A wet start to the day, and the 8.30am start was delayed due to some computer issues, Martin has laid down the law that, after today, stragglers will just have to catch up! The 9.00am starters soon met them and the first of two major ascents began.
Through the pretty spar town of Eaux Bonnes the road continued to the top of Col du Aubisque which rises to the dizzy heights of 1,709 metres.
Visibility was poor and the easy roads of yesterday have been replaced with narrow steep and twisting efforts – there seem to be more of those great big mobile homes on the road too – perhaps it’s my imagination.
I struggled to catch them up after uploading the previous day’s blog and the hundreds of sheep being moved from one part of the mountain to another, along what seemed like miles of the road, held me up for ages. The cyclists were able to navigate a way through them but the stupid straggly smelly creatures had no road sense and as you passed them the ones ahead stopped and I was overtaken again on all sides. I stupidly opened the window and took on board lots of buzzing passengers’ who accompanied me for the rest of the day.
I missed the boys at the top and no-one hung around as it was grey and drizzly – the bad weather was a mixed blessing as, although most of the magnificent views were obscured by cloud, it kept them cool.
Through the mist and down the other side towards the next major challenge, Col du Tormelet (yes that really big one that attracts lots of skiers in the winter). We had dropped back down to 400 metres and this mother stood proud at 2,115 metres tall.
Martin was keen to get some of the way up it before stopping for a late lunch but unfortunately the little towns that are so buzzing in the season goes onto standby power at this time of year so the only place I could find open was one of those plastic pizza places that stay open when all the pubs have closed. (Chris) King of the mountain soon turned up and we hung around outside as everyone arrived. Our mouths dropped and we were speechless as the staff walked out the front door and locked up….
Disaster – no food and no water and hundreds of feet still to climb!
As fate would have it there was a fountain with drinking water a little further up the road and the second fruit cake was a life saver.
Revived and refreshed the guys got back in the saddle. I have to say Lejog last year seems like a walk in the park compared to this challenge. It’s arduous and is a major mental as well as physical challenge.
The sun was out which made up for the lack of views in the morning, the eagles were really close and in between navigating the roads we were able to have a good look around, the quiet ski drags a reminder of what makes this place so popular in the winter. The café at the top was open – hooray – although the first three boys up, King, Ben and Dave, had a quick coke before freewheeling back down the other side.
The others arrived in dribs and drabs and enjoyed a well earned rest with drinks and baguettes. Greg left his sunglasses beside a stream on the way up so borrowed the car to retrieve them as the group reformed. Had a bit of trouble with the handbrake and after kangarooing the first few metres along the road, I was delighted to be able to assist by showing this proud SA man how to drive the car!
Roger got some major stick as he proceeded to put on his middle of winter clothing in the full sun, I understand now why his bag was the hugest of them all. 7 of the guys left together and I followed soon after. A few turns in the narrow steep road saw the fog reappear. It got thicker and thicker until visibility was practically nil! A huge modern hotel suddenly appeared beside me like a spaceship on the left hand side of the road and now I was in some roadworks – help!
Tony and Simon appeared beside me, they had caught up! I let them pass and followed the wriggling black lycra down through the pea soup to the bottom. They could see the road better than me and, having no lights, I was able to stop them being rear ended by a car.
Out of the gloom and back into the sun the hotel was not far away – hooray!
Beaudean is a very small sleepy place and Hotel Le Catala, run by three women, was crammed with trinkets and lots of mystical wood carvings. Incense filled the air and all the room doors were painted with stars of film or sport – interesting…
No mussels or veal tonight – more good wholesome home cooked food though which included a chicken leg that was long, like they should be, and tasty. Why can’t we get them like this at home?
The after dinner conversation is beginning to deteriorate as nether regions are beginning to suffer. After Bob’s bum blister of last year he has wisely added the Assos brand to his Christmas and birthday present list so is bearing up better than last year. Roger, on the other hand, is not so fortunate. I’m not sure exactly where the problem but if creams don’t work tommorow someone will be trying to administer a compeed plaster…..
Cream sharing has also now commenced. Bob has brought something designed for cows udders, Geoff, being a great advert for Assos, will have their brand no doubt, and some have settled for Vaseline. Hygiene of course comes into play, Simon plans to apply some of Bob’s udder cream via loo roll I understand since, if you need more than one handful, you may leave unpleasants behind in the mixture ….
Bed followed after checking out tomorrow’s route which has 5 mountains and covers 167 kilometres….
Through the pretty spar town of Eaux Bonnes the road continued to the top of Col du Aubisque which rises to the dizzy heights of 1,709 metres.
Visibility was poor and the easy roads of yesterday have been replaced with narrow steep and twisting efforts – there seem to be more of those great big mobile homes on the road too – perhaps it’s my imagination.
I struggled to catch them up after uploading the previous day’s blog and the hundreds of sheep being moved from one part of the mountain to another, along what seemed like miles of the road, held me up for ages. The cyclists were able to navigate a way through them but the stupid straggly smelly creatures had no road sense and as you passed them the ones ahead stopped and I was overtaken again on all sides. I stupidly opened the window and took on board lots of buzzing passengers’ who accompanied me for the rest of the day.
I missed the boys at the top and no-one hung around as it was grey and drizzly – the bad weather was a mixed blessing as, although most of the magnificent views were obscured by cloud, it kept them cool.
Through the mist and down the other side towards the next major challenge, Col du Tormelet (yes that really big one that attracts lots of skiers in the winter). We had dropped back down to 400 metres and this mother stood proud at 2,115 metres tall.
Martin was keen to get some of the way up it before stopping for a late lunch but unfortunately the little towns that are so buzzing in the season goes onto standby power at this time of year so the only place I could find open was one of those plastic pizza places that stay open when all the pubs have closed. (Chris) King of the mountain soon turned up and we hung around outside as everyone arrived. Our mouths dropped and we were speechless as the staff walked out the front door and locked up….
Disaster – no food and no water and hundreds of feet still to climb!
As fate would have it there was a fountain with drinking water a little further up the road and the second fruit cake was a life saver.
Revived and refreshed the guys got back in the saddle. I have to say Lejog last year seems like a walk in the park compared to this challenge. It’s arduous and is a major mental as well as physical challenge.
The sun was out which made up for the lack of views in the morning, the eagles were really close and in between navigating the roads we were able to have a good look around, the quiet ski drags a reminder of what makes this place so popular in the winter. The café at the top was open – hooray – although the first three boys up, King, Ben and Dave, had a quick coke before freewheeling back down the other side.
The others arrived in dribs and drabs and enjoyed a well earned rest with drinks and baguettes. Greg left his sunglasses beside a stream on the way up so borrowed the car to retrieve them as the group reformed. Had a bit of trouble with the handbrake and after kangarooing the first few metres along the road, I was delighted to be able to assist by showing this proud SA man how to drive the car!
Roger got some major stick as he proceeded to put on his middle of winter clothing in the full sun, I understand now why his bag was the hugest of them all. 7 of the guys left together and I followed soon after. A few turns in the narrow steep road saw the fog reappear. It got thicker and thicker until visibility was practically nil! A huge modern hotel suddenly appeared beside me like a spaceship on the left hand side of the road and now I was in some roadworks – help!
Tony and Simon appeared beside me, they had caught up! I let them pass and followed the wriggling black lycra down through the pea soup to the bottom. They could see the road better than me and, having no lights, I was able to stop them being rear ended by a car.
Out of the gloom and back into the sun the hotel was not far away – hooray!
Beaudean is a very small sleepy place and Hotel Le Catala, run by three women, was crammed with trinkets and lots of mystical wood carvings. Incense filled the air and all the room doors were painted with stars of film or sport – interesting…
No mussels or veal tonight – more good wholesome home cooked food though which included a chicken leg that was long, like they should be, and tasty. Why can’t we get them like this at home?
The after dinner conversation is beginning to deteriorate as nether regions are beginning to suffer. After Bob’s bum blister of last year he has wisely added the Assos brand to his Christmas and birthday present list so is bearing up better than last year. Roger, on the other hand, is not so fortunate. I’m not sure exactly where the problem but if creams don’t work tommorow someone will be trying to administer a compeed plaster…..
Cream sharing has also now commenced. Bob has brought something designed for cows udders, Geoff, being a great advert for Assos, will have their brand no doubt, and some have settled for Vaseline. Hygiene of course comes into play, Simon plans to apply some of Bob’s udder cream via loo roll I understand since, if you need more than one handful, you may leave unpleasants behind in the mixture ….
Bed followed after checking out tomorrow’s route which has 5 mountains and covers 167 kilometres….
No comments:
Post a Comment