Col du Tourmalet

Massive day in the mountains!! I parked the car in a village called Beaudean and after starting ti ride gasped when the sign read 22km to the summit of the Tourmalet. By the time I reached the town of St Marie de Campan, the last village before the climb proper I was knackered. There are markers every 1pm to tell you how high you are and how far you have to go. Counting down from 17km.

At first these are just taunting you as you. Basically saying you still have 16km and 1100m to climb. However, once you get down to single figures they are mental staging posts to head for. I had to stop at 9k, 7k,5k and most sadly at 500m to go. Sorry for the purists who want it done in one hit but this is climbing to 2115m.

The summit isn't revealed until you are within 25m as it is tucked round a corner. All of a sudden you are in amongst hundreds of Lycra clad cyclists on awesome road bikes. Up I roll on a mountain bike with thin tyres. Only being upstaged by a Welsh chap on a mountain bike, 4 paniers and a trailer! Chapeau! To him for doing that.

Anyway, it was sold cold I had to put on every bit of clothing that I had to keep warm and then descended to the Village of Pic du Midi for coffee and sandwich.

Hours of hanging around were rewarded with a great run of cyclists all spread out as the hills had really split the peleton.




Pics of the peleton below:



And the king of the mountains who was so far back he would surely be deposed:



Last but not least a heard of Alpacas threatened to run across the road. When the gendarme blew his whistle at them hoots of derision erupted. More police were drafted in to prevent disaster.




What a day. Happy happy boy :-)

Oh about the descent. That took about an hour and had to stop to defrost cramped hands and let the discs cool down! Easy day tomorrow I think.