WHERE TO RIDE FROM NICE – DURANUS & SAINT BLAISE

Take the cycle path from Nice and then at Saint Laurent du Var take up the Var valley cycle path. It climbs slowly to where the Var, Tinée and Vésubie river gorges meet. You’re heading up the Vésubie, a remote and beautiful deep river gorge with barely any traffic. At Utelle, take a sharp right and be astounded as you climb high above the road you were on up the valley side. At Duranus is the Saut des Français, where in the 18th century local resistance fighters from the County of Nice forced French soldiers to jump to their deaths. It’s over 200m down.

From Levens you take a right and head through the beautiful villages of Saint Blaise and Aspremont, before descending the Col de Bast into Nice. Turn this into an epic ride by climbing to the Madone d’Utelle chapel, 900m above the village. The Alpine panorama is worth the effort!

Duranus & Saint Blaise key kit

key kit

Mauricette Jacket.
The balcony road to Duranus is in a deep gorge with many shadows. Take a packable jacket, especially if adding the option of Madone d'Utelle where the weather of the different valleys can converge and cause surprise storms.

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Duranus & Saint Blaise ride insight

RIDE INSIGHTS

Ride in the back country around Nice, and one of the constant reference points is the chapel of the Madone d’Utelle. It dominates the Var valley at the confluence of the Esteron and the Tinée and according to legend we owe its presence to Spanish sailors.

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1 - THE ROUTE

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2 - RENT AND RIDE

Travel light and book your bike. We offer a range of rental bikes, the R5 Cervelo road bike and the Aspero Cervelo gravel bike along with titanium road bikes from French marque Leon. Each bike is complete with pedals, tool bag and rear light while, if needed, each rental can also include Specialized shoes and helmet.

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3 - THE CAFÉ

Located on the Old Port, our café is the prefect pre and post-ride meeting place. With some routes that begin almost outside, excellent coffee and a full range of our clothing collections for men and women. There are weekly rides as well if you’d like to discover riding on the Cote D’Azur with like minded companions.

other rides

When the ville of Nice decided to use #nicecyclingparadise to promote the grand depart of the 2020 Tour de France, there was definite method in the madness. If Paradise Lost has over ten thousand lines of verse, this cycling paradise found has almost as many routes, roads, stretches, views, climbs, cols, lacets, stops and starting points. Enough at least to satisfy even the most discerning cyclist.

Our Badges

To celebrate the local climbs and the roads we ride, we created a badge for each of our local cols, collected together in our Montagne à la Carte series. After that we raised our eyes and we added badges for some of the world's iconic climbs, creating our Montagnes du Monde series.

Ride the climb and claim the badge. From Col d'Eze on our doorstep to Alpe d’Huez, Wuling, Koppenberg and beyond.

HOW TO CLAIM A BADGE
/la-gazette/montagnes-du-monde-6-alpe-dhuez/
Wuling
Koppenberg