Tues Aug 7th

OK critics, here is Tuesday – I know you wanted Tuesday – so here it is…

There was thunder and lightning in the early hours. The rain continued to pour down heavily. Mercifully it stopped by the time we were ready to ride.

Nothing is worse than starting a ride off in the rain. Once you are going and it rains, that is fine. But to start in the rain, I don’t agree with that. My life must be too comfortable.

Right off the start, we are climbing the Col d’Ausbique. Not even a 2 minute warm-up. Those of you ride with me know I like 15-20 minute of soft pedaling. It helps your body adjust easier to the upcoming exertion.

Col d’Ausbique was in this year’s Tour de France. It has beautiful sweeping turns. The pavement is like glass. There is one section where the pavement is very decent, then on the same incline, the pavement is newly laid. I watch my speedometer. As I go from the decent pavement to the ‘glass’ pavement, keeping my effort the same, my speed increases by 0.6 kph. Amazing what the lack of rolling resistance can do for you.

I am riding with Vince today. He is a former 10k runner for Great Britain, many years ago, as he states. He only picked up the bike one year ago and is still learning how to ride it. He has the aerobic capacity and can climb like a mountain goat.

We start out chatting up the Col d’Ausbique. We talk about bears and Lance Armstrong. The British have obsessions with both. Beats me why…. (lol).

Before too long I tell Vince I can’t talk to him as I need to concentrate on my breathing. In reality, I have run out of both Lance and bear stories! Just kidding – I really needed to focus on my breathing! Col d’Ausbique is an HC rated climb. The hardest there is.

As we climb, you can see Tour favorites names’ written on the road. Someone still thinks Lance is riding. It is a unique sensation to see the names, and to know that I am here, 6,000 km (or more) away from home climbing the same road that 1 month ago was a mass of humanity, encouraging 189 riders to climb this monster.

After what must be close to 2 hours of climbing, we make it to the top. It is cold. It is foggy. It is drizzling. It is not pleasant. It was a hard climb.

At the top, we bundle up to protect against the cold. Visibility is 10 yards. We freeze. I ride the brakes down.

We cross over to the Col de Soleur and climb it from a different direction. We had climbed it on day 1. To get the Soleur, we go through a tunnel carved from the rock. The pavement shifts to concrete for the 30 yards / metres while we go though the tunnel.

The tunnel is a rarity in France, at least where we are. Most of the roads we follow are “part of the mountain”. There are no obvious signs of blasting or carving of the mountain to make the road ‘more efficient’.

The same can be said of the homes and farm buildings. Where there is an earthen bank, for example, the bank is not leveled. The barn used that bank as a partial wall. It makes perfect sense. It also adds to the ambience of the area. The people are part of the environment here. They don’t dominate it. They don’t make it cookie cutter, non-descript residences like many places back in Canada. But then here, life is not about the generation of money. It is more about life.

As we cross to Soleur, we stop our bikes, cars stop, motorcycles stop. There are 4 huge white Pyrenees dogs herding sheep across the road. They dogs keep the sheep going up the edge of the road, which is really steep. The dogs pay no mind to us. There is no shepherd in sight. This is fascinating. I really enjoy this authentic piece of the journey.

Soleur from this side is a mild climb.

We descend back to the main village where we are freezing. It is raining as well. One of our guides, Imogene, slices her hand with a knife. My own blood, I have no problem with. Other people’s blood, I don’t like that.

As we eat lunch near the support van, there is a market nearby. I am amazed at the number of dogs walking perfectly contently beside their masters without a leash. The dogs heel perfectly, focused on keeping up with their masters.

After lunch, we head back to Luz St Savoir, the town we spent the first night in. We are going to climb the 2nd most famous mountain the Tour de France, the HC rated Col de Tourmoulet.

Gareth and Vince are both men on a mission. Gareth, because he wants to conquer the Col, come what may. Vince because he wants to see how close he can come to Pantanni’s (sp) climb record of 50 minutes up the 18km pass.

Eleven kms from the top, I stop my bike and dismount. I do not feel like climbing up the Col. The fog is coming in, the rain is starting and it is getting cold. It will only be worse at the top. Then comes the descent. Descending is than climbing because of the cold and the speed. Sorry guys, there is only so much rain and cold I can endure. I will pass.

While standing at the side of the road with Imogene and Philippe, a 60 year old man comes pedaling up the road, with a hugely laden bike. We offer him a banana and he stops. Turns out he is from Holland. His bike weighs 18 kg (mine doesn’t even weight 18 pounds).The panniers (saddle bags) weight another 20 kg. The man himself is a bear. Probably 6 feet tall and built like a linebacker (heavy boned, heavily muscled). His physique and demander belie his 60 some odd years.

He cycles the same route every year for the past 7 years. From Holland, down thru the Pyrenees, the Alps and back to Holland. He sleeps in barns or wherever else he can get a place to lay his head. Interesting fellow.

I was glad I was in the van. At the top it is absolutely miserable. Cold, foggy, wet.

Vince climbed the Col in 1 hr 15 min. Which is very impressive. He is a very strong climber.

Then you do some quick math, and Pantanni climbed the same pass (probably in better weather), 25 minutes faster. It makes you appreciate how strong a climber he was.

Matt and Hugh come in at 1 hr 35 minutes. The rest trail in later.

We wait for everyone in the restaurant at the top of the Col. It is small, warm, rustic. There is a woman just as you enter the building who has a huge rectangular iron skillet, heated by natural gas. She pours batter out of a very large bowl on to the hot skillet then uses a six inch wooden ‘squeegee’ to smooth out the batter. She is making crepes. They look delicious. It is only afterwards that I think I should have bought one.

Other than myself, only my roommate, Pete, does not climb the Tourmoulet. Pete took a wrong turn coming down Soleur and the tour leader, David, drove out to get him.

The evening meal was very good. For starters we have bowl after bowl of soup. Then came the chicken and roasted veggies and pasta. Desert was a caramel ‘cake’, very nice.

The architecture of this town is very cool, very ‘Swiss Alps’ style.

Later that evening some of the guys can’t believe I did not climb Tourmoulet. They say how can a guy come from another continent, spend all that money and NOT climb the Tourmoulet, the 2nd most famous mountain in the Tour de France? I say that once you have climbed one mountain in the Alps, you have climber them all. I am then reminded that we are in the Pyrenees, not the Alps.

At least we have more bears in Canada! 