Shake it up #1 | Café du Cycliste

Short and Sharp #1 : « 1heure - 5 kilomètres »

At some point these repeated lockdowns will be no more than a bad memory. We'll smile about them wryly perhaps in a few months’ time, reflecting on a period in time when our individual freedoms were constrained for the greater good. A right to ride which is restricted to no more than one hour in duration and no more than five kilometres from home in distance seems small beer to a girl like me who is used to spending long days in the saddle.

But these limitations are far worse for some than for others because here in Nice, even with only a single hour to play with, the options are almost endless.

With only a month to go before the racing season is slated to resume, the key to making the most of the situation is intensity, something extremely sharp to go with the inevitable short.

At 500m high, the classic route up Col d’Eze can act as both judge and jury to a cyclist. But the most direct route up is unknown to many and those local riders who are in the know, tend to avoid it most of the time. With a 12% gradient in places, it is hard to blame them.

SHAKE IT UP #1 : « 1heure – 5 kilomètres »

Leaving the café I head towards ‘la moyenne Corniche’. The first slopes lead me up and away from town but they are a mere taste of what is to come. I take the route du vinaigrier to join up with the col des 4 chemins, normally a road I would only use to descend. And that just to enjoy the spectacular views of the sea on the way down. The last time I climbed it was in the summer during Le Tour. The peloton scaled the Grande Corniche twice and with all the roads closed this was the only open way to the top. The right to watch that particular spectacle had to be earned.

Into the heart of the matter. The first section is steep but then it gets rapidly steeper. Only 2km in length but with an average gradient of 10% and plenty of it hovering above that average. Up ahead a man stops trimming his hedge to look at me. He looks confused about what I’m doing, even angry that I’m doing it to myself. It’s impossible for him to understand how much pleasure comes with the pain. I manage a smile as I pass and he motions what looks like encouragement. Or feels like it. A last push and final heave and at I’m at the « Grand ». Eighteen minutes to here, it felt longer. Time is ticking.

The almost 4km ahead won’t be child’s play. I only go twenty or thirty metres on the classic Col d’Eze route before turning left onto the most extreme way of climbing Mont Leuze. It’s quiet with few passing cars and I place myself in the middle of the sun-bleached tarmac.

The road climbs sharply again and I remind myself that this is the whole point. I’m flanked by stone walls and follow the twists and turns of the hairpins. I grit my teeth, stand on the pedals, remind myself again.

The body may be screaming but how is the mind? Both are equally important at this point. On and on, just 4km. Up and up, just 4km. And then I’m counting down with one eye on my dial and one breath away from who knows what. Forty minutes to get here, fifty metres above Col d’Eze at the Plateau de la Justice and a new sense of freedom despite the rules.

No time now to explain that the Seigneurs d’Eze chose this place to plant their gallows. No time to explain that the bodies of men condemned to fates far worse than climbing this route were left by the roadside. No time to speak of crows and crow about achievements. No time, no time, just time to descend.

A wind jacket and a turn to the southern slope which is still scarred in places by the passage of the Tour. Friendly scars drawn in coloured paint and wobbly hand. Names of champions who rode these roads like me.

Through the turns and past the sign which says Nice, in whichever way you want to take it. Pausing at red lights and hurrying through greens. To arrive back at the café 56 minutes and 42 seconds after I set out. It doesn’t sound much of a ride when you put it like that but each one of those seconds was filled to the brim. Back into lockdown with a smile on my face.

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