Last day of touring before ... the big one

Sommieres to Avignon

A mere 90km today in the first leg of Hannibal’s tour and our last day.  Most are going on to Rome but we are mere cyclo-tourist dilettantes.  We headed out of Sommiere through the old town where a market was being set up.  I’m not sure this was a great idea having a dozen or so cyclists navigating narrow cobbled lanes thru the market. 

But soon we were heading out of town and through the more fertile plains of the Rhone valley towards Avignon.  I was feeling quite sick.  A cold brewing for a couple of days had blown up in my head and the creeping migraine had manifested itself as a bad headache.  I really felt like getting in the van.  But a few kms on the bike and I started to feel better and decided just to take it easy.  It was also quite hot today.

Before lunch we stopped at the Pont du Gard and Camilla and I climbed up the top to see the water course.  Amazing.  I also saw the biggest jar of Nutella I have ever seen in my life.  Not that it compared with the Pont du Gard of course. 

One of the highlights of the day for Camilla and I was seeing a subway hooker (there’s a backstory to this) sitting on the verge near some trucks.  A bit too far from the subway, but nonetheless within strolling distance.  A hard life .

An afternoon beer and icecream stop about 10kms from Avignon allowed us to bunch up and ride into the rather large city of Avignon.  And our arrival on a Saturday night coincided with the Patrimonie festival and a HUGE night inside the old walled city.  

We only got a little lost on the cobbled lanes looking for our hotel.  Not being at my physical and psychological best I got into a stupid argument with the hotelier about where to put my bike bag.

The room I shared with Camilla and Ted was on the 2^nd floor up a very, very tight and narrow spiral staircase – but so cute!

Dinner that night, another 3 course gourmet extravaganza somewhat wasted on me as I had barely any appetite.  So it was fortunate the portions were small.  And I got the most extraordinary main course by virtue of my vegetarian-ness. 

Yes, it’s an egg on a round of polenta!  Minimal!  But actually quite nice.

From the gorgeous to the wild wild west

Heard during the day that DHBC won 2013 RAW track club championship AGAIN for the fifth year running.  Great work everyone!  (I love the interwebs btw)

134 km ride today, not much climbing but it felt like a long way and we stuffed around.  A lot.  Stopped and looked at things, took some pics and then looked at more things. Drank coffee, beer.

We started the day in Olargues as we had ended the previous day’s riding on the Voie Verte, the bike path along and old railway line.  We got 14km out of it this time and along the way we stopped to take a picture at the best spot but that was after I did the stupidest thing of the day.

I was riding along, looking ahead at a bridge to see if it was a pick-a-plank bridge (it wasn’t, I don’t think they have them in France) and didn’t see the barrier that was across the path and in the shadows.  Everyone else saw it but I went straight into it.  Fortunately I saw it just before I hit it so had slammed the brakes on.  It was about chest height.  Oops!  Embarrassing!  Back wheel lifted up and everything.  The people I was riding with were somewhat surprised shall we say.

Not content with that, I discovered some of the barriers were high enough so that if I lay flat on the top-tube and bars I could go right under with cms to spare – not that I was looking or able to see.  No pic of that, Camilla missed that photo op, or was more rightly worried about whether I was going to ensure I never develop a dowager’s hump.  Thank god for 650c wheels and a tiny frame.

Idiocy out of the way, the ride along the Voie Verte was remarkably pleasant and if you get a chance to ride it around here, do.  It’s still got more to go.  Here’s the next stage ready to be transformed.

Sometime along the road the landscape changed dramatically and became all red soil and we saw a paleontological site, complete with didactic panel.  Why didn’t we get a picture?  Don’t know.  But we did see a busload of people that Camilla and I assumed were hunters but Ted said they were fossil fossickers.

By then it looked like we were in the wild, wild west of somewhere not France.  

Riding on a side road, close to a high speed highway for 10km and feeling like we were in a time trial before arriving at lunch near the Clamouse cave up a gorgeous valley. 

After lunch, we headed off up the valley alongside a river then met a grinding hot climb that never got very steep but snaked up a gorge and promised to reach the pass where every left turn was cruelly followed by a right turn that took us higher. 

Then a long mostly downhill run to Sommieres which is another beautiful old town.  A long day in the saddle.

Ride and Seek had organised a winemaker and sommelier to come in for a tasting and to tell us about Languedoc wines.  I caught the second half of this and found out a lot about local appellations and the finer points of roses. But a lurking migraine turned me away from alcohol for the evening so I didn’t really taste anything.

And then another 3 course gourmet meal.  Thankfully Dylan organised a vegetarian meal for me.  If I was fending for myself I think I would struggle. The French cannot comprehend vegetarians.  Even a cheese omelette turns up with little cubes of ham in it.  

Day topped off by another astonishing dessert.  It had fairy floss on it!

Carcassonne to Olargues - at a more relaxed pace

After a few days of cleaning the Baum of cowshit (really) and a couple of easy spins, it’s back to a proper ride today.  This time with Camilla and Ted tracing the route Hannibal took, with Ride and Seek Tours. 

Today we rode from Carcassonne to Olargues.  I’d become too well acquainted with Carcassonne yesterday when I rode round in circles getting lost on the way back from a car drop-off.  I saw a lot of one small village!  In the afternoon I rode down alongside the Canal du Midi and decided I never, ever want to go in a canal boat.  I'd be bored with those locks in about 10 minutes! 

Carcassonne has a fantastic mediaeval walled castle with village, now populated with little shops and restaurants.   And even the “new” town is old and quaint.

We headed out through vineyards at a considerably more leisurely pace than the Haute Route, the inclines were gentler and the pressure reduced.  After all, it’s not a race! My legs appear to have recovered with a few days rest and no hard riding.

After 25kms or so it’s time for morning tea! At a café with a bunch of English hippies sitting out the front and the French men inside.  And then the climb began, winding up a valley through one tiny village that only seemed to contain a boy’s school and up into a pine forest.  You could smell the pine.

Lunch was to be a picnic atop a mountain but a cold wind soon had us shivering.  But Camilla and I did find a didactic panel, so everything is back to normal.  How nice is it to have a proper lunch and not exist on hurriedly grabbed gels, fruitcake and buns.  As an aside, you can’t breathe if you put too much fruitcake in your mouth. This is bad and makes it difficult to proceed.

After lunch we had to descend, which is good for digestion but bad for getting more chilled.  And then another climb.  I pushed it a bit on the climbs especially near the end as I’m still training for racing next week.

The last 15kms or so into Olargues, our desination, was along the Voie Verte – a graded rail trail.  That was just a nice ride where we rode along in a group and chatted.

Olargues itself is very pretty and we stayed in a lovely guesthouse and ate at the adjacent restaurant – and had the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here!  The owner is a vegetarian and ensured I had some really nice food.  No omelette! 

If you are thinking of moving to this quaint town I checked out some of the real estate prices for you.  You can buy something quite nice for about 150K Euros.  Or a ruin for about 50K.  Or a part-ruin for around 80K.  J

Stage 7 Haute Route Pyrenees - we made it!

Stage 7 - final stage  Pau/Arette - Anglet Côte Basque

Distance - about 144km (shortened due weather)
Elevation - 2,400

Final stage of the Haute Route Pyrenees and I made it!  As did everyone on our tour -  fantastic result and everyone achieved a personal goal.  Some  had unfinished business from the Alps last year, proof that they could make the distance and another placing in the top 10 in his age-group.  

My goal had always been to make the distance ... and to stay within cutoff.  Determination would drive me through the distance, no problems.  But I had real doubts that I would be fast enough.  Not really knowing what to expect didn't help.  And it was a long time between real mountains.  January in Bright was the last time I rode up an incline that took more than about 15 minutes.  

Originally a 177km stage, with two cols and a day that started with a transfer - it was always going to be a huge day.  

And then it started to rain ...

The first col was discarded by the organisers as being too dangerous in the rain.  The last thing you want is 350 cyclists hurtling down a steep incline, in the rain and fog with the added obstacle of livestock on the roads and VERY slippery cow-pats everywhere.  That would be an accident waiting to happen.   I heard no-one complaining about this decision. 

We set off to rousing music in the town square of Arrette in the Basque country, rugged up for the cold and wet.  

None of us were expecting how hard that col would be.  It had some very difficult gradients in it, some of which went on for ages.  And just as we started to climb, it really pissed down.   And although the summit appeared to have been reached, there was another 5 or 6km uphill in the complete fog.  It's weird riding in fog, you feel completely alone.  I got bored and took a selfie whilst riding.

Then a fast, windy descent on a hugely rough road down off the mountain.  It was a goat track.  I saw two guys pushing their fully laden tourers up this hill and later, when I mentioned this to some of the guys well ahead of me, they had seen them too.  Must have been a long and tedious push only to arrive at the top of a col with no view and no attractions like an auberge or anything.  

Once down the mountain there was about 50km to go on slightly undulating gentle downhill to Cambo les Bains which was the end of the race part.  And a chance for lunch.  I rode much of this last part with Nick, who I rode with on Stage 3.  Sometimes we got into a chain-gang and sped through the countryside in style and with speed.  Other times there were just the two of us until finally we suffered one more short, sharp hill ...

...to the finish line!!

And to pick up my medal and finisher's polo shirt - yes, it's black :-).  And to have a sit down lunch before we got on our bikes for the last time.  

A slow 40km procession, under escort, into Anglet near Biarritz, finished our ride.  It was nice to ride as part of a big bunch, to chat to people along the way and to have the road to ourself with no pressure. It's actually remarkable and I think yesterday I was too stuffed to really appreciate that part.  

We finally arrived to a huge welcome from family, friends, the local Mayor at the end, right near the Atlantic Ocean.  As we crossed under the banner, to something like "We are the champions of the world" suddenly I got all emotional and teary.  It had been a big week.

I'm writing this at stupid o'clock, having woken far too early after a night that was far too late at the post ride celebration.   

Greg LeMond, 3 times TdF winner and now the only American to have won the tour, came to the celebration last night.  He rode in the first stage, but is still recovering from a severe car accident last year.  

I introduced myself and we had a quick chat about the UCI, the need for reform and his plans to come back to the Haute Route next year, fitter and faster.  We're in the same age group :-)

My results:

2nd in my age group.  The winner was tiny and also on 650c wheels.

301st overall and 25th of the women.

It's pissing down outside, I might have a day off the bike.  Although Will has promised to teach me to do a wheelie ...

Stage 6 - riding in the fog

Stage 6: ARGELÈS-GAZOST - PAU
Distance: 101km
Elevation: 2,300m

I'm writing this before dinner, lying on the bed, listening to music and completely and utterly stuffed.  I feel like I've been through the ringer today and it wasn't a particularly hard stage.  I didn't sleep well last night and my legs were feeling puffy and I woke feeling lethargic.

We're in Pau tonight which is a largish city with an historic inner city that's quite attractive.  So many clothes shops and some really stylish looking things that I would have quite like to acquire - if I hadn't been wearing thongs.

I had a quick walk around earlier and acquired a rice pudding which I've just demolished.  I figure a rest and a pudding will help me through tomorrow which is a long stage of 177km and 3,300m of climbing.

Today we had 3 climbs that sawtoothed up to the ultimate, and famous, peak of Col d'Aubisque.  These 3 peaks are another famous TdF route.  Frank! Frank! - clearly had a few friends up here.

The views are, allegedly fantastic.  But what would I know?  We climbed in blanketing and damp fog and I could barely see for some of it.  That got better when I took my glasses off - oops.  But still pretty dense.

Here's a view of a tunnel we entered in the climb between Col du Solour and Aubisque.  I stopped to take this you'll be pleased to know.

The next tunnel was totally scary - much longer than this one and with no lights at all.  I had no lights and couldn't see the end.  I was sure I was going to get cleaned up or eaten by werewolves or something.

And shortly after that - I saw a real, life Newfoundland lying on the road looking benignly at cyclists passing!  He'd been rolling in cow shit and I have no idea if he was friendly.  Disappointingly he didn't have a barrel of rum round his neck as far as I could tell.  Although as I have sworn off alcohol for the week* this would have been no use to me.  And I might have gone off the edge into the foggy abyss.

Finally, through the fog I could hear 80s pop songs and I was at the last refreshment stop at the top of Col d'Aubisque where there are giant bicycles as a monument to, well, bicycles I guess.

I stopped at the same time as a French guy who only has a right leg, with the other amputated very high up near the hip and only half a left arm.  He is just truly amazing and although he has riding style with a lot of body movement, he has done the whole ride.  He rides about the same speed as me, perhaps a little faster.

Here's me with Fergus the Haute Route appointed Lantern Rouge whose job it is to give encouragement to those close to cut-off.  I try to stay ahead of Fergus for obvious reasons!  But we do know each other and he's prone to singing terrible songs that he imagines contain my name.  They don't.

But what goes up, must go down and a loooong, cold, damp and at times scary descent followed.  After 44km it was downhill all the way to Pau but that got fairly exhausting, especially when I was already feeling crap.  I took it easy and was riding by myself for quite a while, my feet were cold and I wasn't making great decisions.  At the last refreshment stop I met up with 3 Australians and an Italian and we decided to ride together down a fairly busy road.  This was good because it was slightly downhill and I did a stint on the front where we were averaging over 40kph.

Here we are, at somewhat slower pace, going through a little lane through a small village somewhere about 25km from Pau.

The stage finished about 10km out of Pau and then we just had to ride at our own pace to find lunch etc.  I was well and truly over the ride by now and could barely face that 10km.  The last km or so was an obstacle ride, on GRAVEL with holes in it.  There was one steep but short gravel section up to a bridge.  If I had come off on that, like one of my mates did, I would have screamed and thrown the bike in the river I swear.

Lunch - gazpacho with a lump of pork in it: rejected (who puts pork in gazpacho???)  Pasta with no sauce: eaten because I had to eat.  Semolina pudding: ate two.

And I came 28th on the stage and same place in the GC. Hey, I'm only 9hr 15 min down in the GC :-)

And I forgot to mention from yesterday's TT up Hautacam that the fastest time was from the journalist on the e-bike!  He did it in 40 minutes, but not an official time.

Here's a shot of Hautacam.  In the foreground, the pink building is the old Railway Station,  now the hotel we stayed in for two nights.

*My body is a temple. haha  One that I appear to hitting with sledgehammers but there you go.

Stage 5 - Time Trial up Hautacam

Stage 5 - ARGELES-GAZOST - HAUTACAM

Time Trial: 16km (13 timed)
Elevation: 1088m

This stage had been haunting me right from the time I heard about it. Not helped by Con, a DHBC member who has ridden Hautacam and is a way better climber than me, telling me ages ago "It's the hardest climb I've ever done!"  Right then, something to worry about.

But it also was billed as a "rest day."  How could that be?

Hmm, maybe there's a plot here.   That's it!  Those of strategically hanging around the back of the race (i.e. close to cut-off) got to go first as the slowest riders.  The fast guys all went progessively later.

So at 9:06am I was in the TT house, being held ... for a 2.8km untimed section.  What exactly is the point of that?  But for many it seemed to be an experience they hadn't had before.  So maybe it was part of the experience.

In any case, it was hard - but not that hard.  It was a hard as you wanted to make it I guess.  Sure there were some parts over 12% and I think a few pinches much more.  But all the pain was in the lower two thirds.  And it was cool and still at that time, but heating up quickly.

I told 2 blokes I knew who were starting very closely after me that they shouldn't overtake me or I'd cry.  Both of them took it as a challenge and eventually passed me.  I guess I gave them a target. :-)

I didn't go much above 80% of max HR.  I was looking forward to finishing and having a day off the bike I have to confess, but not really racing like I would if I was, well, racing.

BTW My skinsuit is still in my suitcase.  Apparently you don't wear them climbing mountains in TTs.  Who knew?

Passed some friendly horses standing impassively on the road about 3km from the top. Still there when I descended about half an hour later, some cyclists had stopped to pat them and the TTers were still coming up the hill.  Got a bit congested at that point.  But what a view!

The good news is I did better in this than I had in previous stages and was 23rd out of 33 women.   The fastest woman did it in 53 minutes, I did it in 78 minutes.  Slowest in 101 minutes.  So pretty pleased with that.

With the afternoon off, we headed off for leisurely lunch at a traditional French "farmhouse" restaurant also half way up Hautacam.  I got to eat a great omelette and a potato fry up kind of thing.  Excellent!

Even better, we are here for two nights in a small village a short 5km ride down the bike path from Argeles-Gazost.  It's a rail trail and nicely flat.   If you kept going, past Argeles you end up in Lourdes. 

I'm thinking a quick visit to Lourdes and a healing dip will fix my saddle soreness - right?