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@jonny
sorry for taking yonks but for anyone still interested some pics and few words.
all fucking gravy in the pyrenees.
spent the first couple of days on all day hikes and then on the third took a rest day and went rafting. it gave the legs a rest but due to a shortage of water was a good few hours of rowing.
cancelled the high end spec booked prior to travelling when we realised there was a semi-decent bike hire place in our local town - Argeles Gazost.
me and the missus got ourselves a couple of quite ordinary but perfectly serviceable Cannondales - CAD4.
anyway, we took a ride up three Cols on the wednesday. the Col de Borderes, Col de Soulor and the Col D'Aubisque. the smaller Col de Borderes literally started at our campsite so could not be avoided. though small it has varyingly been classed as a Cat 3 and a Cat 1 in the Tour.
I understand that the category given to a climb can very dependent on where it is tackled in the stage. So I am taking it as a Cat 3 on the way out (where it was a piece of piss) and Cat 1 on the way back (certainly a lot harder after the hilly miles in the legs at that point).
Dropping off it into Arrens it was straight up the Soulor and then on to the Aubisque. To be honest the Soulor was the main climb because coming at the Aubisque from this side meant most of the hard work is done there.
(got to the top of the Aubisque only to realise Flickwg had got there before us)
The road between the Soulor and on to the Aubisque was without doubt the most spectacular of the riding done. Castellated walls, a couple of tunnels, amazingly clear sunny day for glorious views. Needless to say, the pictures don't do it justice.
Next day I went off solo to tackle the col du Tourmalet. Pretty much parked up about 30k from the summit and jumped on the wheels. It was just climb, climb, climb, but never anything steep.
You get a sign every kilometre telling you your altitude and the average gradient for the next kilometre. I think with the 12k to go sign had an average of 10.5% and I started thinking shit that is getting a little steep a bit early. But the average never went over that and in fact hovered around 9%.
You just sit on your bike and turn the pedals, and watch the sweat and rain just drip on to your top tube. Was grateful to have a granny ring on the bike. Didn't resort to it the day before but the Tourmalet is relentless and I was happy to have the extra gear.
With 10k to go the storm began. Riding through clouds. Dodging cows on the road. You could hear their bells long before you could see the whites of their dopey eyes through the mist. Clear for the last 4k from La Mongie to the top, and managed to pick off a couple of others doing the climb in that last drag. Windy as fuck at the top, fork lightning, a whole load of angry natural stuff - the stuff that permits you to use the word, epic.
aand was grateful to sink a quick coffee, get the warm warmers and gilet on and get ready for the descent. Stuck her in the big ring and let rip - fucking awesome, despite practically zero vis for about 5k of it.
Definitely want to get back there or the Alps and spend a week riding, rather than just a couple of days.
all fucking gravy