While I enjoy climbing mountains on foot and on skis I also spend a large amount of time on two wheels. I haven’t been doing much skiing or climbing lately so I thought I’d do a quick cycling post.
Last week I was doing a bit of work in France and I also had my bike with me. I managed a couple of flat 80km rides around Toulouse before moving on to the Pyrenees. I had not cycled in the mountains before so I didn’t quite know what to expect when tackling my first major climbs. The Col de Marie Blanque was short at 9.5km but steep in places for the last 3 or 4 kilometres. I rode it from the Escot side as part of a 100km loop from Pau.
A couple of days later I hooked up with Jon, our warehouse manager, in Lourdes and we tackled the Col du Tourmalet together. We rode up from Sainte Marie de Campan on a very hot day. With the Tour de France also passing by that afternoon I managed to reach the top despite the best efforts of the Gendarmes to stop me. I watched the stage come past right on the Col before descending down to Luz Saint Saveur and back down the valley to Lourdes.
