Long before its film festival, Cannes had its own place on the professional calendar. The Grand Prix de Cannes ran from 1926 to 1991, a one-day race climbing from the Croisette up into the hinterland toward Vence and Gourdon before returning to the coast.
Its winners' list runs from local hero René Vietto, who won three times, through Louison Bobet, Rudi Altig, Sean Kelly, and Laurent Fignon — a genuine cross-section of 20th-century cycling.
Today, the ride most associated with Cannes heads the other direction: west along the Corniche de l'Estérel, also called the Corniche d'Or for its red volcanic rock, through the pine-covered Estérel massif toward Saint-Raphaël. It's one of the gentler rides on this stretch of coast, with around 1,800 metres of climbing over roughly 75 kilometres — tame by Côte d'Azur standards, though still a proper day out.
Cannes has also hosted two Tour de France Grand Départs, in 1981 and 2020, keeping its name on the race more than eighty years after Vietto first made his.
