Stage 13 Col du Soulour and Col d'Aubisque

I was totally awestruck by the beauty of the Pyrenees today. You have to imagine slogging your way up a hill for 1 hour 20 mins to the mountain pass Col du Soulour before taking a break and moving on to the even more stunning mountain pass of Col d'Aubisque.

On the first climb, you are grinding away for 20 kms uphill and your cycling guide tells you it's a longer climb than yesterday but not as steep. Well I reckon I got well and truly suckered on that one. Certainly was just as steep and longer. The first 11% gradients I thought were just an anomaly but no, some smart arse puts up a sign every km telling you how many kms to go and the av gradient but I swear it's always 11% after each sign !! Dare and I concur on that point but of course Queen of the Mountain Yvette just spins merrily away but we make her pay for it on the downhills and flats.
I suppose the other thing that Dare and I discovered was that Beer and Wine aren't the best recovery drinks after yesterday's ascent of Luz Ardiden. Mmm lesson learnt.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/99322790
However lest I am giving you a false impression, I was totally blown away by the view of the valley and mountainous limestone craggy peaks unfolding before you after several kms. I took plenty of video and my commentary repeats "unbelievable, amazing and living the dream" too many times to count. Not only that, but you pass flocks of sheep being herded up the mountain road to the tunes of cow bells wafting up the valley. I simply can't describe the vistas for you and a picture is worth a thousand words.

Col d'Solour

 

 

At the summit of Soulour

Once at the top, it got even better. We put on more clothing as there was a bit of descending and ascending to get to the Col d'Aubisque. The road is basically carved out of the side of the mountain and once again the valley opens up before you with even having to ride through pitch black tunnels hacked out of the mountain. I really am looking forward to that section of video.

Here's a pic of the 4 musketeers. This is taken on the road to Aubisque and the road in the background on the other side of the valley is the road we climbed to Soulour.

The arrival at Aubisque basically meant the ride home would exactly follow today's race route including two fast and long descents; Col d'Aubisque to Col du Soulour and down to Argeles-Gazos and on to Lourdes. It was a fantastic run on newly resurfaced bitumen roads. Plenty of fast corners and newly relaid hot melt bitumen. However a very large touch of sadness as we passed an accident on the way down. Our bus driver Bruno had a collision with a cyclist ascending Col du Soulour. We hope he will be alright and is in hospital recuperating. Makes you stop and think. We'd ridden with him out from Lourdes today and up into the mountains and he was revelling in it and riding very strongly.

We steamed back into town with a solid rolling paceline for the 20 or so kms and found a bar / restaurant on the home straight to watch the race on the tele and jump out to watch Thor at the 300 m to go mark. He had a huge grin on his face knowing he had the stage in the bag. A great finish to a superb day of riding.

Thor Hushovd with 300 m to go

Philip Gilbert

Tommie Voeckler

Cadel leading the charge

and we finished with a walk around the Lourdes Cathedral area. Tomorrow is yet another big day to climb the famous Tourmalet in the Pyrenees which was already climbed twice in this year's Tour and the big showdown in last year's Tour between Andy Schleck and Contador.