Has anybody ridden near Antibes, Nice and Monaco?

Im heading there for a holiday and would like to persuade the missus that taking my bike is a good idea. I know the Transprovence ends near here but was wondering if anyone has any info on where to ride and if hiring a bike out there is possible?

Ta.

Rivierabike is close and highly recommended by me and others – check their website

Also I believe (French) Juan rides that area so he might be able to help

Plum

Sospel and peille are close and excellent. Pretty much drive 20 mins inland from any of those places and you will have excellent riding.

http://vtt.librairie.vtopo.fr/vtt-alpes-maritimes-inities.html
http://vtt.librairie.vtopo.fr/vtt-alpes-maritimes-experts.html

Further east you have Esterel (some good stuff near Mont d’Ors?? Theoule sur mer) and Petit Maure near frejus (where the Roc d’azure is)

Cheers guys, ill take a look at Riviera Bike.

Stay in Menton ,1/5th the price of Monaco and 12k away lovely town and surrounded by mountains ,Ventamillia is 20k away and also cracking mountains ,great food great riding and great part of the world ,one of the mags had a feature near there earlier this year ? Monaco 18 euro for a beer in the harbour-Menton 4euro 50c -its a no brainer

We finished a trip via Menton and Nice this summer. Frejus area was stunning. The GR (54?) from the col Turini down towards Moulinet was brilliant as were some of the bits we found near Sospel. Easy toget lost on crazy-steep loose rubble-like trails but there’s gems in there too. Then we were on more open trails toward St Agnes. The terrain was some of the roughest and loosest in the whole trip across the Alps and it was stinkin’ hot, but all good fun.

Yeah riviera bike is where you want to go, plus riding around Nice is just horrible nothing to see here apart the finish of the trnasprovence.

Lots of good riding in the Roya Valley if you want a DIY trip. Tende is a good place to stay.

http://www.vtt-haute-roya.com/

As Juan says, the whole area is rubbish, particularly Sospel.

There aren’t any decent views either…

On a serious note, to the original poster… drop me an email (see profile) and I’ll point you in the right direction.

Ash you spoilsport…

also if you go on the french vtt site you can download the maps on the waymarked routes. greg germains books are also good…check out the ig site. akso 1001sentiers.com is worth a look

thanks ash..
like the pics..
its a fantastic are there..

akso 1001sentiers.com is worth a look

HA HA HA HA, some on here are going to get quite a shock me think 😀
Will I see you on the 26th adi?

you in molini on the 26th? i will probably be scouting routes over in albega and alassio then… daw the alticoop guys with roby vernassa the other day…. i will be doing some routes over from dolceaqua over to lower roya and menton sometime next week if ur around?

yeah could do if you want 😀 I am waiting for a job reply but shouldn’t be a problem 😀

lower roya and menton

Gramondo?

Possibly, or the lower stuff, whats it like down to olivetta san michele?

There is a trail on our alp to sea route that arrives in airole which I havent done yet, take the road to olivetta and follow the trail to calvo and the san bortolomeo…

would you british guy like me to take you from sospel to menton via le pas de la corne/col du razet?

Thanks for all the advice, it looks like a trip from sospel to Menton would be good. Such a beautiful area. We are staying in Antibes so not too far.

As its a family holiday, it could only be a days riding I think (although id love to return, Ash I see you are doing a Transprovence skills trip with Greatrock next year).

http://www.great-rock.co.uk/courses/trans-provence-skills-break/

My buddy who’s going is pretty in-exeperienced, he used to ride bmx but a lonnng time ago, is he going to cope or fall off a cliff?

Juan do you hire bikes?

Cheers

I’m in Antibes quite often and last time I hired a bike from this guy. He’s pretty local based near the station. I headed off into the Esterel mountains west of Cannes following a pre-programmed GPS supplied with the bike. Loads of good riding there with fantastic views of Cannes. I only scraped the surface!

the last stuff is too hard for an inexperience, unlees you stay on boring fireroad. If you’re in Antibe just go up the hill to “la valmasque”. It’s the easiest you’ll find around. And no I don’t hire bikes. Why would I?

BTW robonzo, if it’s before decemebr I’ll be able to guide you, won’t be free, but I accept british delicacies as payment 😉

Thanks Juan, I wont be going until next year but will get in touch then maybe if your free. Beers ok?

I am a tea total but I would sell my bro for a pot of green tabasco 😀

No Probs!

The venerable http://www.vttrack.fr/ is your friend.

Start by typing ‘Nice’ into the search bar to get to the right area.

You can then select the type of map or aerial photo you want to see.

IGN is the equivalent of the OS and their maps are great. At the highest IGN zoom level with contours, tracks are usually:

Two solid lines (yellow between) = minor road
Two solid lines (white between) = unmade road, regularly maintained
One solid / one dotted = unmade road, not regularly maintained
One solid line = doubletrack
One dotted line = singletrack

Note that Google appear to have licensed the IGN track database, so most if not all of the tracks will also appear on Google Maps.

You can then choose which websites’ routes to overlay onto the main map, and click on the routes to take you to the route details, often including GPS/GPX download.

It’s all made a lot easier if you use Google Chrome’s auto-translation feature, unless you speak French of course…