Shorts stories: Celine
Why gravel ?
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the road for the smooth tarmac, the comfort of being that bit closer to civilisation and the practicality of knowing roughly what time I'll be home.
But sometimes, I feel a little restricted.
So I go back a step, to my other life. To simply looking at a mountain, seeing a trail and setting off to explore.
The Alpine Line is the fortified sector in the Alpes-Maritimes where nearly every peak beside the Franco-Italian border has a fort. The military built roads to access them.
The routes strategiques: dirt tracks which could not exceed an eight per cent gradient otherwise the horse carriages or trucks carrying the ammunitions and supplies couldn't get to the top.
Unpaved roads where hardly anybody visits. The perfect playing ground for gravel bikes.
I call a loop of gravel secteurs sandwiched between slices of road my Tour des Cols.
Orme, Ablé, Farguet, Ségra, Banquettes, Castillon and St Jean.
You may not be far from the road but on the loose stuff, in between the trees it feels wild and remote.
Switchbacks in the Gorge du Piaon, the start of the Beccas track, 15kms of gravel leading to the Col de Cabanettes, the transition from Col de L’Orme and through Col de Braus.
Another rolling gravel section that eventually gives up the first view of the Mediterranean, the fort at Saint Agnes towering above the azur water.
And turning for home, endorphins still pumping, I ponder on mountain versus road and wonder whether maybe I have found the best of both worlds.
Mary uses the flexibility of the bib-less Celine padded shorts on both double track and single track.