Paul got up at 6 am, just as planned. Ugh. We went to breakfast at 7, we didn't want to miss out, but as it happened the staff weren't there yet. After a couple of minutes we were in. It was a good breakfast, baguette, jam, ham cheese, tea, juice. Very filling. They also gave us a plastic bag with lunch in it. We then went and got the bikes ready, then waited around a bit. No one was meeting or anything. We chatted for a bit, someone set off down the mountain on their own. Based on what Mario had said about the club being rather independent, and given the time, 8.20, we decided to just go too.
The descent was very nice. I stopped for a bit and made a short video. There was a clear view of the Col de Peyresourde which was to be our first climb of the day. It was a bit strange descending without the panniers, you need to be careful because the breaking characteristics are completely different when there are no panniers. We caught the guy who left earlier so we followed him down the rest of the mountain and then through the town of Loudenvielle. It saved us from having to work it out for ourselves :)
We road started to climb so we stopped and took off our Goretex jackets, we didn't want to get too hot. Of course then the road went down again. Oh well. Finally the real climb started. The guy who was ahead stopped to take his jacket off and we passed him and I didn't see him again until the top of the pass. The pass was really nice, and given that we didn't have panniers, relatively easy. I did around 8 kph all the way up the pass! Pretty good for me. I passed a mature aged gentleman who was weaving all over the road, I didn't see him again all day. Nearer the top there are some long straight sections. Paul obviously stopped for a bit because I almost caught him. So on the next long straight I stopped to take a photo but Paul was just a bit too far ahead and went around a corner before I could get him. Oh well. While I was taking the photo I got passed by someone, he was standing up the whole time, for all of the remaining two K's of the climb.
At the top Paul was sitting in a bar, so I went in too. Coffee for him and a port of tea, two cups, for me. The wind was quite cold at the top of the Col so it was nice inside. We told the owner where we were going and that we would be back in the afternoon. Or so we thought!
We set off again for a fabulous descent of the Peyresourde. I have absolutely no recollection of the climb but I certainly the remember the descent from watching it on the Tour. It has a lot of switchbacks at the top and then there are a lot of long straight bits, not at all what I like to go up. There were some good high speed bits too! 62 kph on the descent. There were hundreds of bikes coming up the Col, very nice. I wonder if there is an event on. (Not to mention a lot of cars.)
After 9 glorious K's we turned off. The guy from the morning descent was there taking off his jacket again! He must have passed us while we were having a drink. We took our jackets off too and then followed him. I thought that since I out distanced him on the Peyresourde I could pass him again. Nope! I tried but the first three K's are quite hard, double chevron, 10 %. We were very equally paced, but every K he would just slightly get ahead. In the end I gave up the chase, I didn't want to exhaust my self. The road is quite nice, narrow, windy, lots of trees, small old towns. After about 6 K's I stopped at a bar and had a Coke, very nice, also filled up my water bottle and ate a small cake that was in the lunch bag today. Then back to work. The climb itself was quite pleasant, steep but scenic. A few K's later there were quite a few huge eagles flying around. I tried, fairly unsuccessfully, to get some photo's. I did get a photo where you can just make out a pair of them sitting on rocks.
The final 3 K's of the climb are all fairly visible from the road and I couldn't see Paul anywhere, so I assume he had already finished. 3 K's ahead of me in 16 K's! I wound my way to the top and Paul was sitting by the entrance to a walking track, probably once a road, which we could take to another Col, an optional one today. However I was hungry so we ate half of our lunch sitting in the sun. Very pleasant. Then we rode up the optional pass route which was rough, mainly gravel, with some fragments of road in the middle of it. Two members of the club came down while we were riding up it. There were also lots of walkers on the path, plenty of them eating at a walkers hut about half way along.
At the top we stopped to enjoy the views and take photo's. I hadn't even noticed that there were three club members there, and two of them turned out to be Mario and Claude. They took photo's for us and then we got group photo's of the 5 of us. Last night we had decided to not follow the whole club route, instead once we got to here we would just head back the way we came. However, given the difficulty of the Peyresourde we've decided to just continue with the Club route even though it is further. It seems the sensible option, or so we thought!
The others left, we stayed a bit longer to enjoy the view. Then we descended back down, reasonably fast. Paul was going at a pretty good rate. Amazing what having a set of grave tires allows :) Back to the top of the original Col the others were there including 5 or 6 other Col club members. We took some more photo's, probably to many again. The others warned us of the dangers of the descent that we were about to do. They weren't kidding, the first corner was a doozy. It swung right, and continued to go right, and further right. And, as it turned right the road actually narrowed, quite a bit. There wasn't even a white safety line pained on the side of the road to protect you :) The whole descent had bits like that, steep, very steep, sharp bends. It was actually a magnificent valley that we went into and I have to day that I would really hate to have to ride up it. Also it was long, damn long. So long that after half an hour I wanted it to finish so that I didn't have to ride so far back up the hill later this afternoon. In the end almost 40 minutes of descent in one pass!
We met the others again at the bottom, getting water from a fountain, it was lovely and cool and I refilled both bottles. Mario explained that they are doing a different route to the club route. So we won't be following them. They headed off while we stood and finished off our lunch, then we too continued on. Oh no, further descents. Finally we finished the descent and swung on to the D26, we went past a 2 star town, Saint Bertrand de Comminges. There was a big church on the top of a hill, but we didn't want to do any more climbing. Another thing, we've already done 80 K's and we are so far from home!
We were actually making pretty good time on the flat, around 25. For a while there was another group just ahead, about 40 seconds or so, but we didn't catch them before the hills started again. Just after the 90 K mark we came to St Arroman which where we got water yesterday. They saw us go by and yelled out hello again. We went over the Col again and then onto the valley road. Paul powered us up the valley to Sarrancolin.
There were loads of Cent Col members here, the VTT event started and finished here. We bought 2 cokes each and shared a cake. The guy from this morning went past again. Paul wanted to catch him so we did. He led for a bit then I said “Paul, you should take a turn”. So he did, and he switched into time trial mode again. We were doing 30 kph up the valley! There was a nice tail wind but it was still all I could do to hang on in parts. In Arreau we split off from the other guy, we don't want to do the climb to Val Louron in the sun, so we will go up the valley on the left, Vallee Louron, like we did yesterday.
Paul led again for a while. He dropped me, waited, dropped me again. I needed water and Paul just kept going. Oh well. There is only one shop in the valley and so I needed to get it there and then. In a way it was better because then I could continue up the valley at my own pace. I met Paul at the base of Val Louron, gave him the key so that he can shower as soon as he gets there. Then I drank the second coke I bought earlier. Then it was up the pass, again. It was a much nicer ride today, in the shade, and of course no panniers. I finished at about 6.30 pm, and thankfully Paul had already showered. He'd done the climb in 34 minutes, me 45! And 45 was good for me. The total for the day was 140! Not at all what either of us had expected.
We had dinner with Gerald again tonight. He did 10 Cols in only 42 K's, but it took 10 hours! Dinner tonight was lamb, peas, pasta with butter, baguette, cheese, pumpkin lentil soup, mixed fruits x 2. We asked Mario about tomorrow and he said that there is a group start at 9.15 in Luchon. I put our names up as requiring a lift to the start tomorrow and Claude, the club president, came and offered to take us in his car! That's a relief.
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