La Turbie: Cycling centre, padel courts… Jean-Jacques Raffaele shares major sports projects
The Mayor of La Turbie talked us through the town's many sports projects (Photo © La Turbie)
Jean-Jacques Raffaele, mayor of La Turbie, granted Monaco Tribune an exclusive interview to set out the town’s sports policy, and reveal the future sports facilities that should be completed by 2026.
Cycling centre announced
The Côte d’Azur Cycling Centre project, spearheaded by former Nice mountain biker and three-time world downhill champion Fabien Barel, has been approved by La Turbie’s town council. It is due to open in 2025, on the site of the former France Télécom buildings near the Tête de Chien. The future centre promises to bring together all the sport’s enthusiasts, from beginners to professionals.
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Two main aspects will be featured. The first focuses on clubs and tourism, with equipment for hire and coaching, particularly for children and schools. The second will be for professionals, with high-tech training facilities (swimming pool, recovery room, etc.).
“This is a wonderful opportunity for the town, which could become a cycling ‘mecca’ in the future. We have a shop (Vélo Bao, Ed.), a number of trails, and a water fountain that attracts all kinds of cyclists. The Tour Méditerranéen two years ago gave many cyclists the chance to discover La Turbie. We now intend to develop our tourist offering around cycling.
Through the new project led by Fabien Barel, we will also have the opportunity to welcome many professional cyclists, who are currently forced to go to Spain for their winter training, since there are no top-level centres on the Côte d’Azur, despite the fact that the surroundings really lend themselves to it, with many mountain passes and glorious weather.”
Padel courts coming soon
As part of the new public-private partnership for the tennis courts, two indoor padel courts, which will be 100% self-sufficient in energy thanks to solar panels, are about to be built. Work should begin in September 2024.
“Like all clubs that only offer tennis, our club is losing momentum. We have a fabulous facility, and we want it to continue. That’s why we’re going to make padel available, while keeping tennis, in order to give the club a boost. This will enable us to welcome new players who perhaps don’t play tennis and find padel more fun. All the surrounding clubs are full. The demand is there. Plus the two future padel courts will be covered, self-contained and soundproofed to avoid issues with noise.”
A recently inaugurated shooting range
By reopening the La Turbie shooting range in January, after a five-year closure, in a brand new building that is one of the smartest in the Alpes-Maritimes, the town has put smiles back on the faces of its many members.
“We now have one of the most modern shooting ranges in the Département. We are very proud of this facility, which fits into the town’s sports policy, just like the Princesse Charlène de Monaco municipal swimming pool, which has a convention with the French Swimming Federation and where our children can learn to swim. All these facilities demonstrate our determination to use sport as a means of fostering social cohesion among our youngsters.”
New facilities in the pipeline
While Jean-Jacques Raffaele believes that La Turbie now offers “a wide range of sporting facilities,” the town’s mayor is not ruling out other projects, such as a multi-purpose sports hall or fitness centre.
“The demand for halls is growing all the time. We have a lot of clubs vying for a hall to accommodate them. We might be able to add one or two additional halls on the Crémaillère site in future. We’ll be looking into it in due course. I’ve also recognised a strong demand for a weight training room. That would be very popular in La Turbie. We’re going to look at how we can make it happen in the future.”
The love affair between AS Monaco and La Turbie continues
La Turbie has close ties with AS Monaco as it is home to the club’s Performance Centre. The new centre, which was inaugurated last year, took nearly four years of construction work at a total cost of 55 million euros, funded by the club’s President, Dmitry Rybolovlev. In 2023, for the second year running, the town of 3,000 inhabitants welcomed the Kids Tour caravan with Philipp Köhn, ASM’s goalkeeper.
Jean-Jacques Raffaele is delighted, and hopes that this initiative will help to inspire the local youngsters to take up the sport. “It’s important for the children to be in contact with professional players, as well as going to the matches at the Stade Louis-II. I can see it in their eyes. They sparkle when they see the players. Perhaps, thanks to this approach, one of them might one day play as a pro in an AS Monaco shirt.”