Paul got things going again as he did yesterday. Breakfast was pretty much the same as yesterday, however there was also cereal today, they were on time too. We ate with Claude. He has done 3200 Cols and been in the club 33 years. We then met Claude at 7.50, a few minutes late. He loaded the car and then we were off down the valley. The descents were a bit terrifying at first, after all I haven't been in a car in 6 weeks! It turned out to be another beautiful morning. The clouds were just blowing off the top of the hills as we left. Valle Louron was filled with a light low level cloud.
There were very few cyclists on the Peyresourde, not that much traffic either. We parked right at the bottom of the pass, no problem. Then we went with a small group of cyclists including Claude and Gerald to the centre of town for the start. In the end, aside from us, there were only 8 VTT and 1 Road cyclists there. They all set off at 9.20 up the Col du Portillon. However we went a different way as we are not doing Portillon, we did it in 1998 and see no point in exhausting ourselves on it. I let Paul lead down the valley, then I led back up the valley for most of the way.
The first climb of the day is called the Col d'Artigascou, it started with a great set of switchbacks. The road was really narrow, rock lined to hold it up with a small rock barrier, very pretty. Not too far up the pass was the town of Melle. I was already hoping there might be a bar there as I was thinking about a Coke. Of course what I should have been thinking about was an OPEN bar. Oh well. The town was quite nice, one road wide winding for quite a way up the valley.
After that the climb seemed to get a lot steeper. Not too far along I saw Paul passing someone. It was the mature aged rider from yesterday. He was weaving all over the road and in the end had to walk some of it. I guess it was pretty steep, I was doing 5.5 – 6 most of the time at this point. Some time after that Paul yelled down to me and took a photo, so he was not that far ahead. The roads are actually pretty crappy here, lots of pot holes and rough sections. Then we passed into a pastoral area, i.e. cows, and then the roads got really crappy, almost gravel at times the road was so bad. There were a few spots where there were nice look outs and I stopped at one spot under tree that was a great little picnic area with table. Not long after that we passed through a freebie Col, Col d'Artiheaux. It was a cutting that went from the original valley into a new one, much cooler here, all tree covered. There was a long steep section in the shade and then there was Paul at the top. He said that he actually had no real idea it was the top but there were four other club members there so he knew it was the Col.
We stopped and same as yesterday ate half our lunch. Quite pleasant in the sun and fairly cool at altitude. There were a couple there on a tandem, hard work. We set off again and there was a very short descent, and it was slow too because the road was so bad. We turned off to go to the next Col and this is where the road actually became officially a gravel section. Again it was a good thing Paul has his new tires! The road climbed quite a bit, but it was quite pleasant in the shade if a bit difficult. A group of MTBers went by, I think Paul gave the first one a bit of a fright. Then we had a descent down to ski resort and then a further descent to Col de Mente. Paul let me win :) We took photo's and then Mario yelled out, he was there with 2 others under a tree just finishing lunch. So we joined them at a bar next to the pass for a Coke, and also to get some more water. We got some group photo's too.
Next came the long descent, we did this with the others. I chatted a bit with Mario on the descent. It turns out everyone else started at St. Beat, no one else wanted to do the Portillon either, so the one cyclist we saw at the start may have been all on his own all day. At the bottom Mario and the others turned off to do an extra Col. We didn't want to keep Claude waiting this afternoon (and that's the story I'm sticking with) so we continued on. There was still more descending to be done after that. There were also a couple of climbs, I think one of them was a Col, I'll have to check. Finally we turned on to route for next Col, Col du Buret. It was dead easy, I did 12-13 kph all the way up the Col, lovely. It has been very hot lately and I have been riding with my Audax jersey fully open, it is very cooling. I was saying again to Paul that I am channelling Andy Schlek, after all he too has a white jersey which he opens all the way :)
We stopped for the second half of our lunch at a nice picnic table just after the Col, in the shade. Then there was the last Col of the day, the 8 Km climb of Col des Ares. It was actually quite nice too, after a slow start I maintained a good speed, again 10-13 kph. I got passed just near the top of the Col :( There was a bar/restaurant at the top of the Col so we stopped for a drink, I had a Coke. While we were there the yellow jacket guy from yesterday, who Paul gave the tow to in the afternoon, turned up. When he saw Paul, he was so pleased, a huge smile! Alas for him we were finished so we left. There was a very nice descent which we turned off early in order to do an extra Col that Mario told me about. It was as easy as he said! Paul won the climb of course. We then returned to our descent, very nice, and reached the valley floor. It was hot! We were then on the flat valley road going back up the valley to Luchon. We took turns leading, Paul did the last 7 K's to the finish at 32 kph all the way.
Claude was not there so we left a note and went into Luchon. We had a nice walk, bought an ice cream each and then stopped at a bar for a drink. No Kir for some reason :( After an hour or so we went back to the car, I stretched and then I started to pencil in today's route. Not long after Claude turned up, we packed and then started the long drive back. Claude said that many of the VTT riders started at the top of the Col de Portillon. They organised one car at the top and another one at the bottom.
We dropped our stuff off, washed face and hands, and then had to go immediately to dinner as we were quite late. Dinner tonight is 3 salads, 2 baguettes, fish on rice, cheese, blueberry slice for dessert and some Rose. We have decided to do Col de Portet, 2200 ish tomorrow. Claude said he is doing that and Paul would like to do a 2000 metre climb as we haven't done one yet this trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment