… installed in a different but very nice flat.
Had some food, went back to have a wee rest, before our first ride.
But woke up quite a bit later and decided that Tourmalet had to wait for us. Because getting the early flight had knocked us out for six.
Getting ready for food, and will plan tomorrows route, which gotta include shade and lots of water because it is hot, hot, hot here.
-H

… error of 6 million and change.
At the Stansted Airport we found out that my printer had given up, and only printed the part it wanted and not the bar code, on my quick tickets or whatever you call them, but all was fine on Peli’s going out one. But a quick queue jumping we got a new boarding card for me and off we went tru’ the security.
We arrived in Pau to find Rachel from Les Sorbiers who took Peli and her sister and me back to Bareges. Coming from London this place was very scorchio, even with the windows open in the mini bus it was like sitting with a hair dryer in your face.
On the route back we went by a LBS to get some energy drink since we had forgotten, well just not organised ourselves. We got 2 pots of Overstims, Hydrixier in ‘the-peche’ and ‘fruits rouges’ flavours.
The grand total came to 6.235.476,43 euros.
Erm, said the lady behind the counter. ‘Je crois que la machine a chaud’. I think the machine is a bit hot. A little fettling with the machine and we got the right total.
Arrived in Bareges to find Dave still about and …

Our trip to Bareges, France, on the Tourmalet in 2009

Time to pack and relax, as we have a early start tomorrow in order to get to the airport and some of us have to be back at work on Saturday. Speak to you all when back in the big smog.

Yawn, it started early. Well, we had to get up before Peli’s mum and go for the fresh pain, croissants, tarte aux myrtilles and newspapers. She had been doing that for last nearly 2 weeks and it was her birthday after all. Wink
So, after breakfast in bed for Peli’s mum we went to the local Bareges mecredi market, to stock up on miel (from the Ruchers du Tourmalet – yummy) and saucissons (au fromage brebis). And then we took “Basil” the Edinburgh Bicycles folder and mum over to the bouleodrome for a bit of cycle training, as that was my gift to her. She had a great time and got more confident with her road positioning and emergency stops. Smiley
The weather forecast the previous night had predicted a grey start to the day to then become rain in the afternoon… so of course the cycle training and the trip to the market was done in glorious sunshine. And after a lavish lunch Peli talked me into attacking the top 11km of the Tourmalet again for the last time of this holiday.
 
We set off in sunshine with four tired legs but after a few kms they figured out that we were …

Our surprise attack on the Tourmalet failed Sad
Pretty much every day we have headed out on a ride down the Tourmalet (2115m) and disappeared into the hills for a day’s riding. But today we were planning to surprise the Tourmalet by going down the mountain and then, about turn, right away up it. See the Tourmalet will never see that coming! Our sneaky attack went well all the way up to Bareges, @ 5miles up and 1250m, with a good speed and fewer stops to re-fuel than before.
But, just after Bareges, the Tourmalet must have got a whiff of what we were planning to do, and started to lay out a thick fog to cover its tracks. @ 9km and 1450m we had a tactical stop and re-fuel, discussing our options, and decided to continue our attack. But shortly after that meeting we had to beat our retreat since the fog had become too thick to penetrate on a bike without lights.
 
This is when it was clearing up on the way down.
So we are now back at HQ with tea and biscuit, just like true Brits, and thinking what Churchill would have done in this dark hour.
Only a tad …

 
We had a sleep in and headed out for a 4 hours walk up Montagne Fleurie right behind Bareges. Though it was hot, very humid and us being tired from yesterday we decided to cut it short. We got to walk down the old road leading up to the Tourmalet for a bit, a lovely 2 hours walk and now rest with a cuppa tea and biscuit.
 
 
The old road up Tourmalet.
Click here to read Part XII

We got up fairly early by holiday standards, and started to get ready for a ride. The classic Tour finish of the Hautacam! The route which would take us from Bareges (1250m) down through Luz St Sauveur (696m) and the long gorge descent down to the foot of Hautacam (453m) and then up to Hautacam (1520m) and still up to the Col de Tramassel (1635m) and then up to the cafe at the top (even higher up!!). We’d then do it all in reverse to turn it into a 55mile ride and 1864 metres of climbing in 5 hours and 30min.
 
As we were coming down the gorge we saw a cyclosportive of some sort coming up the gorge, around 100 people with a few support motorcycles and a broom wagon and 2 miles of queueing cars behind. The broom wagon was marked “UV Lourdes” – must look that up when we’re home.
Some of the riders didn’t half look knackered…
 
Starting at the bottom of Hautacam you can’t see the top or anything that looks like it is supposed to be a heck of a climb, other than the signs saying “Hautacam 1520m, 13km, 8%” (over the next one km). What …

Well we got really bitten by the holiday bug. So bad that we stayed up until we were falling asleep into our books. Peli was taken by “Case Histories” by Kate Atkinson and I was finishing off Bill Bryson’s “Shakespeare” and then started on “John Deering – A team on the run”.
 
Therefore our planned early start went out of the window, and we decided to walk up to La Croix de St Justin for a lovely sunny picnic with Peli’s mum.
 
 
The road up to the Tourmalet.
When we arrived back we went to the local spa, the Thermes de Bareges, for a 15min bath/massage in sulphur water, which made us all feel nicely relaxed. The spa has a near-religious following in France and the world as the water is said to be able to cure every thing. Napolean even brought his armies to be healed here. As we entered we where told that we should follow the hallway down and then take some steps a floor down, though they forgot to tell us that the stairs were behind a door so not easy to spot. We ended up walking down this very eerie corridor, with cubicals on each side …

30″ gear is dead; long live the 28″ gear !!
 
We decided to go a have a look at Spain, so we rolled down the Tourmalet for 5 miles into Luz St Sauveur (684m) to start our 20 miles steady climb uphill to Port de Boucharo (2270m), via Gavarnie (1365m). Hola! And then it was pretty much 20 miles downhill back to Bareges (1250m) *), though we did have to pedal since we had a head wind back.
*) remember that Bareges is 5 miles up the Tourmalet, which I now have done 3 times.
 
As we were climbing up to Gavarnie we were passed by a Spanish cyclist on a old steel frame, sleak thin tubes, triple chainset and all painted in a faded orangey-yellow colour with his name painted all over, “Martin”. Peli at first let him go, but I could see that she really wanted to reel him back and I told her to “go on, I know you want to”, “NO” was her answer. “I’m too knackered!”. But half a mile later she started, and I had to work hard to keep up with her as we passed him.
 
We arrived at Gavarnie, for a quick break …