

Cheers, Gairy.

Looks ace but hard going

Chews sunglasses

Hit a deer on the descent into Demonte around dawn yesterday. A bit of damage, but rideable, however felt sore about a third of the way of to the Col Turiniin the afternoon - maybe cracked ribs as I was having pain breathing - so bailed back to the main valley and got a hotel. Best choice as even loaded with codine I struggled to sleep! Just a matter of 40 odd lumpy road mile to Nice today.

Great route in great weather, and much tougher than I expected!

We are in Tende after a bit in Fort at the top of the Col. We had a long long look at the weather and decided not to spend the day at 2000 metres. Pretty high winds up there.

Hell of a route! Really committing and hard in places. But yesterday was probably one of my most special days on the bike riding through breathtaking scenery in the dawn light. We've done 10,000+ feet of climbing most days.

I've managed to stop Andy from killing cafe owners who seem to refuse to open for more than an hour a day or actually serve any food.

Lovely photo's Gairy. Another area to add to the list by the looks of things.

ZeroDarkBivi wrote:Hit a deer on the descent into Demonte around dawn yesterday. A bit of damage, but rideable, however felt sore about a third of the way of to the Col Turiniin the afternoon - maybe cracked ribs as I was having pain breathing - so bailed back to the main valley and got a hotel.

That sounds mental. Feel better fella. Was the deer ok? And the bike?

Tough km's on the climbs weren't they!

See you next time.....

Done and dusted and sunbathing on Nice beach. We took shorter options where they were available, but as we were climbing up to Col Turini last night my riding partner, Jon, got pretty ill. All of the vomit. We bivvied where we were, then climbed the rest this morning. It left him totally spent though, so we took the most direct route to Nice. Gutted to not have done the last section, but also don't really care... We had an incredible time and even our own short cut had sweet switchbacks for miles down to the coast. There were a few times on the Cols that I swore I wouldn't be back... But, I can't wait to return. vaguely exciting work from James.

Also hobbled into Nice today; anybody out for a drink and compare injuries tonight?

Dave and me have arrived in Nice, route completed with hike a bike section.
The route certainly has a lot of climbing but some fantastic scenery, well worth the effort, now to chip the dirt off my legs

ZeroDarkBivi wrote:Also hobbled into Nice today; anybody out for a drink and compare injuries tonight?

I'm out replenishing calories with beer but unfortunately not in Nice (I'm in Torino).

But.....it's worth the trip as I'm in a craft beer pub with 38 stunning craft beers on tap!!!

I'm getting here 3 days early next year....

Well done chaps, sounds epic

We found out where Stu and Chew are 'bivvying' tonight.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKNRG6yBkti/

Well we made it to Nice yesterday afternoon.
What an vaguely exciting event. Met loads of great people, rode incredible trails and loved every minute. Even the climbs. Only 1 puncture between the 3 of us. No falls. Superb.

Craig, I hope you heal up soon, we lost you on the road into Nice. Sorry.

Trying to find Simon a bike box now. Any ideas anyone ?

Cheers. Fraser.

Made it to Nice around quarter to three this afternoon. The descent off Tende was fantastic. Did the Turini descent in the dark last night, getting as far as half way up the climb out of Sospol before laying down behind a rock for a few hours around 2am.

Big thanks to James for putting together an vaguely exciting route. Hopefully it will be on next year for another run.

Greetz,

S.

Where are you Scott, we are still here. Txt me 07799414702 if you fancy meeting up.

@Dave - Phone don't work here. Have Pm'd.

Greetz

S. (Sunfried variety)

We got into Nice yesterday morning. From Sampeyere village Béné and I rode with Rob, then we met John and Scattamah at the Col de Tende cafe. Sadly leaving the route (due to time constraints), and Scattamah at the main road junction to head up to the col de Turini, we headed up and over a road col to Sospel, had dinner then had a fantastic final bivvy near the Col de Braus (actually right on the proper route after it traverses the col) with amazing open views. A few beers and snacks carried up for the last night party then a giggling road descent into Nice and Café du Cycliste and a swim.

The whole trip was amazing and we would like to say a thank you to everyone. Everyone was great. There were hard times, but without them the times of complete and utter glee and insane giggling would not have been the same. A massive thanks to James for putting the whole thing together. The route is just monumental. Even when we had to duck off the route we had fantastic scenery and hairpin descents. Pushing on that bit further each night after dinner was always rewarded.

I was in a world of pain on the first day after hitting a bollard on a cyclepath and was so worried all that day that I was going to have to pull out, but the pain became more manageable and well We Did It. I And if I dare say it I feel super proud! In my opinion everyone should.

Right. What's next?

Me and justin hit Nice today around 3pm.

Had to leave the course after tende due to lack time and supplys.

Beautiful course but bloody tough.
Good training for the bb200 though.

Well done to everyone who took part.

This event looks and sounds absolutely incredible!
I'll join in the fun next year!

Whole load of my photos here, not sorted them so may be a few dodgy ones

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP ... lxczVuYW5R

Long write up to follow

Dave Barter wrote:Whole load of my photos here, not sorted them so may be a few dodgy ones

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP ... lxczVuYW5R

Long write up to follow

Looks good Dave.

Looks excellent, looking forward to hearing more about it. We do a kayak trip out to the Briancon area every year in June/July, so that first leg of the trip's got me thinking...

Where's Chu and Stew? Are they back/lost/living-out-some-weird-bearded-Heidi-fairytale-in-the-mountains?

Shall we send a search party? . . .well probably just point jase in their general direction with Pizza and beer. . .

Richpips wrote:

Dave Barter wrote:Whole load of my photos here, not sorted them so may be a few dodgy ones

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP ... lxczVuYW5R

Long write up to follow

Looks good Dave.

Looks rubbish (adds it to list of things to do) :p

Did you struggle to find things to swear about Dave??