Beat the traffic up Col du Tourmalet by getting out with the sun. The descent passes a non-stop stream of riders going up, though also cars. Counter-point, the ascending traffic prevents downhill cars from passing, or even catching, descending riders. Aside from the occasional uphill driver taking the racing line, the descent off the pass is peaceful and fast.
First train of the day bound for Tarbes, rode to Luz Saint Sauveur. You can see where this is going.
Col du Pradel. 7400ft over just 52mi. A totally stellar day of riding, with baked potatoes in the middle.
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
After years of use, both of our randonneuring bags were in need of some love stitching before shipping off for Paris-Brest-Paris.
