A couple of days ago I made my way east to Nice, which is never a bad idea, even without an objective. I had one, though – I was looking to find a decent way to enter the city from the north that wouldn’t be too mountainous. This finale will be at the end of a hard 190km day from Cuneo, Italy, and that day will be at the end of a challenging 8-day custom tour I’m making for my step-brother Rob and friends. I did my best.

My route was a kind of loop, but the bit I was concerned about starts in the Vésubie Valley, at the north end of the route above. From here there is a fabulously quiet road that runs past the village of Duranus and ends in Levens. From there it’s all downhill till you hit the crappy outskirts of Nice.

The crappiness lasts for only 5km or so, then we will turn left and climb the Col d’Eze, made famous by countless appearances in Paris-Nice. I will make sure I tell my riders about this one because that left turn is 2km from their hotel. A mutiny would not be a surprise if they found out they had to do a 10km climb ‘for nothing’.

But of course they’ll get rewarded. I was going too fast to stop and take photos, but the descent back to Nice is filled with awesome views over the Mediterranean. This is all I got, near the top – the dramatic village of Eze.

Hopefully our group will be back in town for a sunset, like I was. There’s definitely ‘something’ about the Côte d’Azur.

Bonus Photo: Two pros who passed me in Nice, never to be seen again. I saw at least 10 others on the road that day. My friends in town tell me that all the pros have returned from the beach and training has begun in earnest.