A monster 170 km roller-coaster of a day, but all of it on dry roads : yippee!
Before setting off from Campan, I had to change my brake blocks, having got through a set already with all the braking in the wet on the previous 2 days. In the rush to get going, I think I failed to slacken off the brake cables enough for the new blocks, ...or at least that's what I'd convinced myself was the reason I found the Col d'Aspin harder than I remembered from last August. Probably psychological but either way things felt better after a quick fix at the top.
I was now into new territory, having never been further east than the Aspin before, and the descent was pure bliss. It was market day in the pretty town of Arreau, but I didn't stop as I was keen to catch up with the group for some shelter along the valley floor. Soon after catching them, however, Alan appeared with the van & the all important food, for a quick refuel before the Col de Peyresourde. I climbed with Dan, maintaining a steady pace in the hot sun, reaching the top at about 11:45 - time for an early lunch. James' recommendation of omlette & chips did not disappoint.
The descent off the Peyresourde is probably one of the best I've done, not too steep, with sweeping corners and hardly any traffic ...road cycling doesn't get much better than this! I caught & passed a few guys on the way down, looking for a group to join, thinking it'd flatten out soon, but the descent kept on going even past the town of Luchon: fantastic. Eventually I caught up with Dan and we worked together to bridge the gap to a big group which would see us through the valley, although the pace got a bit crazy as we took turns on the front towards the base of the Col des Ares.
This was a relatively small climb of a few hundred metres, but it split the group and I found myself at the back, climbing with Dan again, with Chris slightly ahead of us. A quick van stop at the top fuelled us up for the next section, with a lovely descent followed by the smaller climb of the Col de Buret. We barrelled along as a three into the Ariege, a bit of France I'd never visited: the lonely, tree-covered and slightly lower mountains completely different from the Hautes Pyrenees landscapes we'd left only this morning.
Soon, the dreaded Col de Portet d'Aspet was upon us: with slopes of up to 14% this was a really hard one, although we broke the climb early on to visit the monument to Olympic road race champion Fabio Casartelli, who died in a crash on the descent in the 1995 Tour de France.
The climb was pretty tough, but finished sooner than we'd expected, so rewarded ourselves with a drink at the summit cafe.
This was the last big climb of the day, but we still had over 60 km still to cover, so we made the most of the descent and the gentle downhill afterwards to keep the pace up towards St Girons. Here, we called in at Oxygene Cycles for our stamp, greeted by the owner, former pro and Tour de France rider Frederic Moncassin!
Some of the other groups had stopped for another cafe stop in town, but Chris, Dan and I decided to press on as we were flagging a bit by now and just wanted to get to the hotel. The road dragged slightly uphill all the way for about 15 km to the end, where we collapsed onto chairs in front of the hotel for a really well-earned beer!
Before setting off from Campan, I had to change my brake blocks, having got through a set already with all the braking in the wet on the previous 2 days. In the rush to get going, I think I failed to slacken off the brake cables enough for the new blocks, ...or at least that's what I'd convinced myself was the reason I found the Col d'Aspin harder than I remembered from last August. Probably psychological but either way things felt better after a quick fix at the top.
I was now into new territory, having never been further east than the Aspin before, and the descent was pure bliss. It was market day in the pretty town of Arreau, but I didn't stop as I was keen to catch up with the group for some shelter along the valley floor. Soon after catching them, however, Alan appeared with the van & the all important food, for a quick refuel before the Col de Peyresourde. I climbed with Dan, maintaining a steady pace in the hot sun, reaching the top at about 11:45 - time for an early lunch. James' recommendation of omlette & chips did not disappoint.
The descent off the Peyresourde is probably one of the best I've done, not too steep, with sweeping corners and hardly any traffic ...road cycling doesn't get much better than this! I caught & passed a few guys on the way down, looking for a group to join, thinking it'd flatten out soon, but the descent kept on going even past the town of Luchon: fantastic. Eventually I caught up with Dan and we worked together to bridge the gap to a big group which would see us through the valley, although the pace got a bit crazy as we took turns on the front towards the base of the Col des Ares.
This was a relatively small climb of a few hundred metres, but it split the group and I found myself at the back, climbing with Dan again, with Chris slightly ahead of us. A quick van stop at the top fuelled us up for the next section, with a lovely descent followed by the smaller climb of the Col de Buret. We barrelled along as a three into the Ariege, a bit of France I'd never visited: the lonely, tree-covered and slightly lower mountains completely different from the Hautes Pyrenees landscapes we'd left only this morning.
Soon, the dreaded Col de Portet d'Aspet was upon us: with slopes of up to 14% this was a really hard one, although we broke the climb early on to visit the monument to Olympic road race champion Fabio Casartelli, who died in a crash on the descent in the 1995 Tour de France.
The climb was pretty tough, but finished sooner than we'd expected, so rewarded ourselves with a drink at the summit cafe.
This was the last big climb of the day, but we still had over 60 km still to cover, so we made the most of the descent and the gentle downhill afterwards to keep the pace up towards St Girons. Here, we called in at Oxygene Cycles for our stamp, greeted by the owner, former pro and Tour de France rider Frederic Moncassin!
Some of the other groups had stopped for another cafe stop in town, but Chris, Dan and I decided to press on as we were flagging a bit by now and just wanted to get to the hotel. The road dragged slightly uphill all the way for about 15 km to the end, where we collapsed onto chairs in front of the hotel for a really well-earned beer!
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