Haute Pyrenees - Bareges:
With only a week left we still hadn't made it to the 'Haute Pyrenees' so, after the deep cleansing and overnight recuperation at our excellent municipal campsite and a leisurely start on a bright sunny morning , we set off for Bareges by way of the Col du Tourmalet (which I was pretty excited about, being a Tour de France fan) driving into gradually worsening weather which we could see from miles away. We hit the cloud low on the drive up the eastern side of the col and actually saw nothing of it due to near zero visibility and driving rain, which made it quite a scary drive, especially as cyclists were still toiling up it. Bareges is part way up/down the Col on the west side and the last major village on the famous Tour de France climb, where Bradley Wiggins effectively sealed his 2012 TDF victory by not getting wasted by his rivals. We arrived in the village on Sunday afternoon in heavy rain and with not much open, so first impressions were not the best, but we did encounter a very colourful campsite host, who liked to tease me about being English and decided to call me Wiggins - a nick name I was quite happy with, especially after seeing the huge 'Wiggo' and the mod target painted on the road in the middle of the town :-)
Once the sun re-appeared on Monday afternoon, and there was some life back in the place, Bareges turned out to be a really good place to stay – lively but without the manic bustle and traffic of Luz at the bottom of the valley and despite a couple of concrete eyesores, still a traditional looking mountain village.
Col du Tourmalet:
Ever since I first watched 'Le Tour' as a teenager, I had harboured an ambition to cycle some of the big climbs, especially the Col du Tourmalet - the most used, and (with respect to Alpe d'Huez) arguably the most famous, of the great 'hors category' climbs. The total climb is 19km with an average gradient of around 8%, but with some flatter bits and a small downhill section, the gradient much of the way is a lot more, getting up to 15% on the final ramp - eek !
With not enough time in the day for a mountain day or climb, I decided it was now or never, made sure everything was spot on with the bike and set off down to the start. Each km is marked with a sign showing how far completed, the distance to the top and the average gradient of the next km; this in general is good, although a couple of times I was a bit psyched out as I huffed up to a sign only to find the km was even steeper !
The start is not too bad, but then it stiffens up to 8% for a few km as it approaches and goes through Bareges, before slackening off for a while as it approaches the ski station. From this flat area, the rest of the climb, now above the treeline and complete with multiple switchbacks opens out - inspiring and scarey !
Things get more serious from now on, with multiple 9% average kms, so I enjoyed the brief respite with some easy peddling along the flat and steeled myself as the gradient kicked in once more. I found myself caught between welcoming and resenting the short flatter sections sometimes encountered between switchbacks – yes, I got a small rest but with an average gradient at 9% it meant the steep bits were even steeper :-( The painted names and slogans increased dramatically now, I found one particularly inspiring - "Pain is just weakness leaving the body" and repeated this to myself over and over on the really tough bits. Round one switchback was what I can only describe as hundreds of sperm painted on the road all swimming upwards round the corner - bizarre !
Once I hit the 3km marker, I started to believe I would succeed - this was a 9% km but I knew the penultimate km was a little less before the final lung bursting 10% final km and 15% final ramp. In the event, the penultimate km didn't really let up except for a short flat section just before the start of the last km (bloody averages again !). My legs were beginning to really suffer with lactate now and I could feel the beginnings of muscle cramp in my calves, but now inside the last km it was simply a matter of grinding it out and as I hit the final ramp I was forcing my legs over pretty much by will power alone. The summit is really busy and as I rounded the last corner someone was standing in the road, blocking my way ! Knowing I was spent and would not be able to get round without falling off, I screamed incoherently and he got the message, moving just in time to allow me to cross the summit line and collapse over my bike ! An amazing, painful experience – with an average speed of just over 10km/hr, I won’t be signing pro forms just yet, but I was really chuffed to make it on the little cycling that I do. Mucho respect to the TDF boys who do this twice as fast, as part of much longer day and after a couple of other big climbs.
Unfortunately the pics I took at the top were on my stolen phone, but this was one big tick on my list of 'must do' life experiences :-))
That evening I managed to make my legs work enough to walk up to the newly re-opened Hotel du Tourmalet, now owned a British couple who also run an outdoor holiday and Gite operation in the village, where we managed to get an Olympics TV fix – our first of the holidays – and enjoyed a superb recovery meal, a tapas with regional specialities and plenty of medicinal wine, as well as making the acquaintance of David, the Hotel manager, who (with his partner Wendy whom we met on a subsequent meeting) was both a superb host and really nice guy.
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