Thursday, July 26th
Another day in cycling paradise. With Nicola sufficiently well enough to be left alone with the kids, I disappeared early over to the next valley to get in a ride. Starting off from Argeles-Gazost (AG) again, I went round the famous roundabout and headed south this time towards Luz-Ardiden just as I had seen the pros do many times on the television. What I was not aware of however was that pros are allowed to ride down a one way street the wrong way so my emulating-the-heroes moment lasted for precisely 100m. 2km and three laps around down town AG later, I eventually found the road I wanted and the ride started properly! The 14km to the foot of the climb in Luz-Saint-Sauveur went through the spectacular Gorge de Luz, with sheer cliffs on either side and a fast flowing river at my side. It was awesome cycling with a gradual 3% gradient to get the blood flowing (and provided a fun 45-50km/h zoom down hill back to the car later). The actual climb of Luz-Ardiden was really good and quite tough. The views over the valley down to Luz-Saint-Sauveur with the Tourmalet on the horizon were breathtaking. With 7km remaining the trees ended and it was into alpine meadows with the ski station and the winding road up to it in full sight. The fact that you can see so clearly where you are headed and how much climbing is left is both motivating and intimidating at the same time. At the top there was absolutely nothing except a closed ski lift so a quick photo was taken and it was off back down the hill. This was my first hors categorie (HC) climb and I can see why these are above category. With the category 1 climbs on Monday there were some easier sections of less than 7% where you could get your breath back. Not so with the HC climb today. It was all climbing and no respite but great fun at the same time.
I was back home by lunchtime, and with Nicola still without energy the kids and I disappeared to find a playground while she rested. Playgrounds are rare commodities in France but we had directions to one so off we went. We had no luck finding the playground but did find a crazy/miniature golf place so played a round in the heat of the afternoon sun the celebrated our exception golfing prowess with ice creams. One the way home we spotted the elusive playground so it was a successful outing.
Tomorrow, I head back to AG for a steeper and slightly 17km HC climb to the ski station of Hautacam, however this will be a "quick" straight up and down ride from AG (assuming I can find my way out) as I need to be home for 10am as a family visit to Lourdes has been planned. Apparently Lourdes is a place where many miracles have been performed so I am going to see if I can mingle with the pilgrims and get immunity from sore legs and saddles sores for the rest of the trip. Wish me luck.
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