Day 4 - The Col du Tourmalet.

Rule# 10 it never gets easier you just go faster (or further or higher - or all three)

Training and racing is hard. It stays hard. To put it another way, per Greg Henderson: “Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”

When the end is the other side of the mountain, short of digging a tunnel, you've got to fight the gorilla!

After two days of climbing back to the hotel we decided a down hill finish was in order. After some more good advice from Rob we agreed on a loop heading out close to Lourdes, finishing on the Col du Tourmalet from the east.

Route = black dotted line

So we set of on our usual 5 mile descent, happy in the thought that we would not have to come back that way, at least not that day.

The route down towards Lourdes was the same route we'd done on day one, we then joined a cycle path that headed further down the valley. Just before we hit the town we headed east into what I can only describe as a typical British dale, short ups and downs, narrow roads, green grass and enclosed roads, just like being at home. Only sunny and dry! After a excellant 10 mile route across country we hit the main road heading East out of Lourdes, luckily it was fairly quiet as we took a right and headed towards Bagneres de Bigorre and started climbing.

What country are we in again?

Pic du Midi, the Tourmalet is just behind.

That's about as busy as it gets

Excellent back roads, they know how to lay tarmac in France.

As we left Bagneres we started looking for somewhere to eat, it wasn't until we got to St Marie-de-Campan, right at the foot of the Tourmalet, that we found a decent spot.

During the Tour de France in 1913, on the slopes of the Col du Tourmale,t Eugène Christophe broke his forks; he then walked for 14km to the village of Saint-Marie-de-Campan where he worked for almost four hours at a blacksmith's repairing the damage. The blacksmith shop is still there.

We found a little cafe, 'we'll just have a small snack' we agreed. A three course meal including trout and pasta for the main course and about an hour later we emerged, stuffed with food. Not sure if it was because we we're hungry after 4 days of riding or just putting of what was about to come! PAIN.

We knew what was about to come........

So all we had to do now was ride to the top of the Tourmalet and freewheel back to the hotel.

There was a distinct split in the team after our stop, one half consisted of those who had managed to digest at least some of the meal, the remainder who were struggling to keep the contents of their stomach where it should be. I believe the battle was lost.............. once or twice.

It was mid afternoon, no wind, mid 30's in the shade, 10 miles and about 4000ft of climbing. I can safely say this was the hardest single climb of our week.

The road just goes up, with hardly any hairpins, its relentless. As the road reaches the ski resort of La mongie it gets steeper and the buildings just seemed to radiate heat from every direction.

Procy in La Mongie, self portrait, 'fighting the gorilla'

Its another hot and steep 3 miles from La Mongie to the summit but at least there are a few hairpins to break the monotony.

Llamas or Alpacas?

The last drag to the summit.

The summit, 2nd time in 4 days.

And that was it we'd fought the gorilla, we were tired but we'd won and the slopes had gained some pasta and trout on the way.

Its all downhill from here. The hotel is 8 miles that way!

Day 4 - 65miles and 8,600ft of very hot climbing.

Day 3 - Circ du Garvarnie and Col d' Tente.

Rule# 85: Descend like a pro.

To put it another way: All descents shall be undertaken at speeds commonly regarded as “ludicrous” or “insane” by those less talented. In addition all corners will be traversed in an outside-inside-outside trajectory, with the outer leg extended and the inner leg canted appropriately (but not too far as to replicate a motorcycle racer, for you are not one), to assist in balance and creation of an appealing aesthetic. Brakes are generally not to be employed, but if absolutely necessary, only just prior to the corner. Also see rule# 64 

Rule# 64:  Cornering confidence increases with time and experience - This pattern continues until it falls sharply and suddenly. (The road and/or the rider and thereafter the confidence)

After a hard day the day before and a few beers the night before. Oh......... and boiler room-gate (I'll explain later). We decided to have an easy day..................only one climb.

Circ de Gavarnie is a natural 'bite' taken out of the side of the Pyrenees. 800m across at the based and 3km accros at the highest point. It has the highest waterfall in Europe.

We set off down our 5 mile descent to Luz....' then took a left and headed up the valley. The road to Gavarnie is deceptively easy being a 2000ft climb over 10 miles.

Circ de Gavarnie from Gavarnie village.

From Gavarnie the road climbs upto Col de Tentes which at 2270mtrs is higher than the Tourmalet. This is an excellent climb from Gavarnie about 3000ft of climbing in 8 miles. At the top the road is barriered of from cars. the tarmac however carries on until the border with Spain.

Bob about 1/2 way

Alan and Gareth at the 'end of the road'

Past the end of the road heading towards the border.

Procy's patent bike stand.

At our highest point (procy's bike used as camera stand)

Now we had the descent to do. There was no traffic, apart from a few half dead sheep, who were to ill looking to do anything apart from lean on each other, and two motor bikes. A great road surface, as there are no trees you can see whats coming from a long way off. So this was the perfect descent to live up to rule# 85 and see how far you could hold your nerve into the corners.

Alan, Procy and Bob are true ambassadors for that rule! I'm still playing with rule# 64 at times.

Rule# 85 to be obeyed.

Day 3: 49 miles and 9200ft of climbing

Oh I nearly forgot - Boiler room-gate. As I'm reminded most of the time when at home, we're not the tidiest of people (boys that is). Living up to this we were given a polite reminder that wet clothing hanging up in the corridors, on the fire extinguishers and in the boiler room were not really the done thing, as there was a perfectly descent drying room for that sort of thing.....its fair to say that from then on the 'cold' drying room became warm and very effective. Never let grown men loose on their own!

Day 2 - Hautacam and Luz Ardiden

Rule# 68 - rides are to be measured by quality not quantiy.

Or in other words:

Rides are to be measured by the quality of their distance and never by distance alone. For climbing rides, distances should be referred to by the amount of vertical covered; flat and rolling rides should be referred to by their distance and average speed. For example, declaring “We rode 4km” would assert that 4000m were covered during the ride, with the distance being irrelevant.

So in search of the perfect quality ride we set of on day two. Advice from Rob, the Hotel owner, was to do the Hautacam first as its West facing and gets the sun in the afternoon, where Luz Ardiden is East facing and more sheltered in the lower slops so the sun isn't as bad in the afternoon. This was good advice.

The run down to the start of the climb is 15 miles and about 2800ft downhill - Great. Part of this is through the Gorge de Luz which is a deep gorge with the road cut into the side wall.

Gorge de Luz

At the base of the gorge the valley opens out with a few villages dotted here and there not far down the road the climb starts.

In normal big climb style we soon got in our own rhythm and started to split up. Soon enough we came out of the lower sloops and onto the high pastures where the road sweeps upto the Tour du France finish. After this the road climbs for another mile to the very top and a cafe. We'd spotted a nice looking Auberge on the way up so soon headed back down for a fantastic 15 min descent.

Looking down into the valley 

Station du Hautacam. The top

After a 3 course Plat du jour. We headed off for part two of the day - Luz Ardiden. This climb was made famous (or should I say more famous) when Lance Armstrong was brought down by a spectators bag during the 2003 Tour de France, on the opening slopes. He got back on and went onto win the stage - in true Armstrong style.

The climb starts from Luz St Sauveur so we had to peddle back up the gorge, and then the climb.
About half the climb is in the trees with long straights and the odd hairpin, is only when it gets out into the open that the true awesomeness of this climbs stands out - its a beauty.

In search of rule 68.

This picture goes some way in capturing the essence of the climb. For a better perspective check out the video before the 'day 1' post.

Luz Ardiden - The top.

Another fantastic descent that was over far to soon and we were back in the valley. The temperature had sored to the low 30's and we still had the last climb back to the hotel to do! Only 5 miles and 1700ft to go!

Day 2: 56 miles and 10,500 ft of climbing.

Pyrenees 2012 Day 1. 'The Tourmalet'

Lance Armstrong was wrong - It is all about the bike

The boys went for another trip away at the end of May/early June. This time to the Pyrenees to ride the classic Pyrenean Tour de France climbs.

As expected, with no families to look after and big boys packing for themselves, it all started in chaos before we even left the UK. With confiscated flammable aerosols and endless deliberations over compressed gas canisters. - What do you means its the rules? How are you supposed to oil your chain with no can of oil spray and blow up my tyres with no air?

So the planned 'we'll have breakfast in the airport as there's always loads of time' turned into 'shit we take off in 10 mins where's our gate?' So we legged it in the general direction of the departure gates while one of the party was checking that no-one was oiling any aircraft wheels with his confiscated £2.50 can of GT85 spray.

Has anyone noticed that Manchester airport have now put a slalom course through duty free before you get to any departure gate, a bit like sweets at a supermarket, no f'ing good when your in a hurry!

Anyway we got on the plane with a few minutes to spare, the 2.5 hour flight 'flew in' (sorry). Our transport was waiting for us as agreed along with a large trailor to take the bikes carefully stowed in rather large boxes, or in some cases big padded bags.

So after about a 3 hour drive we arrived in the village of Bareges and the Hotel du Tourmalet which is about 25 miles South of Lourdes and just about half way up the Western slopes of the Col du Tourmalet. We arrived in the first throws of a thunder storm!

Hotel du Tourmalet

First things first, I need to explain about the rules: Velominati.com is a cycling web site that has a tongue in cheek set of rules which to most keen cyclists make perfect sense.

Rule #4 - Its all about the bike.

Or to put it another way :
The Bike. It is the central tool in pursuit of our craft. A Velominatus meticulously maintains their bicycles and adorns them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. The Rules specify the principles of good taste in configuration and setup of our machines, but within those principles lies almost infinite room for personal taste.

So as we've travelled all this way with a big box's full of bikes, or at least that's how they left the UK, we needed to check out the bikes. In about an hour of reassembly and test rides we were ready for a proper test.

What better than the Col du Tourmalet the summit is about 8 miles and roughly 3000 ft climbing from the hotel, the thunderstorm had passed over and the night was clearing up so off we headed.

I supposed I should introduce my fellow Velominatus, so here in no particular order:

Gareth

Peter

Alan

David (aka Procy)

Bob

Keith

Nearly at the top

Yours Truly

L to R - Gareth, Procy, Keith, Bob, Alan, Peter

Day 1: 16 miles and 3000ft of climbing.

Day 2 to follow.

Video of the tour to the Velomanti theme 'Obey the Rules' below.

Pyrenees 2012.wmv

Great Dun Fell

As pre Pyrenees training we headed out to the Pennines on Sunday. The start of the ride was a quick excursion to the top of Great Dun Fell and the radar station then back down the same way. I say a quick excursion, its reported to the the highest tarmaced road in the UK and at about 2800 ft, its high! Its also steep and long at 4.5 miles and with just above 2000ft of climbing its hard work! We were incredibly lucky to get a great day with hardly any wind. So after just under 40 mins of climbing we were at the top.

Keith and me at the top, the road snakes away behind to the south.

Great Dun Fell .wmv

Free beer

Just reading My brothers blog and noticed thats he's giving away free beer to anyone who writes about his beer in some way shape or fashon. So it made me think that for once I'll diverge away from my normal style which is potraying life more with pictures than words and write something thought provocing.

To set the record straight right from the start. I don't expect to get any free beer from my bruv, infact I can only remember him ever only giving one bottle free, which I promptly forgot and left in his pub. No I'm not writing this for free beer, more in lines with Malory and Everest..........because (I can)... its there.

I don't expect free beer and not even sure I want any anyway. Why?....................

My thoughts on beer.......

Beer, in my life, is about where, when and more specifically who its drunk with, how it tastes is not that important. Not important..... I did say not THAT important. The best pint I ever hand was in the Kirkstile Inn on a spring evening after a long day out with a load of friends, Andy told a story about a mobile phone, a trip to the lav for a no 2 and an inadvertant phone call. I have no idea what the beer was we were drinking but bloody hell it was good.

I like good beer yes.... but I like the company its drunk in much better.

On our new cycling jersey we have a logo 'born the ride.....and drink beer'. I actually think it should say 'born to ride....then drink beer' you see its even better when you've got that weary glow from a hard day, you can relax and look back at what your've achieved especially if you've a tale to tell. Thats where the beer realy comes into play. A good story needs the performance enhancing boost a good pint gives.

So is Daves beer good, well its beer and when drunk in good company its at least as good as the rest. When drunk in good company, with a good story, after a hard day, next to the fire, its bloody brilliant. Would a pint of Stella drunk in a bar in Bourg d'oisans after climbing Alpe d'huez be just as good?

I know the answer to that one.

Hardknott Pass

We're off to do some cycling in the Pyrenees at the end of the month, I've spent the last few weeks getting fit and doing some hills on the bike.

I've also become addicted to a web site 'Strava.com' that uses GPS data from my bike computer and compares you to other riders that have done the same route. So naturally, for a competative person like me, you end up riding up hills as fast as you can!

I went to try and better my time on Hardknott last night. Managed to do it in under 14 mins - just.

You think thats fast.....I'm still 2 mins down on the fastest!

Hardknott is on of the hardest and steepest road climbs in the country at over 25% in places, climbing just over 1000ft in 1.5 miles. The video below does not do it justic, in the slightest.

I filmed the ride from top to bottom and back down the other side. Here it is speeded up x4.

Hardknott in 16 minutes at 4 x speed.wmv