Pyrenees - September 2022

At last! The senior team gets to cycle in the Pyrenees, and with great riding conditions all week. 

Our base, the Hôtel Terminus in Luz-Saint-Saveur in the heart of the Haute Pyrenees south of Lourdes, with our adventures organised by Rob of pyreneescycling.com. 

We made up a small group, riding with John and Mike, and 19-year old Finlay Pickering, a pro racer with Groupama FDJ. Needless to say, he rode two to three times faster than the GRAC and did some epic routes. An example. We toiled up Hourquette d’Ancizan and the Col d’Aspin having been driven over the Col de Tourmalet to our start point. Finlay cycled over the Tourmalet, knocked off our two cols, then cycled back over the Tourmalet to Luz. And he got back before we did. Nuff said!!

So, the week in a little more detail…

 

Day 1

A warm up for the Prez, Jan and Heyddie before the group assembled later in the day. We headed south to climb to the Col de Troumouse at 1833m. Lovely road and virtually free of traffic at the top end, with just marmots, griffin vultures and sheep for company. 

50km, +1170m, 3h 1m

Day 2

With the group now together, we descended the Gorge de Luz to Argelès-Gazost, about 12km north towards Lourdes. To warm up after a cold descent we rode the local Voie Vert, ‘Green Way,’ before embarking on the 13.6km climb up to Hautacam at 1530m, this year the finishing point of stage 18 of the Tour de France. 

This was a tough, unrelenting climb with an average slope of 7.8%, and some long sections above 10%. The slope between distance markers 6 and 5km to the top was 11%. Great views from the top and we ventured a little higher to gain the Col de Tramassel and a quick refreshment stop. 

Back the way we came, had a quick lunch and then a long hot grind back up the Gorge, a very tiring conclusion to the day. 

71km, +1558m, 3h 49m

Day 3

The ride to the Col des Tentes at 2207m took us back up the road we used on day one, but this time going straight on to the touristy village of Gavarnie. Uphill all the way, but the climb really started with a sharp right turn on to a 10km slope averaging 8.5%. A beautiful road with very little traffic and a decent surface too. 

An abundance of marmots and some vultures seen and heard.

It was a long grind, at times into a strong gusting wind, but the top brought outstanding views to the Cirque de Garvanie, a huge mountain amphitheater on the border with Spain.  

We enjoyed a lovely descent on sweeping hairpin bends and grabbed lunch in Gavarnie before a fast drop back to Luz-Saint-Saveur. 

61km, +1573m, 3h 51m. Jan in top form today too!

Day 4

One of our best cycling days ever. 

We enjoyed cloudless skies and were quickly on to quiet rolling hills after another descent down to Argelès-Gazost. 

The route took us through the beautiful villages of St. Savin and Arcizans before we joined the main road towards Aucun. 

It was here that our first climb of the day began, our objective the Col de Solour at 1474m. This was a 10km ascent, averaging over 8% and with one, thankfully short, ramp of 17%. A great top, populated by local horses. Apparently, they have been known to chew handlebars in search of salt. Yuk. 

Then, west to our second objective of the day, the infamous Col d’Aubisque at 1709m. This involved a relatively exposed 2km descent, a flat 4km with a couple of tunnels, and finally a pull to the summit with a slope of 6-7%. This was a truly magnificent road to cycle along, narrowly traversing a high valley slope with awesome views at every turn.

We returned the way we came, consuming an enormous ham & cheese baguette at the Col de Solour, before a great descent down through Aucun and then direct to Argelés-Gazost, the Voie Vert again, and then the inevitable drag back up to Luz. Today’s ‘twin peaks’ formed part of this year’s Tour de France route. 

93.9km, +1919m, 4h 55m. The Prez in good form today. 

Day 5

Our task today, just a climb up to Col de Luz-Ardiden at 1735m. A superb route, with 31 hairpin bends and wonderful views throughout. Steep in parts but climbed first thing in comfortable temperatures. Great views from the top and a safe descent on very quiet roads. 

Luz-Ardiden 29km, +1079m, 2h 4m. Jan lead the charge today.

But then...a new plan was hatched over coffee and cake back in Luz. Why not carry on and tackle the mighty Col du Tourmalet, the highest road pass in the Pyrenees at 2115m?

Decision made and we committed ourselves to a further sufferfest, especially as the late morning sun sent temperatures soaring. A route of 18.5km with 1385m of ascent at an average slope of 7.5% faced us but, like lambs to the slaughter, we headed up the busy road from Luz. Beyond the attractive ski town of Barèges, with about 700m in our legs, we turned off the main drag on to the ‘old route’ named after Laurent Fignon, a French cyclist nicknamed ‘The Professor’, who won the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984 (and the Giro d’Italia in 1989). Fabulous riding on a road barred to traffic, with massive views, just sheep and cattle to keep us company. Some surface and rockfall challenges in places, but a great way to get a lot of the climbing done, joining the main road again just 4km from the Col. And it’s here that the real work begins, exposed sections with massive drops, some rockfall and some strong wind gusts to contend with too. The last 500m are the hardest, at well over 10%, but were greeted by an ebullient Jan who beat us the top. Chapeau!

A quick refreshment stop at the top and then the long, fast descent on the main road back to Luz. Needless to say, it scared the hell out of the Prez. 

A massive day!

Tourmalet 37.6km, 1404m, 2h 58m

Day 6

A van transfer across the Col du Tourmalet for our group (except for Finn who cycled it!) and we were all very pleased to have cycled it from the west the day before rather than the 17km drag from St.-Marie-de-Campan on the east side. From there it takes you through the ugly ski resort of La Mongie before ramping, steeply in places, to the Col itself. 

From St.-Marie-de-Campan we rode south-eastwards up the Payolle valley, steadily gaining 300m, before turning off the main road to tackle our first proper climb of the day, the Hourquette d’Ancizan.

Climbing from 1133m to the top at 1564m with an average gradient of 5.1% (max 8.8%), this was a nice start to the day, up through the woods before reaching an expansive area of open pastures surrounded by peaks. Heyddie in good form today. 

A huge griffin vulture kept us company on the approach to the Col. 

A fine top, only sullied by a challenging 10km descent on a very narrow and roughly surfaced road that took us steeply down through forest to the small hamlet of Ancizan, with tight hairpins and limited forward visibility. It terrified the Prez. 

From Ancizan we headed north on the busy D929 to grab a quick lunch in the bustling market town of Arreau. 

And then on to our next objective, the Col d’Aspin at 1489m. Incidentally, both of today’s cols were also crossed by the Tour de France earlier this year. 

Heyddie continued with his good form and led the way up a great road, nicely surfaced and with huge vistas throughout.  

It was a straightforward descent on sweeping hairpins to reach the Payolle valley and then a final charge north to meet the van at St.-Marie-de-Campan. 

A lovely day to finish on, and a boozy evening dinner was enjoyed by all. 

57.2km, +1616m, 3h 52m. 

Summary

A superb week, ably organised by our congenial host Rob with his encyclopaedic local knowledge and a nose for the best rides in changeable mountain conditions. 

The team climbed six cols used by the Tour de France and rode 400km over the six days, with a total ascent of 10,319m (34,000 feet). There’s life in these old dogs yet 😀

Carlos and Tommy do the Tour de France - July 2022

Wednesday 6 July 

After a busy few days at work, the long weekend to watch Le Tour was about to start.

Thankfully, we had enough time to enjoy a lovely slow-cooked beef dish at Casa Parsons before we loaded up the Volvo with essential kit and bikes and leave Leeds for the 269 miles to Folkestone where we had a 01:20 train booked.

Knowing there was a small possibility of making an earlier train, the surprisingly quiet UK roads quickly helped us make the call to press on as much as we could while the going was good. Four and a half hours later, our first stop on the trip was to get our passports stamped at customs as we joined the queue for a 23:20 train.

Thursday 7 July

On French soil just before midnight, we again made the decision to press on as much as we could, taking turns to sleep while the other drove. The strategy was a roaring success and we enjoyed an 0600 pain au chocolate in the beautiful town of Dijon. After a quick wander, café in a square, obligatory mustard purchase, we were back on the road driving towards our accommodation in Belfort, 15 miles from the Swiss border.

Belfort is in a natural gap between the Vosges and Jura mountains, and as such has been a natural target for most advancing armies. To aid its defence, it is shadowed by an impressive Citadel, designed by Sebastian le Prestre, recognised as one of the most important military engineers in Western military history.

To recognise the town’s courage during the 103-day siege in the Franco-Prussian War, the citadel is now fronted with an enormous red sandstone Lion. At 22 metres long and 11 metres high, it is still France’s largest sculpture, and designed by non-other than Frederic Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty… It’s amazing what you can learn while waiting for lunch to be served in a town square!

Friday 8 July

After a petit dejeuner of croissants and pain au chocolat on the balcony of a fantastic Airbnb on the river, we packed the car ready for a rapid post-stage evacuation, and set off on the bikes to pick up the route of Stage 7: Tomblaine to La Super Planche Des Belle Filles, this year’s first mountain top finish.

Exiting town on the impressive cycle paths was super easy and we quickly found ourselves on the stage route. Excitement was building, tarmac was painted, and fans of all ages were cycling to The Plank of Beautiful Girls! Only one problem: access to the climb was closed off by some very aggressive gendarmes. Our GCSE French was enough to learn that the road was closed to cyclists and if we wanted to ascend, we had to leave the bikes at the bottom and walk up. However, this wasn’t what we had come for, so we decided to bypass Bergerac and his goons by finding an alternative route onto La Planche. 

After riding on for 800 metres, we embraced our ‘inner cyclocrosser’ and scaled the side of the mountain up a 45° slope covered in trees and rocks. With bikes on shoulders and a major struggle climbing the steep slope in cleats, we were helped up onto the road by French fans impressed by our goat-like abilities, appearing half a mile up the climb out of sight of the Pink Panthers!

Not long after we started riding the 7km at 8.8% gradient, Snips was out of sight as I plugged away, regretting my decision not to lose weight or train for the weekend away! Despite the hurt, being cheered on by thousands of expectant fans made it all a little easier, and for fleeting moments you get a glimpse of what it must be like for a real rider to race up the hill… most likely it’s twice as loud and twice as fast… but I bet they didn’t enjoy a Flammekuerche and sausage with a few beers the day before while reading about a rock lion!

Once at the top, we downed a beer with lunch before finding a good spot to watch the pros pass…with a cheeky Heiny to help pass the two hours to race arrival. 

It is now custom that on completion of a mountain stage, the racers don a jacket, grab a whistle (a trend started by US Postal) to warn beer drinking fans, and whizz back down the mountain in search of their team bus. Once the voiture balai had passed, we hopped on the bike and joined the pros and fans whistling down the mountain. Managing to get on the wheels of a Lotto and Movistar rider who were clearing the way with their whistles, it was amazing to get incredibly close to the riders and see how good they are on their bikes. We thought we were descending like demons, only to look up and see they were riding one handed, sipping on recovery shake and chatting about the stage, all whilst weaving in and out for drunk fans.

Back at the car, we loaded up and drove four hours to Morzine, arriving the right side of midnight and clocking 1000.5 miles since leaving Leeds.

Saturday 9 July

Waking up to the sight of the Alps was glorious, and after a quick breakfast we met up with GK who had flown in the day before with his Lytham cycling buddies and joined them for a ‘short’ 50-mile loop before returning to Morzine via the Col de Joux Plane.

The first two climbs of Col d’Ecrenaz and the Col de la Renaz were tough but we had the pleasure of a glorious view of Mont Blanc on the descent. The thought of a nice lunch in Taninges before the final challenge of the Joux Plane kept us going. But, we’d barely sat down in a quaint restaurant by the river before slow service was spotted and we were back on the bikes in search of a supermarket. This turned out to be a genius move, as GK who was coming back via a slightly easier pass still hadn’t been given a menu 30 minutes later.

Half a ripped pain, stuffed with ham and cheese slices, moistened with squeezy mayo (butter is impossible without a knife) in the carpark of Taninges SuperU wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it might just be the best sarnie I’ve ever had.

The Joux Plane… Christ almighty that is some climb! 11.6km and 1,691m of ascent. Snips once again engaged his natural power and was quickly out of sight, dancing up the climb at an average of 285W!!! For a man the same size two Alberto Contadors he shouldn’t be able to ride uphill as fast as he does and I’ve already been in contact with the UCI to instigate a doping probe.

The struggle was over in just over an hour for Snips, before I collapsed at the top ten minutes later. After a beer at the top and big ring engaged, we averaged 29 mph back to Morzine down a beautifully flowing road with lots of wide-open corners peppered with few hairpins that got brake discs so hot they sizzled when our water bottles dripped on them. See https://videos.kinomap.com/en/watch/6zsnjk

Sunday 10 July

The Lytham lads had a guide for the day and set off bight and early for what would be a brutal day on the bike. Thankfully, Snips and I had an easier day, despite needing to ride 25 miles with 3,225ft of climbing to get to the stage finish at Châtel. In our way was the Col du Corbier, a pesky 2.86 mile climb averaging 8.6%. Yesterday’s ride had broken us, so, soon after summiting we found a lunch spot and devoured a fantastic burger washed down with Orangina before riding the final few km’s to the finish line.

After a second lunch our cycle down the mountain to a viewing spot was prevented by some very forceful gendarmes, so we settled for an elevated slope at around 1km to go. Snips, always looking for corporate social responsibility activities, decided to help with Châtel in Bloom’s endeavours and de-nettled a large piece of embankment before sitting down to wait for the race to arrive.

The caravan took great delight in firing goodies at the two English blokes, perilously clinging onto a 45° slope, now only partially covered in weeds…little did they know we had honed our climbing abilities on the Planche des Belles Filles and managed to acquire a bountiful supply of casquettes and washing powder samples. Snips had spotted a fan’s walking poles when we got into position, and in his finest Frenglish, bartered two sachets of washing powder, an Asterix colouring book, and a Total Energie key ring in exchange for the temporary loan of one of the poles, creating what can only be described as the finest flag in France.

The pros soon arrived, strung out in single fine accelerating to the finish line and Yorkshire's Tom Pidcock was losing the wheel, until that is, he saw a man mountain, waving the white rose over the road shouting “play with his balls Pidders”. This was all the encouragement young Tom needed and he quickly closed the gap.

Race over, Snips led me back to Morzine for a snooze by the pool before enjoying the finest bars the town had to offer… where we decided the next awayday was going to be the Strada Bianchi Sportive 2024. Save the date chaps.

Monday 11 July

A long day in the car was made possible by selection of classic French road snacks before crossing the Channel and driving back up t’Yorkshire, reaching Leeds at 0100 Tuesday and me back to Ripon for 0200. A long but thoroughly enjoyable weekend.

A Weekend ‘Down South’ – May 2022

En route to our weekend base in Lymington, Heyddie, Jan and The Prez popped into El Caso Quintana in Amersham to meet our training guide Niallo for an afternoon exploration of leafy Buckinghamshire and Herts.

 

Bidding farewell to MariAnna Vos and aspiring MTB rider Finncenzo Nibali, we enjoyed a 55km ride with 632m of ascent in fine weather, some steep descents to test The Prez’s nerves once again, but a fine warm-up ride expertly led by Niallo. Beautiful villages and some great looking pubs mean that we’ll be riding this way again.

An evening of excessive rehydration followed, accommodated in the circular pods of The Lion of Beaconsfield in Knotty Green, ensuring that the senior GRAC team were in quiet recovery mode as we sped south to Lymington on our second day together. A ‘hair of the dog’ lunch at the Angel and Blue Pig, a short walk followed by a long nap, and then some excellent carbo-loading at Rivaaz ensured that we’d all be needing some fresh air the following day.

 

So, the main event has arrived. An early ferry to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, readying us for our circumnavigation of the island. A chilly day this, with cross-winds expected for much of the ride, but thankfully no rain forecast despite thunderous cloud building on the mainland. Very busy roads eastbound needed our full attention, as did the various coastal towns on the north coast, and the lack of coastal views on this section was disappointing. 

 

But, as we turned into the wind south from Ryde, we hit the coast and the views improved considerably. A lunch of fresh prawn and crab sandwiches took forever in the ‘Best Dressed Crab’ café in Bembridge (waitress: “we’re not McDonalds”…yeh, thanks for that, but a 40 minute wait for simple sandwiches was somewhat trying). Roads were still busy but lightened as we passed through Shanklin and encountered some decent climbs as we headed west through and beyond Ventnor.

And now the riding really improved. Long stretches of quiet, well-surfaced roads took us swiftly westwards, parallel to a fine clifftop coastal path, and we were able to form a proper peloton with nice views to the sea in brightening weather. A final climb up from Freshwater Bay led us northwards again, and suddenly we were back at the port. 95km in all, ride time 4h 17m, with 1385m of ascent. 

 

Of course, the final evening with the WAGs had to be done properly and a good dinner, disco fizz and some fine wines at the Kings Head Inn nicely concluded the weekend. Thanks to Heyddie and Mrs Merckx for organising, and commiserations to Alberto and Mrs Johntador who had to retire from the weekend proceedings before they really got started.