Cent col day 8: What no rain?

Sprits very high today, the end is in sight and common consensus is that the real hard work is behind us. Weather forecast for today was good and so it turns out to be – blue skies once more. I have finally also found my climbing legs – after 7 days of struggling up mountains I can finally now get up them without too much mental or physical torture, now getting to the top of most of them without stopping on the way up (I never stopped for long previously, just for 30 seconds or so to release the lactic and have a sip of drink once every 30 minutes or so).

A stunningly pretty day, bouncing along the side of a valley, mountains with their first dusting of snow in the background (validating our decision not to go up Tourmalet, it did indeed snow).

Had an epic battle of the tailenders with Jenny – she’s a good climber and a great athlete (having done Ultraman which is a double ironman – so that’s an 10km ocean swim, 420km bike then a double marathon to finish, awesome stuff). I saw her closing in on me a few km from the top of the big climb of the day, Port de Pailheres, a 19km climb with the top 10km averaging 9%. There was no way on gods earth I was going to be beaten to the top and I had a lot of fun busting my guts ensuring it was the case. All good fun.

Brief stats: Distance: 185km; Height gained: 4,800; Cols claimed: 10; Max speed 67km / hr