Jausiers – Gav's Cycling Adventures

Col de la Bonette, both sides – Day Six

The final day of our Barcelonnette trip took us to the highest mountain pass in Europe, according to the local signs. The Cime de la Bonette, is 2,807 metres (8,701 feet) above sea level & the plan was to do an out & back route to St Etienne de Tinee which would involve climbing both sides of this enormous mountain.

Once more we woke to clear blue skies overhead, & the first 6 miles of the ride replicated our route on Sunday as we headed to Jausiers. There was plenty of graffiti on this stretch of road, as the Tour de France passed through Barcelonnette & Jausiers this year, on the stage that took in Col de Vars, Col d’Izoard & Col du Galibier. We also passed a couple of pieces of cycling related memorabilia on the way.

After 6 miles, we took a right turn & almost immediately the road started climbing. While the climb is 14 miles in length, it had a constant gradient, which meant I could get into a rhythm & take in the big mountain views all around us.

We’d climbed the Col de la Bonette from Jausiers on a previous visit, so knew that at about the halfway point of the ascent was a great little café & this was our first target & we weren’t disappointed when we reached Halte 2000 – we had a delicious slice of Blackcurrant plan & a cappuccino, as well as purchasing a Col de la Bonette fridge magnet for collection!

As we left Halte 2000, we started climbing a set of switchbacks, giving huge views to the mountains on the far side of the valley. The gradient briefly eased off as we headed towards the Fortin de Restefond, a military barracks originally built in !901 as a defensive barracks.

As we continued climbing, we could see an alternative gravel route to our right & we caught our first view of the Cime de la Bonette, a 2km extension of tarmac with huge views of the surrounding peaks.

We quickly descended to the Col de la Bonette, then set off on an exhilarating 16.5 mile descent to Saint-Etienne de Tinee, stopping briefly for lunch at Restaurant Pratois (I was too hungry to take a photo!). There were some roadworks on the outskirts of town & as we had a green light, we carried on over the newly laid tarmac – big mistake!! As we rolled over the new tar, it stuck to the tyres & then the grit stuck to the tar…….we spent about 30 minutes cleaning the worst of the grit & tar from the tyres so we could continue our adventure.

Turning round in town, we took to the path to avoid the new tarmac & then followed a babbling brook as it gently climbed for a couple of miles until we reached the start of the climb as we re-joined the M2205. Waterfalls lined the valley walls & it was at this point that a group of Porsches shattered the peace & quiet as they roared past us.

At this point, the valley opened up in front of us & gave us a view all the way up to the pyramid shaped Cime de la Bonette some 12 miles away & 4,000 feet above us. The road twisted & turned its way up the mountain, passing through a couple of small villages before heading through Camp des Fourches, another military barracks built at the start of the 1900’s.

Looking below, we could see the lower slopes of the climb, as well as having regular reminders of what still faced us – there were markers every kilometre, showing how far remained to the summit, as well as the average gradient. After 2½ hours of climbing we’d reached the Col de la Bonette, where we stopped briefly for a photo.

The 13 mile descent back into Jausiers was over in 30 minutes & it ranks as one of my favourites – switchbacks galore & long sweeping corners on a deserted road, this was cycling heaven! All that remained was to retrace our cycle tracks back to Barcelonnette, where we quickly showered & went out to celebrate the end of another epic Alpine Adventure.

Barcelonnette to Guillestre & back via Col de Vars – Day One

My second (& final) Alpine Adventure of 2019 was based around the small town of Barcelonnette, in the Maritime Alps of Southern France, about 90 miles north of Nice. Yesterday’s travel day was longer than planned, due to my inability to queue in the right car rental queue – I spent 45 minutes in the Europcar queue, before realising I’d booked the hire car through Hertz!

In the rush to put our bikes together before heading out for something to eat, Sean’s collar on his seatpost failed, which meant his saddle wouldn’t stay in the right place. All the bike shops were already shut, so it meant we had to adjust plans for this morning’s ride – in the end I found a bike shop in Jausiers (about 5 miles down the road) that opened at 10.30am, so today’s ride was a 64 mile ‘out & back’ to Guillestre, over both sides of the Col de Vars.

We started out following the River Ubaye upstream to Jausiers & within 15 minutes, the friendly mechanic at Technicien du Sport had found a replacement part & fitted it for the bargain price of €7 & we were on our way. After 10 miles of gently climbing alongside the babbling Ubaye, we turned left off the D900 & joined the smaller & quieter D902 – this is a legendary road in Tour de France history. In the space of less than 100 miles, this road goes over the epic Tour de France climbs of Col d’Izoard, Col du Galibier & Col du Telegraphe in addition to the Col du Vars, our climb(s) of the day.

For the next 5 miles, the road climbed steeply as it twisted & turned up the side of the valley, passing through quiet villages along the way. Whilst the climb wasn’t long, the gradient was consistently over 9% & I found it a challenge to keep up with Sean, although he was riding well within himself – I’m a few pounds heavier than my usual touring weight & I felt it today. The views across to the surrounding mountain peaks were amazing, with white clouds providing great contrast to the blue skies & they took my mind off the difficulty of the climb.

At the summit there’s a couple of signs, a café & a large car park. We stopped long enough to take a few photos, put on a wind proof jacket & then we were descending the longer, but shallower side of the col, heading towards Guillestre. Along the way, we rode through the ski resort of Vars – this is where the world record was set for skiing, some 254 kilometres per hour….on skis!!!!

Descending into Guillestre was fun, the road was wide (so coaches can get the ski resorts in winter), the corners were easy to navigate & the surface was good quality. After about 8 miles of the 12 mile descent, huge views down to Guillestre & across to the Izoard came into view. In less than 25 minutes we’d reached our lunch stop in town – we hoped to grab a panini somewhere, but all the restaurants in the main square were proper sit down affairs, so we settled in for an extended lunch & set about demolishing some pasta.

We were on our way again by about 2.50pm (at least a couple of hours later than we would have expected), now all we had to do was conquer the 12 mile climb back to the summit of the Col de Vars. We estimated that this would probably take us in the region of 2½ hours, on the basis we would climb at about 5 mph. The first 3 miles were a consistent 7 to 8% & this meant we could settle into a good rhythm. As the road hair-pinned its way ever upwards, we could see the climb spread out before us.

As we rode through Saint-Marcellin there were loads of wood carvings of winter sports characters, including a huge man on skis. After a brief stop to admire the artwork & take a couple of snaps, we were on our way again on what was my favourite part of the climb – it had a 1 mile descent at this point! The entire climb was less steep than this morning & as a result I was better able to enjoy the views & chat as we rode – this morning all I could do was huff & puff!

The final couple of miles of the climb took us past a moody looking lake, with big rain clouds beginning to gather in the distance. This was the direction we were heading, so the appearance of potential rain clouds was of interest to us.

After just over 2 hours of climbing we were back at the summit, once again it was time to wrap up warm for the descent (10% for the first mile) & then enjoy the ride!

It took just over 13 minutes to descend the 6 miles back to the main road – it was incredible how quickly I gathered speed when I released the brakes. Luckily there were plenty of twists & turns to ensure that we both took the descent sensibly. The road back to Barcelonnette via Jausiers was slightly downhill all the way, but any thoughts of free miles were scuppered when we picked up a full-on headwind! Oddly, the downhill section into the headwind took longer than when we rode it in the opposite direction as an uphill this morning.

After a slow start, the day turned into a truly great expedition into the high mountains of the Maritime Alps. I’m looking forward to finding out what tomorrow will bring, but in the meantime it’s time to toast today’s great adventure in Bar Tandem!