Spain & the French Pyrenees

Our/my last ride

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Our last day was a bit of a free for all. A group went out intending to do a slightly more mellow but still with more climbing than I wanted. A couple of folk chose to stay at the hotel/chateau. I took a leisurely ride to Navarrenx, a formerly walled city from which the Three Muskets reportedly lived - at least according to the chateau owner. I learned later that the group split as some turned back, some went further and some went on their own. My ride was relatively flat going out. I returned along the cote ridge which was up and down for about a 1,300 feet of climbing over 42 miles. The highlights included stumbling upon the Navarrenx town rugby festival and having lunch at the cheesiest Basque fair in Orlons.

The ride along the cote was undisturbed by cars, populated by cows, figs and scattered vineyards. Weather was cloudy, sometimes threatening, but it never rained.

After everyone returned, it was all about packing bikes for departure tomorrow.

Col du Soulor, Col d'Aubisque and Col du Marie Blanc

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Today we climbed three Cols: Col du Soulor, Col d' Aubisque and Col du Marie Blanc. The Soulor is really the first part of the Abusique in the direction we came. We had bright sun for the first two climbs which was great because unlike the Alps, the Pyrenees have less forest and more expansive, rugged views. As I've noted before, this also lends itself to open pastures so it's common to find a farm animal near or on the road. When on the road, they don't move because you're coming their way. You are the visitor, not them. The Soulor was the toughest climb of the day since it was the bulk of the Aubisque. The remaining 5k or so to the Aubisque was the most spectacular as the road hugged the mountain as it went through a few short tunnels. The top of the Aubisque was unusually busy with cyclists. In addition to our small groups the several others as well as three large bike sculptures painted to represent the jersey colors from the tour (see pictures)

Some had snacks at the top of the Aubisque while others grabbed water refills and bars and headed off quickly as the weather looked like it was shifting. That's normal for the mountains and what it looks like and what happens are not often synchronized.

The Marie Blance started steep but was the first Col where there was a respite with a kilometer near the top that averaged dead flat.

Average grades can be tricky. Today there was a short section that exceeded 16% though the average for that kilometer was 8%. Whenever we see a grade sign and find we're on something less than the average we know we'll have to pay for it with something over the average. The main challenge after descending Marie Blanc was finding the road to the small town where our hotel was. Our hotel is a former chateau that has been renovated so the rooms are far better than the last two nights. At one point today I forgot to restart my bike computer so the actual totals are greater than recorded. As recorded we rode well over 62 miles as we climbed over 6725 feet.

Pictures from today will be in two batches as we are wifi limited.

Hautacam + Lourdes and elsewhere

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Today half the group went to do a combination of riding and hiking whereas the other half took on the Hautacam, another of the classic mountain top finishes in the Tour. As you might expect, your correspondent went up Hautacam. Turns out that while only 13 km from the base of the climb to the summit, it has several significant sections over 12%. The sun was out as were the local beasties, mostly horses, sheep and cows. We did have a very well fed rabbit cross our path later in the day.

After descending Hautacam, Steve, Bill, Howie and I headed off to Lourdes for lunch. We were "blessed" with good food as we wandered through this amazing town of religious importance to many but not us. If you need a Christian something for your wall, bureau or refrigerator, it's there in the thousands. One of us scored some authentic blessed water from one of the taps in their bike bottle - we now ride with God,or at least drink with him/her. Returning to town we had a couple of pastries to make for yesterday's calorie deficiency.

To get to Lourdes, there's a paved bike path the entire way. Rick and Todd returned from Hautacam and headed down the same bike path in the opposite direction. Riding without the blessings, they nonetheless had a great time exploring Cauteret.

We don't know where the biker/hiker contingent went,or if they've returned. Stay tuned.

race Day on the Tourmalet

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Today was for many "race day". The Col de Tourmalet was the designated course and the top three speedsters were led by Markham followed by Charles and Howie. To get to the Tourmalet, we had to climb up the Col d'Aspin which is not insignificant at over 10km The Tourmalet climb began under clouds, continued in fog and emerged into sunshine. As you can see in the photos, we ended above the clouds. Along the way, we passed through the ski village of La Mongie and several "gallery" tunnels.

After a light lunch, Howie and myself headed down to add on the Luz Ardidan, The Luz Ardidan is where Lance Armstrong's handlebars got caught on a woman's purse and he famously went down in one of his last Tour victories.

The climb up was similarly in clouds, then fog and it was only at the summit that the fog broke about 5 minutes after our arrival. Just as Howie commented that Nel should magically show up with van, she did! We needed warm close for the descent and ride into our next hotel.

Dinner was pizza, pasta and salads followed by a trip for ice cream. Charles broke out his traveling guitar to our and several other pizza patrons surprise.

On all the climbs today we passed through open pastures. Picturesque, yet with danger as cows, sheep, donkeys and dogs don't pay attention to cyclists climbing up or zooming past them. Including the Luz Ardidan, we climbed 10,000 ft over 75 miles.

Day Two - Hourquette d'Ancizan & Col d'Aspin

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Everyone's bike & gear has finally arrived! Most of us went out to take on to take on the Hourquette d'Ancizan connecting to the Col d'Aspin. The Hourquette has been on the Tour and we chose it because 1) it has far less traffic than the Col d'Aspin, and 2) we'll be doing the Aspin tomorrow on our way to the Col de Tourmalet.

Winding up through through forest, we had great views of the valley, passed several streams, horses, donkeys and cows. Clearly we were invading their turf as several times cows crossed directly in front of us.

After a picnic a third of the way down Col d'Aspin, some of us came into town for R&R (French term for beer/fries), some took a break at the hotel, and some went off to find Charles & Markham who had headed out on their own adventure using borrowed hybrids. Tomorrow is a long day with 2-3 big climbs. Today was a mellow 4,370 feet of climbing, 56km and just over three hours of ride time.

Day one: Col de Peyresourde (up and back +)

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After a somewhat vague update as to the location of missing luggage, we headed out of town to the Col de Peyresourde.

The ride to the base was a gentle uphill that weaves up to a left turn that started the "real" climb. The real climb issue is a biker thing. You might have to ride for an hour to get to the base of the climb but that doesn't really count even if it's uphill. I've ridden the Peyresourde from Bagneres du Luchon in 2005 but not towards it. This direction is a bit shorter. Starting out we were joined for awhile by a grey, bearded Frenchman who had what looked like either a Barbi or Disney Princess bag hanging off his handlebars. As normally happens the group split based on speed (perhaps intensity) as we climbed. Today's weather was outstanding with nary a cloud insight.

At the summit we did the normal refill of water bottles, graving a bike to eat and deciding where to go and regroup next. The descents here have had some gravel so paying attention is important. We had one flat from a sharp stone that was easily fixed.

After arriving in Bagneres du Luchon, we bought some berries and lettuce and headed back up where we had just ridden down. Sounds a bit crazy but the views and overall scenery look totally different in the opposite direction. At the summit most of chose a route back that required a short climb that took us up to ridge that paralleled the road we came out on. Jim's bike has arrived and we hope Jack's gear bag is here. Howie busted a spoke coming into town but we have spares and between bike shops and ourselves, that can be managed.

Today's ride was about 91km with at least 6,300 ft of climbing ov about 5 hours. Only 4 photos today.

Pyrenees "warmup" Ride

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The major dependency for any bike trip is having your bike arrive with you. In a group, inevitably, someone's gets lost by the airlines. This time we have two missing. Jim's luggage did not make though one bag has been located. We do not know if it's his bike or suitcase. Jack's has been found but getting it to us in St. Lary Soulan is another challenge.

Those of us who arrived here last night (myself, Steve, Howie, Todd & Rick) took advantage of having all our gear and headed out early to climb Col de Val Louron-Azet. (It should also be noted that we snuck in a pre-warmup, warmup ride yesterday afternoon)

Unlike Spain, the French Pyrenees climbs take one through small "complete" villages, each with their own stone church and town center. In Spain, the villages tended to be clumps of houses. Additionally, green with clear boundaries between fields and forest dominates the view.

After descending, we had great sandwiches in town and headed out to climb Pla d'Adet, a 9km climb that has several stretches of 9-10% grades. You can see the road from St. Lary Soulan as it looks like a diagonal knife slice rising up the side of the mountain.

Very early in the climb we passed some mountain goats literally on the edge of the mountain (see photos). At the top, we arrived in a large but deserted ski town. Our so-called warm up ride was 71 km and 5,700' climbing over a combined 4.5 hours.