Torino - Nice Rally

I just came back from riding the Transnevada with routes similar to the above - did it on a XC MTB with front sus fork and 55mm knoblys.

that said theres a fair bit of tarmac to ride between Turin and Nice I think no? would be good to be able to roll over the kms on something a bit faster / more efficient

I finally did this last week with some friends. It is awesome, period.

We rode the 2016 route James kindly shared. We did it at a manageable speed and definitely not with the intent of racing it, and took us 7.5 days. I think it's easily doable in 5, especially with cooler weather than we had.

Important bits are:

Wide tires (not particularly knobbly given a 50% is on tarmac)
Light setup (quite obvious)
Route understanding (climbs and gravel/tarmac sections locations)

Food and water can be found easily, with the longest stretches being 30/40k at most, 2L should be sufficient for most.

I do recommend to ride this with pelasure rather than racing it, as riding some sections at night will have you missing riveting views.

Any questions feel free to ask, I am still putting together thoughts and might share better insights as soon as I stop dreaming of being up there again.

Only downside, arriving in Nice has close to nothing to do with the vibe of the ride.

Some pics

5 Attachments

Awesome to the power of 30

What an incredible ride. Definitely on the bucket list!

Looks awesome. Sad i can't go this year. B

I'm riding this in sep -
what did you do re navigation?
paper maps - garmin? how did you stay charged?

Garmin all the way, used in cycle computer mode up the climbs and up high on the mountain where the route is obvious, and only in actual navigation through towns. I was able to stretch my edge touring battery to 13/14h this way. I had a 22000mA battery pack with me that lasted the whole trip (charging phone, gopro and garmin - despite weighing 400g)

The route is simple enough to do without Garmin though, you could have paper maps if you prefer and use your phone as a backup if needed

If you plan to stop at bars/restaurants/cafe or hotels/campsites you can recharge there too

Also, I had the whole route + map downloaded on my phone available offline (rwgps app + basic account upgrade)

Looks so fucking good, man!

The landscape is so awesome you don't know where to look after a while

https://instagram.com/p/BXBtYLUBobCUHAHy8AvNDr4OUZWwj9weIwrdmc0/

coolio - thats what i thought i could get away with - thanks!

Great to read all experiences. I am also going to ride TNR this year. Target is 5 days, but we will see how it goes. :)
My bike setup is a Niner RLT9:
Tires: Panaracer Gravelking 43mm tires
Gear: 11-36 cassette with 50-34 in front

See you in Turin!

I rode it with @giofox88 this july.
nice ride
5 days I think it is easily feasible if you make early starts and long days.
leave some time to appreciate what you are doing
pack light, ride safe, smile
once you have 80k to go you can actually smell the sea

Just doing my last bit of packing for this.

Will be there at the start in LFGSS colours so if you see me, come and say hi. I'll be out the back shortly after starting.

Following this on Instagram, think it has the best scenery I've seen in Europe, def a route to tour in the future

Just finished after 9 days of riding mostly the long route. Still amazing 2nd time around.

Arse quite battered by some of the gravel. Pictures to follow when I get home.

so so rad - me and @cryptthing gonna do this next year

To those who have done this before - Me and a couple of friends are planning to ride the route in June. However, thinking about doing it in reverse and hanging out in Turin for a couple of days at the end instead of Nice. Would the route be suitable in reverse or would that screw up all the climbing and descending?

You'll be fine. Just don't try to descend the Col d' Peas on a loaded bike going in that direction. You will die horribly and your bones will be eaten by crows and cows.

I didn't realise there was a thread on this here. I rode it this year - wonderful ride, and met some great people. Nice wasn't my favourite place in the world, so I would love to go back and ride some similar terrain as a loop from Turin. Makes logistics easier too.

As it happens I wrote a little bit for Albion about this year's trip https://www.albioncycling.com/2017/09/a-postcard-from-nice/

Group decision has been to avoid death by cow and just follow the standard route - there must be a very good reason someone has gone to the effort of designing it the way it is. Thanks though!

Also been thinking of doing a loop starting and ending in turin next summer. The complete route looks amazing but would prefer to stay out of nice.

If its just Nice you're trying to avoid then you could just turn down the hill at St Agnes to get to Menton and along the coast to Ventimiglia to get the train back to Turin.

Would a loop from Turin get you onto the via delle Sale or the Fort de la Forca? It'd be a shame to miss them out.

I think using the 20k Ultratrail route (similar to the TNR but raced) would be the way to do a loop....

I think maybe TNR route out and over Columbardo (because who would want to miss that?) then descend into the valley at Bussolino jump on the 20k route round to Prazzo. Then Reverse a bit of the TNR back north over to Sampeyre then Bracon, then head East out the mountains back towards the city

Follow the route to St Agnes, have a coffee and a shower, follow the route in reverse to Turin.

I hated arriving in Nice, but I would have hated more to have missed via del Sale.

I think it’s doable in reverse, many climbs will be harder though, including Mongeneve, Izoard and Agnello above all