Day 5 was a joy…but don’t get confused, it was still fucking hard. There is no let up on the Torino Nice Rally, especially if you choose to take the hike a bike sections. So, our legs were tired but we woke up in our pig sty at Rifugio Gardetta, on top of a mountain, surrounded by fellow riders and with a giant mokka pot of coffee to get us rolling. Special mention goes to the sandwiches we bought from the refuge for our lunch which had equal quantities of cheese and bread.

Starting high meant we were straight into amazing track, big views and not far from a 40km descent!

The views from the pass were stunning, the trail was winding and exciting with some loose steep turns to remind us to keep our wits about us. It wasn’t too long before we were back on the tarmac and speeding downhill for 40km. As we headed down we went from a cold morning where all layers were necessary, to dry summer heat which had us both scrambling to de-layer and slap on the suncream.

Photos by me…which is why they don’t look as good!

After stopping for a coffee with (The Three Amigos of course) we pressed on to the next town as a squad. Day 4 was a day of contrasts. We’d started on the rough terrain of a mountaintop, headed down on pristine tarmac and next we sped along country lanes and a cycleway that were relatively flat, and could almost have been home. Our destination was the town of Borgo San Dalmazzo where we prioritised a supermarket as we’d cleared out our supplies. Lucky we did because when we arrived they were getting ready to closed for 3 hours! I thought we were about to be royally screwed.

Tim excelled himself, hustling his way into a closed supermarket because we really had no food!

After we’d resupplied and checked the route, it was clear we needed to max out our time and fill up…so we did. After all, we’d had a few days of climbing in us now and knew a lunchtime pizza wouldn’t even touch the sides. If you end up in Borgo San Dalmazzo then make sure you check out the pizza restaurant which has something to do with dragons in the name. There’s a 10 page pizza menu, and even in 30 degree heat, their hot pizza is still a treat.

We knew we were maxing out our time so got back on the road. We’d seen an abandoned fort when we researched the map and decided that was going to be our camp spot. There was 30km of climbing to get us to our destination of Col De Tenda.

After some steady tarmac climbing that I didn’t completely hate, we made it!. The fort was on a beautiful (and slightly exposed) part of the mountain. We ate a picnic dinner with other riders who chose to make it their home for the night as well. After finding our spot for the night we settled down to what turned out to be the worst night’s sleep of the entire trip…but I’ll save that for next time.