Santander to Perpignan - Tour Daily

Day Four.

Have you ever woke up one morning and immediately recognising where you are? France, yes, it’s not the most exciting country in Europe, sometime a little bland, but extremely recognisable, much like how small town in England stood out easily with it’s pile of charities shops, WHSmithes and the big named express/mini/little supermarket that's a pound a penny at every fucking corner.

It’s humid, annoyingly humid, not surprisingly considering how wet it was yesterday, still the sun is shining, and I’m packing the bike to go back to Spain again, understanding why the French invented the whole balloon tyres nonsense in the first place, a nice jolly flats going through Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, taking the country ride to Esterencuby, quick coffee then head out for a jolly climbs of the Col Bagargui.

Fuck. Me.

I was freaking out, this is way too early, on the second day of the Pyrenees, already within 3km I’ve got off the bike for a breather, it’s only 10am, and it killed, 28/36 would be fine, not on a fucking touring bike.

Goddamnit.

I have 30km of climb to do, the road is a lots smaller and more akin to a farm road no more than the width of an old Ford Ka, imaging Ditching Beacon 10 time longer that doesn’t quit, no traffic which is great, I think.

10km in I’m riding on the ridge, the view was spectacular, and a strict reminder never to underestimate unknown climb that nobody talk about, and the reason why nobody talk about it because it’s fucking hard.

See the light brown cutting on the far left? that's where the first photo is taken.

The view is amazing though, it’s nothing like I have seen before, especially how the road is unusually build, it seemed that the builder kept changing their mind whether to cut through, or go round it, I’m putting that in the archive to tackle it on a normal road bike.

40km down, lovely but extremely gentle descent, I prefer a gentle descent allowing more recovery time, because let fact it, I’m on a fucking touring bike (perhaps I should rename it to FTB for short instead of NFE?), had a coke, sandwich and lolly by the lake between the D18 and D19, the chalet doesn’t show up in the map oddly enough.

Refilled, time for a gentle climb through the forest, it’s tree protecting me from the direct sun really does help make it easier to concentrate, and the vegetation was enough to block what’s ahead of me, I really enjoyed that climb and it’s much more comfortable than the first half, the final descent is amazing, although fully aware that I’m only halfway through, it’s sickening that the further I descent, the more I have to climb again back into Spain.

Brake start to fade, not good.

At the bottom now, it’s 3pm and feeling a little beaten, I won’t lie that I’ve though about going a different way to avoid that climb after Larrau, it look a monster on paper.

The Port de Larrau is a unique climb in itself, while it’s a Tour de France climb, it was only been recently introduced in 1996, this is undoubtedly the hardest TdF climb I’ve done overall, first climb (Col d’Erroymendi) hit you at a whopping 17%, then it start to level out slowly, although it’s not much until the last 5km which average over 10%, brutal.

Then it begun, the last climb to the Port de Larrau, luckily not as difficult as the first part, it’s far from easy either.

Gotten quite foggy, I can’t see above the mountain, good call, I would have known that there’s a killer 13% grad right at the col, it was getting very cold going through the fog, the switchback is hard to master with the wind howling on your side, saw graffiti on the road, then something glorious happen, the sun broke through the fog as I reach the col, I can barely see ahead, yet the unmistakable orb of the sun shining by my side warmed me up nicely as the fog displace.

One thing to says about the Pyrenees is that the weather is almost never the same on either side, while it start to get foggy and cold on the French side, the Spanish side have gotten a little bit warmer.

Look at how smooth the road is, smooth!

Smooth warm road again, I was looking forward to Spain, brake kept fading worryingly, and have to prepare earlier than a rim brakes, not good.

Great descent into the forest abet at a steady 55km/h, the dry warm air whisking away the sweat from my head, cooling me down without sending me into a shiver, it was half 4 and I’ve made it over, the satisfaction of completing a climb when you’re at your lowest ebbed is fantastic, not long ago I was already worn out at what I thought to be a lacklustre Pyrenees climb.

A small gentle climb, then a long descent into the village of Isaba where I’ll stay the night, completely worn out, I decided to stay at a hotel, great long shower, a walk in the village and dinner felt like a holiday, it’s beautiful little Narrave village enveloped by the surrounding mountain.

Oh the hotel is a “Bike Friendly” one, and actually have a work stand with all the tool, awesome.

Fixed the fading issues, turn out I adjusted the barrier too much on the brake not letting the pads auto adjust, leading to loss of power, fixed that and it’s back in action.

8/10 would bang.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5880048

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