After a fab and well earned rest day everyone is looking and feeling much happier, batteries and engines having been given an brief opportunity to recharge.
Only a mere 6 cols today but that includes two of the giants of the Pyrenees, the Aubisque and the Tourmalet, both very famous mountains. Out of the door and alas into rain. It starts off biblically wet then thankfully eases off to merely torrential before easing off once again to heavy rain. Up the valley we gradually climb for 40km and then onto the Aubisque for a 15km climb averaging 8%, a long hard slog up the mountain and pretty soon into the cloud base.
When we left Oloron our altitude was 200m and the weather was “wet and miserable”. Once we got up above 1500m however it gets pretty severe and at the top of the Aubisque at 1700m it is immediately obvious that we have some potentially serious issues with the temperature down to just above freezing and the rain still falling. Being cold when you are cycling is fine (so long as your core is warm). Being wet is also fine (again, so long as your core is dry). Being both cold and wet and having to do a 40km descent with the added windchill factor and your body not doing any work to keep warm and you very quickly are talking hypothermia, not really what you want when picking your way down the side of the mountain on a bike.
It does however show you what the elements can throw at you – a few days ago it was 40 degrees, now it’s just above freezing. Phil immediately goes into safety mode, depositing Scott, Jenny and Kelvin into the sag wagon in order to bunch the riders up a bit and abandoning plans to go up the Tourmalet. Tourmalet is a further 400m higher in altitude and there was a significant risk of snow – add that into our already bad mix and the decision to scrap it was easy. Three times now I’ve been here with the Tourmalet on my route, only once have I done the climb. That’s life in the mountains.
Lunch was a real life saver. We have a mobile lunch wagon provided by Claude the Butler http://www.claudthebutler.co.uk/about-us/ – it’s awesome – the best tasting freshest food you could imagine – today they served up a lovely spicy soup with lentils whilst the doctor did her best to warm up the riders who were suffering the most. Everyone was shivering, some almost uncontrollably.
After lunch thankfully not only does the rain stops but the sun comes out again (but we could still see up above us at altitude it was still pretty nasty) and a couple of hours later we’re all happy once again, tabbing on a large detour around the mountain picking up a small bonus col (and getting a bit lost) en route. Most people also missed the last climb of the day, Pla d’Adet as it was very late in the day but a few real heroes went up it.
My Garmin was also suffering from the harsh elements today, its battery life severely shortened by the cold so no track as I turned it off but from comparing notes we did somewhere in the region of 225km with a climb of circa 3,800m. Cols claimed: 5
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