Today was a BIG day in the Pyrenees. The weather at breakfast was drizzling, so I packed my rain gear in the van, and just set off with my gilet.....big mistake - HUGE!
As soon as the van had disappeared with my wet weather kit, it started chucking it down and didn't stop for the next 4 hours - below is a piccy of me after being reunited with my rain jacket, about 30 miles too late - that's as close as I could get to a smile!
When the rain did clear we were treated to some great views, and my mood improved (slightly)
Views form about a third of the way up the Col d'Aspin before we disappeared into the clouds
The 1st big climb of the day was the Col d'Aspin at just under 1500 metres, but there was bigger to come!
This poor guy Eugene Christophe was taking part in the TdF in 1913 before the days of teams/support, and the rules were that you had to be self sufficient and carry/fix your own problems. He managed to break his steel forks on his bike, so walked his bike to the nearest town and asked if he could use the local forge to weld his forks - the blacksmith agreed and told his son to work the bellows for the fire. When the organisers found out he had outside help, they promptly disqualified him - despite him completing the 326km stage...Harsh!!!
Oh good, just 16.9kms to the top of the Col du Tourmalet (2115m) from here..that'll be about 1hr 45mins then
Ta da! 1hr 37mins later, a friendly German tourist was kind enough to take a piccy of me at the top - the sign does/should say "Col" du Tourmalet" - honest! although to their credit, they did all give me a round of applause for getting to the top - I couldn't translate what they were saying, but I reckon it must of gone along the lines of "I never thought he would make it up 'ere on a bike"
This river was the water running down off the Col du Tourmalet - if the wall looks new, its cos it is! The whole area including the mountain road was washed away completely 2 years ago - luckily the river was running much lower today
Another big day ahead tomorrow - more climbing than today...my knees cant wait!
Click here for todays lumpy stats
Click here for todays lumpy stats
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