Pista Ciclabile and more about bikes and bike trips
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- Bikes in the house
There are several bikes in the cellar. They are not available for use by guests, primarily because they are old and may need repair work done before one can safely go down (or up-) the hill. Living in bicycle-town Amsterdam that's a job of a few minutes for us but we'd like to avoid that a guest gets seriously injured because of bike malfunction or inexperience with the local steep roads.
Bikes can be rented along the pista ciclabile, for example at the one in the center of Arma di Taggia near the old train station. A mountain bike is about € 20 per day and € 80 for one week. They also rent electic bikes for about € 40 per day.
- Pista Ciclabile
This stretch of about 30 km trail exclusively for bikes and pedestrians was built on the former single-track railway line along the coast.It starts on the west side of Ospedaletti and ends at the main town Imperia. Check the official link (English and Italian).
With the exception of a 4 km via Aurelia stretch and a short hill in Ospedaletti, the bike path now is continuous up to Ventimiglia. Another 4 km along the via Aurelia, and small towns like Latte, and you'e in Menton, with connections into the coastal "parcours cyclable littoral'' bike path that can bring you to Marseille and the Rhone delta.
Some of the tunnels are long, so better bring some lights or use your mobile phone torch to stay visible.
Next to the archelogical museum in Ventimiglia is a footpath that leads up to pretty and secluded Le Calandre Beach. A great place for a swim on your bike trip (with pub/restaurant).
There are bike rental places (Noleggio) in every town, open all day in season and on weekends outside season. Besides bikes you can also rent skates and some funny looking four-person bike carts.Info below is from 2022, so price probably increased.
- The Poggio (part of Milan - Sanremo)
The official Poggio detour starts beyond Bussana at Capo Verde, from there uphill to Poggio and down to the finish at Sanremo. There's much more steep option going straight from Valle Armea,
some 100m after the gas station on Strada Armea (coming from the shore) at Amai S.p.A. company, left on small road with up to 20% climb straight to Poggio.
- Colle d'Oggia climb, 76km
If you heard about the Alpe d'Huzes in France and like a similar challenge, the Colle d'Oggia is a good match.
The climb starts North of Imperia
via towns like Dolcedo and has about 7% average gradient over a distance of 13 km to reach just over 1100 meter altitude.
Alternatively, you can do the climb from the Badalucco-Montalto-Carpasio side with equally steep sections.
There's minimal traffic on these roads, but the pavement quality is poor in some places, so I wouldn't try this with tires that are less than 28mm.
Here's my GPX path of the 76km trip (including extra kms to go to the beach).
- Beuzi - Ceriana gravel trip, 38 km
Lovers of serious gradients with bikes that allow 1:1 transmission and 35+mm tires will enjoy this trip
around Bussana Vecchia to the hamlet of Beuzi and the unpaved road to the few houses that are known as Pampara. There, the gravel road turns into a footpath, but continues after a few hundred meters to lead to Ceriana. You may expect gradients of over 20% on the (paved) road to Beuzi, but only for short stretches. Here's the GPX path for this bike trip.
- Long distance biking
In 2023 I biked in seventeen days from Netherlands to Bussana, 1750 km along the Meuse, the Rhone and the Cote d'Azur. The French bike path system (Eurovelo) is getting close to completion, and at least 70% of the route were dedicated bicycle paths. A wonderful experience.
In 2024, I did a 900 km gravel bike trip to Basel along the Rhine river, followed by a hefty trip with Berber from Basell across the Alps, the Grand Saint Bernard pass (2475m), Aosta, Val Savaranche into a dead-end road to Le Pont in the Grand Paradiso National Park. From there, we climbed a mountain path with the bikes and luggage on our shoulders from 1950 to 2400m altitude where a more or less bikeable gravel path took us up to the top of the 2600m col de Nivolet. From there is is all downhill almost up to Torino. We continued from Torino across the hot plains of the Po-river to the rice-town Vercelli and Northwards to the Orta lake and Domodossola before returning by train to our car in Basel. A magnificent trip. I can provide you with GPX data, if you're interested.
Late September I will finish the last section between Torino and Bussana with a trip from Cuneo along the lower Alps via Saluzzo and Pinerolo to Torino, and take the old railway pista ciclabile path South from Stupinigi palace via Fossano, Mondovi, Ceva, Garessio, and another St. Bernard pass to Albenga to meet the pista ciclabile near Andora to return to Bussana.
No plans for 2025 yet.
- [to be added] Bike trip Bussana, Taggia, Badalucco, Montalto, Carpasio, San Bernardo di Conio (shortcut possible to Andagna), Strada prov 21, Colle San Bartolomeo, Pieve di Teco, Lavina, Rezzo (ancient Roman bridges just outside town along river), Andagna, Agaggio, Right side Argentina river route, Badalucco, Taggia, Bussana (111 km with many 8-10% climbs upto Colle San Bartolomeo, Rezzo, and fast drop with great views down to Andagna).