[Megacountax]

Does anyone have experience of cycling the N85 Route Napoleon, specifically from Digne down to Nice?

I’m trying to plan a route for a group ride and like the idea of picking this up as from what i’ve seen it looks simply stunning.

I know the route is very popular with petrolheads of various persuasions, and there’s nowt wrong with that, but my concern is the volume and speed of traffic – we’ll be riding in June next year, so I suspect there’ll be plenty of holiday traffic and it might not be a terribly enjoyable experience so we’ll be better off sticking to quieter roads.

Interested in anyone’s experiences of the route in summer or otherwise.

Cheers

Topic

[Anonymous]

P.s. June is relatively quiet
P.s. June is relatively quiet in France as it is not the holiday season. In small towns in the remoter areas the hotels are often seasonal, and closed until July. June is when I normally go cycling over there.

[Anonymous]

I would avoid it. The
I would avoid it. The Nationales are very busy multiple-carriageway trunk roads with large numbers of very fast HGVs thundering past. Although the drivers do normally give you a wide berth you can get buffeted by the draft. The cycling on N roads is very unpleasant, whatever the surrounding landscape is like.

My recommendation is to use an IGN Top 100 map to plot a parallel route as best you can on D roads, choosing the small white roads first, then yellow ones and only using red roads if you absolutely can’t avoid them (which is very, very rare).

[Megacountax]

Thanks for the input
Thanks for the input FMOAB.

Its definitely a twisting turning route – so I fully expect it to be pretty lumpy! Looks stunning from Streetview. I think we’ll give it a crack – I’ll report back in a year or so!

Cheers

[FMOAB]

I’ve done it by car – chapeau
I’ve done it by car – chapeau to you if you are going to ride it! My recollection is of steep descents and climbs, non stop hairpin bends – little or nothing in the way of barriers with stomach churningly steep drops off the side – and no escape route once you have committed to it.

The brakes on my car were beginning to fade due to overheating and my wife said that if that was the only route back, she was taking the plane! That may give you some idea of how intense it was.

I’m afraid I did it at night, so I can’t say how busy it is likely to be during the day, but it was fortunately deserted when I did it.

Have fun!

[Author]

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