St. Savin to Bagneres de Luchon
Big day today; our longest/most climbing/highest altitude (7,000’) of the trip. Perfect weather today yet again; cool in the morning but not cold, warm all day but not hot, or humid like it has been so far. If Paul were here, it probably would have rained by now. We started out climbing almost immediately, working our way up a river gorge for 15K until we hit our main event for the day, the HC Col du Tourmalet, which over the years is the most climbed mountain in the Tour. From the hotel to the top was 5,400’, a long haul. Sweeping vistas on the way; here’s looking back:
And looking up to the top (on the left):
And a couple on the top, which was swarming with cyclists:
I should note that the road was covered with paint from the tour. By far the most popular was “Andy”; hundreds of Andy-tags. Only a couple Contadors, and fewer Lances. Hah.
Fortunately, what goes up….. The back side was a long, fast descent. As with the other days so far, there are really no flat sections of road. On hitting bottom, we started up the next climb of the day, the Col d’Aspin. We went up the easier side, which wasn’t too bad, just another 2,600’ of climbing. The drop on the back side was another screamer:
Unfortunately we were not done. Reaching the bottom, it was time to start up a third time to the Col de Peyresourde, another 2,850’ of uphill fun. I was dragging on this last climb (wonder why?) But, got to the top, and had one final big drop to end the ride. Whew!
You Rock Dave!!
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