A few of us bold Guildford Pelotooners ventured down to Nice over the weekend of November 12th to 14th to catch the last of the sun and tick off a few more Cols. When asking around we were made aware of Claire Scrutton who operates a cycle guiding business from Nice under the name of Cyclecotedazur.com. We were in contact with Claire who agreed to guide us for the long weekend we planned (Friday to Sunday).
The planning went well; we all managed to get flights on BA Miles. We identified (with Claire’s help) a suitable hotel at a good price. All set – not quite. After booking the flights we discovered that BA now counts your bike box as luggage, charging you £37 for each extra bag. Mike and I decided that one extra bag would do between us and it was booked in his name. Also, by the time we got to book the hotel it was fully booked – what was going on? We didn’t realize it was also the weekend of the Nice marathon. Back to the drawing board with the hotel but after much angst we booked an alternative, which in the end proved adequate.
With a week to go my brother Craig discovered he had to be in Belgrade on the Thursday we were meant to travel and Mike discovered he was scheduled to be in Edinburgh. As the flight to Nice was from Heathrow at 20:00 I would have trouble getting from work to home and to the airport on time through the rush hour traffic. Replanning was required.
Mike was booked to get back to Heathrow from Edinburgh in good time but not enough time to get his luggage from home. In the circumstances he brought his bike and the luggage to my house on the Monday night. On the Wednesday morning I drove to my dentist appointment in Teddington then on to Heathrow and left my car in the short stay (great deal from the Heathrow website, Wednesday to Sunday in the short stay for £67 rather than the usual price of £248 and against £48 in the long stay). I then travelled to work on the Heathrow express (only to get to Paddington and the Circle, District and Hammersmith and City lines were down and Oxford Circus was shut for a security alert, so I arrived at work somewhat late that morning).
On the Thursday that we were travelling London was hit by the back end of the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean. There was much wind and rain and flights into and out of Heathrow were delayed. My brother managed to rebook his flights to go directly from Belgrade via Vienna to Nice where he arranged to hire a bike. I got to the airport using the Heathrow Express in good time and unloaded the two bikes and luggage from my car. That only left Mike who was stranded at Edinburgh when he should have already landed at Heathrow. The only good thing was that the flight to Nice was also delayed.
So there I was at Heathrow BA Check-in with two SciCon bike boxes and a roll bag as well as my hand luggage. Mike was somewhere between Edinburgh and London (3 hours late at this point) and the check in for the Nice flight was about to close. BA said once the check in closed if I wasn’t checked in I would lose my flight, and they could not check Mike in without him being there, notwithstanding the fact that he was on a BA flight at the time. I had to make a decision, was I going and what was I going to do about Mike’s bike and the extra bag which was booked and paid for in his name? BA had no sympathy. I would have to check in and pay excess baggage for the bag and second bike. Mike would have to take his chances on a flight the next morning as the flight was closed and full. The only good thing was that BA would book him on the next available flight as it was them that made him miss his flight.
At the BA excess baggage payment desk they had some problem and overcharged me, then refunded me, then decided they could transfer the extra bag from Mike’s booking to mine and in the confusion I am still not sure how much I was charged, however, eventually both bikes and the bag disappeared into the luggage system and I had three baggage receipts for them. I then went through security to departures from where I texted Mike for when he landed and updated his partner at home advising her he would probably be home that night. I also spoke with my brother who was enjoying a lonely dinner in Nice.
With 10 minutes to the delayed boarding time (an hour and a half late) I was in the Nokia shop at Terminal 5 dribbling over the new Nokia N8 and C7 and trying to justify to myself that £350 on a new phone would be acceptable to the Finance Committee back home (unlikely and I knew that really, but what harm can window shopping do?) when my phone rang. Mike had landed, finally and this safely distracted me from he phones. He had already been to the transit desk and they had given him a boarding pass for the flight, the only problem was that he had to go out, check his extra bag in (that was supposed to be left in my car in the car park after repacking), then come back through security, would he have time?
A few minutes later I was wandering the wrong direction towards the gate when I bumped into Mike going the correct way. He shepherded me to the gate and we boarded finally.
The in flight food was a packet of biscuits and a drink. Lots of carbs (not) ready for the ride in the morning which I had texted Claire to defer from the 8:30 am start until 10:00.
After an uneventful flight we arrived at Nice just after midnight. Believe it or not all the luggage also arrived. We went for a bus to Nice town centre and after an anxious wait (were the buses still running at that time?) we caught a bus to town (euro 7.50 total for both of us and our luggage).
The bus dropped us at 1:30 am on the Nice seafront. We dragged the two bike boxes and two luggage bags as well as two rucksacks through the street, the wheels on my bike box making a terrible racket. We arrived at the hotel to find a fire engine with flashing lights outside, the foyer was full of firemen and the hotel had no power! After a few minutes the firemen managed to restore the power and drifted off. There was no English speaking receptionist so we telephoned my brother’s mobile hoping he was in the room and would wake up, guide us to the correct room and let us in. No answer. Ring again, no answer. Then he managed to wake up and telephone us to tell us back to tell us which room we were in. Finally we got to bed at 2:00am.
Friday Morning
We woke tired in the morning (Friday) and whilst my brother disappeared to collect his hire bike, Mike and I go ours out of the SciCon boxes and built the bikes before all going to breakfast. Then it was off to the Nice promenade to meeting Claire. The weather was sunny and bright. After leading us the wrong way initially we found Claire. Off came the leggings and jackets. Shirt sleeves were the order of the day.
We did 85 km in the sun stopping for lunch at a café where Café du Cycliste (www.cafeducycliste.com) are based. They organise weekend rides from the café and are bringing out a clothing range next year. I am not sure whether they came down to talk to us or to chat up Claire (the latter I suspect).
It was a short ride and not that challenging with 800 metres of climb. Even so, that evening we had dinner at a local restaurant recommended by Claire and we were in bed and asleep by 8:00 pm – shattered we were.
Saturday
Saturday was planned as the big day. 2500 metres of climb over 120 km. Again a nice day and we were joined by another guy, Peter, an ex Cat 1 racer who lives in London but has his weekend flat in Nice – the benefit of bankers’ bonuses I think. After cycling out of Nice and on going up the first hill my chain began to jump and at the top we examined it to discover that one of the links had broken. This is the second Shimano Durace chain this year that this has happened to me. The last time the chain caught the derailleur, pulled it into the wheel and wrecked the derailleur and the wheel at great expense. This time I was luckier. Peter had a chain tool with him (he had a saddle bag as big as mine and I am often accused of bringing the kitchen sink) and removed the link and the chain lasted the rest of the weekend.
[Since getting back to blighty I have had my bike into Corridori who discovered I have a bent tooth on my middle front ring which may have contributed to the chain problems.]
We warmed up on the Col de Braus (10.3 km Avg 6.4% 662 metres) stopping in Sospel for lunch outside in the sun at a café / patisserie. We then attempted the Col de Turini. Boy was that tough, with 24 Km uphill at average 5.2% 1244 metres. Other than letting me stop for a gel at the village half way up Claire was surreptitiously easing me up the hill not letting me use my Ramblers association membership. We arrived some 25 minutes after the others and rolled down the other side to the village. When we arrived we were greeted in the Café by the others with their war stories including the fact that Mike and Peter had come off on the descent on gravel and were displaying sore looking tarmac tattoos through their torn Assos shorts. I was also greeted by the remark that my thighs were bulging as if I had been weight lifting, and that is what they felt like.
That night Claire recommended another restaurant but we were tired and could not be bothered to walk that far so we found a restaurant near the hotel. Half way through dinner in walks Claire with Peter and his girlfriend. What a coincidence.
A slightly later night that night, we finally turned the lights out just after ten pm. Party animals we are not.
Sunday
Our flights home was scheduled for Sunday night and we had arranged a late check out from the hotel so we could get a full days riding.
The main concern on Sunday was that it was the conclusion of the F1 season and it was not obvious who would win. How could we ride and get value out of the day, as well as see the race which was scheduled for lunchtime?
Claire was meeting us at our hotel as the sea front promenade was closed because the Nice marathon was taking place. She turned up slightly late accompanied by a guy and a girl. Unfortunately the girl had had a puncture on the way which had caused the delay. She decided that she had had enough already and said her farewells. The guy, Rob, was an Australian living and working for an IT company in Nice. He was a good rider.
We left Nice and cycled along the coast. We missed out the Col D’Eze (not sure why?) and went along to Monaco where we cycled across the F1 grid and up the start straight and hill to the casino. We then went on beyond Monte Carlo to the base of the Madone. We are told that Lance Armstrong did the Madone (which is 13.3 km 920 metres Avg 7%) in close to 33min and his record has only been beaten once in 2007 or 2008 by Dean Martin of the Garmin Team who did 31 minutes. I didn’t think we would be able to touch that but Craig was ready to give it a go.
The base of the Madone is very steep going up to about 17% then leveling then going steep again. As you get higher it flattens out to a steady 8%. Craig, rob and Mike shot off and left me on my own. I knew Claire was behind me (?) but I had my own demons. It is amazing climbing from sea level up 920 metres looking back down (yes, I did look up from the tarmac onece or twice).
Half way up there is a village called St Agnes where you need to take a turning to the summit. I stopped here for five minutes to have a gel and wait for Claire (as I wasn’t sure I had the right turning). After five minutes she hadn’t appeared so I went on alone just hoping I had got it right.
At the summit Rob was waiting for me. The other two had already gone on to La Turbie. Rob had had a text from Claire saying she was unwell and would be going a different route and would meet us on our way down the other side.
Mike and Craig had made the top in 1 hour 9 minutes, however, whilst Craig had stopped at St Agnes for 4 minutes, as Mike arrived at St Agnes, Craig and Rob remounted and pushed on not giving Mike any time to stop. He followed them to the top and arrived more or less at the same time as the other two. My time was nearer 1 hour 19 minutes.
Rob and I rolled down the other side and we met Craig amd Mike in La Turbie. We found a pizzeria with a television and we were just in time to watch the start of the F1 Grand Prix. Believe it or not the pizzeria had run out of pizza dough – disaster. Fortunately they had an extensive menu and we ordered lunch.
We left the restaurant before the race had finished and proceeded down the mountain. We met Claire a bit further down and cycled back to Nice.
After saying our farewells to Claire and Rob we got back to our hotel room just in time to watch the last few laps of the race. Well done Sebastian Vettel. We then packed our bikes, showered and checked out.
It was then a case of dragging our luggage the 500 metres to the train station (my wheels making the terrible racket again) to catch the bus to the airport. This time we took a local bus rather than the express and it cost us Euro 1 each. Bargain.
We arrived at the airport really early. We planned this as we knew the flight would be full of marathoners and we didn’t want to be bounced off. We checked in, had the mandatory Quality Q burger and brownie and caught our flight.
We arrived at Heathrow on time, the luggage all arrived (never ceases to amaze because when you really need it the luggage is always delayed / lost) and we found the car without a problem. I was home in bed at 11:00 pm after dropping Mike and his bike at home.
Good weekend to be thoroughly recommended. I can see us going back next year to tick off a few more Cols. Thanks Claire
End.
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