Stage one started in Saint Saveur-sur-Tinée, at the foot of the south side of the Cime de La Bonette, the highest pass in Europe. But after a night of 13 hours of driving we will our start a bit easier with just two medium cols. But with almost 2000 elevation meters it will not be an easy warm up.

The Roundtrip starts in Saint Saveur immediately with the Col de Couillole that only featured in the Tour de France in 1975, with Lucien van Impe first to cross the top. 

Point of beauty are the red rocks of and narrow roads of the Gorge de Cians in the climb of the Couillole. Pieter, Dave and Stok did this climb in their first Alpentour in 2003. Now we take it as a decent. On the old maps of Stok the col de la Sinne seemed off road but all the info i found on Cyclingcols.com indicates that this is now a regular climb.