I wake with the sunrise and at 7.30 a.m. I’m back on the road. Today’s goal is climbing the Col de la Bonette, at 2715 m one of Europe’s highest road passes. Since I start from almost sea level the ascent is maybe a bit much for the first real day of cycling.
As I ride up the Tinée River, thankfully in the shade of the mountains, I’m overtaken by the lead group of a local cycling race, complete with lead motorbike and car. More motorbikes announce the chasing groups and the main field. It’s certainly interesting to see how fast the first riders are in comparison with the last ones. I take a long lunch break by the river.
In Saint-Etienne de Tinée, the real ascent up to the pass starts. Like always in France, there’s a sign showing the route’s statistics. I start on the steep climb: 25.8 km with 6,5% average gradient, knowing well that this will be hard. How hard? Well, so hard that on each of the last 6 kilometres I take a short break. Beautiful views on the surrounding mountains make up for the pain, though. At the top, I’m so tired that I don’t even think about adding another 200 meters up the circle road around the mountaintop. Looking back, I can see heavy rain in the valley below that I came through.
The 1200 m descent towards Jausiers is beautiful and over far too quickly. I end up camping in the riverbed (again) of the Ubaye. I’m pretty tired after riding 110 km with 3000 m ascent.