insurin

This year I am looking at cycling from nice to Barcelona, I am after any advice that is offered. I will be flying by easyjet from the UK to Nice/Barcelona and doing this in july/august.

Does anyone know which way I should travel, i.e. should I go from Barca to Nice or Nice to Barcelona, I would want the prevailing wind behind me pushing me forward.

I will be cycling on a specialized tricross comp 2007 with rear panniers, I will not have much luggage with me.

As I am flying from different airports, I will have to use a cycle bag that is light enough for me to carry on the journey, does anyone know where I can get one from, I can't find any on c2c.

I have done a few fairly long distance rides, c2c etc but max I have done is 245 miles over 4 days, I have give myself 2 weeks for this ride which is about 550 miles total. So it is fair to say i will be inexperienced on the trip.

Any advice no matter how trivial is much appreciated

xilios

I think that time of year the prevailing winds are from the West & North, so I would start in Barcelona.
For bicycle bags maybe you can ask here, or here.

cyclezealot

Nice is so congested. particularily from June to September. I'd skip the busy part by passing them over by hoping on the TER train. IN fact, for Provence cycling at it's best, I'd start in the Luberon and head west towards Orange and then down the Rhone valley.

insurin

So that is settled then, I will start at Barcelona (cheers xilios).

cyclezealot: You seem to have detailed knowledge of Nice (have you cycled there before?) from what I can gather, are you telling me to cycle somewhere just on the outskirts of Nice and get the train into Nice. Looking on Easyjets website Nice is the only airport around that area. Ideally I would like to stick to the coast.

john.mcauliffe

Did you do that trip ?
I'm interested to hear how you got on, 'cos I'm planning to do that in Oct/ Nov ?
either Nice to Bar or vice versa.

imi

Barcelona to Nice puts you on the "right" side of the road (next to the sea)...

insurin

yes mate.619 miles. It was that good I am doing barca to alicante in 3-4 weeks. I flew from liverpool with a heavy duty bike bag, not a padded one but quite a tough material. I could not take a padded one as I was travelling from A to B as opposed to doing a loop. However this bike bag added to the weight so I ditched my sleeping bag but it never mattered as I was staying in bnbs. My friend had a very simple clear c2c bike bag, no protection at all. We took off both wheels, turned the handle bars and removed the pedals. We had no problem either end.

fire away with any questions,

pics are here if you are interested

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8247776...7621876694817/