A day with the Massacan club

From Monday to Friday, we see the mountains in the background calling us. We can only dream and plan our next getaway... So when the weekend rolls around, we're ready!

This time it was a classic, a day out with friends, up a familiar gravel climb and back home. We love these simple days. We like to start and end in Nice, only by bike. It's simple but not so easy. The change of scenery is total between the city and the mountain but you have to climb to reach paradise. The plan is to have lunch at the top of Mont Ferion, after 50km and 2000m of elevation.

With the boys, we meet for a morning coffee in a small Italian café at the corner of rue Gambetta and rue de France. Then we leave the city. A few kilometers on the macadam and we find the beloved slopes on the slopes of Mont Chauve with one of the most beautiful views of Nice.

When we hit the first gravel, it's fun time for us and our bikes and everyone is smiling. It's time to have fun with our bikes.

Smells like spring. The sun accompanies us. Sunglasses on the nose. T-shirt hikes are just around the corner!

We have a smile on our lips and we ride slowly, at the "rhythm of pleasure". We stop to take pictures, to pee, to admire the view, to refill our bottles. Lunch will probably be a little delayed.

We eat pebbles on the fire tracks which make us happy and the troupe is delighted. I love these moments. Before the last big climb, we go to the bakery in the village of Levens. We fill our bags with "Pan-Bagnat", "Pissaladière" and other local delicacies. A last coffee on the terrace and here we go again. I did not count the bends but there are many.

And what could be better than riding with friends at the gates of the Mercantour. Once at the top, it's deliverance. We lean our bikes against the refuge, we put our sweat-soaked clothes on a drying rack at the very top, which awaits us.

And we rest, we eat, we laugh, we admire the view, our bikes, knowing full well that it's only downhill from now on.