Mike Day's Cycle Tours: LEJOG 2015,Atlantic to the Med 2016 & Raid Alps 2017: Day 6: Beuil to Antibes, 56.1 miles 2,044 ft of ascent (climb as recorded on Strava seems dubious as it was mostly downhill!)

Over a pizza and several beers the previous evening we decided we couldn't face much more climbing after the five very hot and hard days we had ridden to arrive in Beuil. We poured over my maps and agreed that once we hit the Vars valley we would deviate from the official Alpine Raid route and head straight down the valley to Nice rather than tackle the last few climbs in the Esteron range of the Alpes d'Azur.

To get to the Vars valley we first had to descend the narrow and spectacular Gorge du Cians. The river descends 1,600m in just 25 Kms and the twisty balcony road is cut into the sides of the sheer red shale cliffs. There are numerous tunnels hewn out of the rock. I was glad we were on the right hand side of the road with the river on our left as the drops looked very steep and the barrier by the side of the road offered little protection.

Upper reaches of the Gorge du Cians

Tunnels cut through the rock

Looking back up to one of the narrow points of the gorge

We met a herd of sheep coming up the gorge and the sheepdog took a fancy to the smell of the sun cream on my legs

Sheep dog taking a fancy to my legs

Sheep strewn across the road

Once we hit the Vars valley the road followed the river and the railway line- Chemins de Fer de Provence. It was a good road gently sloping downhill and for the first time on the trip we were able to ride chaingang or paceline style.

We stopped at a very popular roadside boulangerie, doing a roaring Sunday morning trade just north of St Martin du-Var. Phil felt Chis hadn't had enough cakes on the trip so bought him a giant strawberry tart to make up for it.

Chris tucking into a giant Strawberry and Cream tart.

We followed the River Var almost to its mouth just to the west of Nice airport. As we got nearer to the coast the road became a dual carriageway and very busy. Phil got ahead as Chris and I dithered as to which way to go but eventually we found the coastal cycle path which wended its way round to Antibes - the official end of the Alpine Raid. We arrived at our Hotel at just after 1pm giving us an afternoon to celebrate and enjoy the Med. In the evening we rode into Antibes to dine at an excellent fish restaurant - fitting food for our location.