Corsica routes - what have you got?

[Neil]

I'll be heading to Corsica between the 9th and the 15th to test my new bike out, in the company of my girlfriend (who is much faster than I am) and one of my best friends (who is hopefully slower).

Does anyone have a route recommendation that they'd care to share?

This is the bike:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/914/40713478355_9a0f7f393f_b.jpg

[Neil]

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/939/41564906592_9c9791ef27_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/833/39797193930_161a2fa0f0_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/828/40713322975_57ebb25ab1_b.jpg

[572cv]

What part of Corsica?

[Epicus07]

Drink as much of their delicious wine as you can.

[Neil]

What part of Corsica?

Staying in Casanova, but have a car.

[11.4]

We were talking about ... was it Corsica? I'm just looking at the bike and the matching stem repaint. Nice bike. Corsican bandits will steal it in the night.

I've visited Corsica several times, last one four years ago. Here's the deal on Corsican roads: There's basically a loop around the island and a hundred or so roads that go right uphill towards the peaks. Driving on the peripheral road can be a bit crazy on the southern part of the island, but up north there isn't much of anywhere for people to drive so the coastal road is practically in the waves and not too busy. Holidays excepted, of course. All the roads up into the mountains get deserted after the first couple miles -- they're no different from France or Spain in that regard. Deserted can mean ... nobody ... so if you have a mechanical, you hope you can coast downhill or it's a long hike. There are roads -- mostly small -- that cut across the island on the southern half, but from Ajaccio north there's nothing except T20 and T50, which have a fair bit of truck traffic and not much shoulder. On the other hand, there are some grand old castles up there that are worth seeing.

For slower riding there's great touring through the towns on the southwestern coast. It might be one way to slow your girlfriend down. Everything is picturesque.

I've stayed in Porto Vecchio, Bastia, Propriano, and a couple other towns I don't even remember. Plus Ajaccio. There's a nice hotel in Propriano, the Bartaccia, which isn't that expensive and a nice place to hang out and to ride from. The biggest complex of small roads that aren't just hillclimbs is down in the area from Propriano to the east coast. And many national parks and so on in the area within riding distance. The Ostella in Bastia is also nice and you're in a part of Corsica where the ocean-side cycling is best -- constantly right on the water and limited truck traffic.

Don't ride after dark. Always have strong red flashers on the rear and white flashers in front (I had a Dinotte Quad on the rear and think it saved me from being run over a couple times. Bright enough even in the day to wake any truck driver.)

This is very much a part of France that evolved for walking. People living inland still think nothing of walking ten miles to get groceries or a car part. Bring boots and comfortable hiking clothing and plan to do some hikes and walks as well.

If you have more specific questions, I'm happy to augment this. Overall, everything except the coastal roads are straight uphill and some of the areas near the coast are filled with crazy 22% grades where they didn't bother to carve out a decent road to a plateau with the next town. If you like hills, you'll love Corsica. That's why many of the teams train there.

[Neil]

Thanks! Appreciate the insight.

Ref bandits - the bike breaks in half, I'll stash it somewhere the bandits won't expect.

[weisan]

the bike breaks in half...

Oh yeah, if you didn't mention it, I would have missed it. My custom does the same thing. Really neat feature! Enjoy your trip.

[572cv]

I haven't ridden in the middle or south of the island, but did drive down to Corte one day, so , some sense of the topo. I was based in Nonza, and went all over the Cap Corse, and down to St Florent. This is a good time of year to be there.. my trip was late April to early May. There was not much traffic, and as 11.4 - who nailed the riding pretty well- said, there are mostly coastal loops and then climbs from them up into the hills, to some town or other. Those little hill towns were beautiful. One thing I noticed was that the roads were so curvy that cars couldn't go much faster than a bike, especially on the coastal roads.

All the rides out of Nonza were great. Say Nonza-Patrimonio-Barbaggio-Poggio- St Florent and back, or North up to Canari or Conchiglio and back, for example.

A great day started and finished in L'Ile-Rousse, went up through Monticello to Ville-di-Paraso then west through Neea, Feliceto, Muro, around to Cateri and then back down.

When we arrived in late April, the peaks were still snow capped., but you could swim in the Med. The place was cool.

[11.4]

That reminds me. Check out Casa Lisa. It's just at the south end of the Longo beach (which is a great attraction -- beautiful and not crowded with German tourist buses). Great views of the water from some minor elevation. Back door takes you to some amazing roads up into the hills and along part of the coast. Along here there aren't a lot of roads penetrating into the interior but traffic is light up north and you can get flat coastal rides and all kinds of loops up into mountain towns a little further north and farther south.

Rooms aren't the Place Vendome in Paris, but very nice and very clean. Four years ago they were only about 50 euros a night. The great thing at Casa Lisa was the hospitality and the outdoor patios and service. You could have breakfast, late breakfast, lunch, tea, early dinner, late dinner, and late sherry and tapas if you wanted, all excellent. The hotelier is very bike friendly and can guide you to all kinds of nice rides depending on your group and inclinations.

A nice place to spend a week in which you can ride some of the best roads right from your hotel, and take the car a couple days (if you can fit three bikes into it) down towards the southern end of the island. The mountains aren't quite as severe around Longo, which may suit your interests better.