Côte d’Azur Training Weekend

Optimize your training with performance testing on the Côte d’Azur.

Nice on the Cote d’Azur is a popular base for many pro cyclists, and not without good reason. The area offers challenging training routes, a favorable year-round climate, and the French Rivera’s cosmopolitan culture. This training weekend offers the ideal transition between early season base training and your specific objectives, with a combination of endurance rides and threshold efforts to prepare you for the coming challenges.

Friday: Arrive into Nice airport

You will be met in the late afternoon at Nice airport where a 20 minute private transfer will take you to our base for the weekend in the city centre, just a few streets back from the Promenade des Anglais and the Mediterranean Sea. At the hotel, our staff will assist you with assembling your bike. We will then gather for dinner in the early evening at a nearby restaurant, following which there will be a short informal briefing about the weekend’s rides.

Saturday: Nice – San Remo

Distance: 139km
Climbing: 1,100m
Major climbs: Poggio (180m) 3.6km at 4% (max 6%)

Departing from Nice in the early morning we wind our way along the coast towards Monaco, and the roads are smooth and fast as we head east. After around 25km we arrive in Monte Carlo, home to Tour de France winner Chris Froome and his faithful lieutenant Richie Porte.

With no time for a hot lap of the Grand Prix circuit we continue on, passing briefly again into France and the border town of Menton where we cross into Italy. At around the 50km mark we stop in Vallecrosia for coffee. Although there are one or two stairs to negotiate down to the café it’s well worth the effort to sit by the glistening Mediterranean and partake of a fine example of one of Italy’s most famous exports, the cappuccino.

After Vallecrosia we pass through a cycle path tunnel that pays tribute to the winners of one of the five ‘monuments’ of cycle racing, Milan-San Remo. Each winner has his own banner hanging from the tunnel roof, which should hopefully provide you with ample inspiration for tackling the race’s crucial climb, the short but punchy Poggio. After the sweeping descent of the Poggio where there are some stunning views of the sea, we make our way back along the coast to Nice. Following a well-earned rest in the late afternoon, we dine in the evening in the old town district of Nice.

Sunday: Col d’Èze – Col de la Madone

Distance: 75km
Climbing: 2,680
Major climbs: Col d’Èze (490m) 10km at 5% (max 10%); Col de la Madone (925m) 13.6km at 6.7% (max 10%)

There is little time to warm up through the town before we begin the first climb of the day, the Col d’Èze, scene of many a Paris-Nice showdown. The gradient is tough to begin with before easing off in the middle. After a further kick of around 2km at 8%, the road then levels off again for the remaining couple of kilometres to the top where we arrive on the Grand Corniche. At the summit you are rewarded with magnificent panoramas of the town and sea far below.

After dropping back into Monaco we then head for Menton and the toughest climb of the weekend, the Col de la Madone. With multiple switchbacks, stunning views and passing by Sainte-Agnès – repeatedly voted one of the most beautiful villages in France – this really is a special climb. From the summit of the Madone it is a short descent back to the hotel Èze where we stop for a light lunch.

Our staff will then assist you with packing your bike before a private transfer takes you back to Nice airport in the early evening.

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