Coffee and pastries in Ax-Les-Thermes before climbing up to the ski village of Bonascre on a misty morning
The climb up Plateau de Beille, 10mi at 7.8%. But at least there were cows with bells.
Photos do a poor job of capturing how narrow the road coming down off Port de Lers really is, let alone the tightness of the turns or the unpredictability of the surface. That is to say, it was great.
The weather had different ideas for yesterday’s planned ride up Col du Port. We’ll make another run at it today.
We'll call this Pre-PBP “training”. Not the terrain, but definitely the baguette and wine.
Catching the early train
Day 20. 45mi along a familiar route, the Canal du Garonne, to our conclusion in Toulouse.
Day 19 was an easy 39mi along the Aveyron that climbed to a road under the cliffs we saw from camp last night. A few more miles beside the Tarn to our arrival in Montauban.
Day 18. Rolled out late to avoid the rain. We still got wet in the morning, but the ride up to Najac’s 13th century castle was warm and dry. By the time the rain returned in the evening we’d already enjoyed sunset along the limestone cliffs of L’ Aveyron.
Day 17. Rolled into Capdenac after 63 steamy miles. The landscape went alpine to positively tropical with lush ferns springing from the banks of the Lot River
