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Woke up sweating.
It’s bloody humid, camping near the river doesn't help, couldn't be arsed to have a shower, so packed everything, quick wash, then pop into the bike shop.
It’s closed.
It’s fucking closed.
I envy the French, they really do have the right idea on having a lower annual hours, but not opening on a Monday, in August, with lots of roadie douchebag around is taking the fucking piss.
Desperately, I dismantled the back wheel, got superglue from the local shop, lightly glued the lockring, and tighten it carefully using a Leatherman.
Seemed solid.
It’s 11am already, time to get out of Arette, there was a mural at the end of the town showing all the Tour de France stars reminding us that it rode through the town, it was a lovely gentle ride, just small rolling hill for 15km before starting the first climb of the day from Escot.
The Col de Marie Blanque, it’s boring, dull and straight, all the three combination made for hard riding, the road is well hidden by the vast trees that surround it that cause it to feel so cold I end up putting arm warmers on at half 11.
Despite the rather dreadful ascend, the descent was pleasant enough to make me forget the first climb, well mainly because the next climb is going to be the Aubisque.
It’s now 12pm, very late in the day, I really do not like riding at midday when the sun is in full frontal, exposing it’s terrific heat on me, and I got the Aubisque to deal with, I treat it (as well as the other Big Cimbs) with respect, thinking that the last five days have merely been a training ride to deal with the real stuff.
I made the mistake of taking the quieter D240 from Beost, the midday sun and the tiny narrow lane was tricky, I stayed on 36/28 the entire time trying not to put too much effort to loosen the lockring again, in retrospect the main road would have been quicker despite being a lots longer with traffic.
It’s plain sailing to the spa town of Eaux-Bonnes, tried to find somewhere to eat but they’re already closed, had a blueberry tart and coke instead, 2pm, I’m feeling fine, was worrying, the more I feel fine, the worst the climb will get.
It never gotten worst.
Apart from the 13% apex out of Eaux-Bonnes, it was a rather gentle climb, it was great, I took it easy, spinning away on 36/25 listening to music from the iPod, the landscape was awesome to behold, lots of trees and overhanging rocks hiding the small river in the bottom of the valley, I went through the ski resort of Gourette which look rather brutal out of season.
The view is never tiring, the more I climbed, the better it get, and the smaller I felt as I look down by the side of the mountain, seeing where I’ve came from, it never gotten harder, I don’t think it ever exceed 10% for the whole duration, I kept waiting for that hard bit until I saw the familiar giant bicycles in the three classification colour way, already I’ve climbed the Aubisque, and loved it.
The Soulor is an underrated climb that take you through the best of the Aubisque, overhanging rocks, narrow cliff, tunnels, the lots, I almost hit a wall on one of the tunnel in my stupid attempt of overtaking every single roadie at 60km/h because I got disc and a lower handlebar set-up than they do.
I didn’t even fucking learn.
This is when I learnt about the difference between aerodynamic and gravity, I was certain the extra weight I was carrying propelled me quickly down the mountain, but the panniers managed to created a massive drag resulting in a max speed of 70km/h, frustratingly pedalling at 46/11 and tucking myself as low as possible, hiding my face behind the handlebar bag does nothing to break that barrier.
4.30pm, got into the town of Argeles-Gazost, look very big, sandwiched between the two big climbs, there must be a bike shop nearby, went to tourist information, got address to camp side further south in Soulom, and a shop near the end of the town.
The owner is pretty miserable, don’t know why, told me off for bringing my bike in, hung it up outside, took rear wheel off, need a proper lockring tool to tighten it a bit more, owner decided to put too much force and promptly stripped the thread of the free hubs body.
Fuck.
He look at me as if there’s nothing else he can do, after much miscomminication, he took out the expensive 11-32 cassette as the alu lockring is much wider, installed it and voila, it finally tight enough to hold the cassette properly.
Good thing I have a 11 speed free hub body at home to replace it with.
Walked out with a small gear of 32/36, feeling much better, the ratios a little odd but can get used to it, rode down to Soulom to get to the camp site, pitch up the tent, I’m the only cyclist there, well the only one who doesn’t come by cars with a massive tent overshadowing mobile home.
9/10
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5880052
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Santander to Perpignan - Tour Daily
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@edscoble
Nice updates, Ed.