It is hard to believe that we have been here almost a week. And six straight days on a bicycle toughens some parts of the anatomy and chafes others.
Very cloudy when we woke to have breakfast at the Hotel des Cimes, which Gordon commented must be a sister hotel to the Hotel Paradis in Lourdes. We couldn't hit the road soon enough.
Last year we had ridden up to the Col du Soulor, following the main road. Joe suggested an alternative route to the town of Arrens-Marsous, which involved going over the Col des Borderes. We were game, even though no famous people had ever conquered this col and no stage of the Tour had ever passed over it.
It was worth the effort. The road winds through farming villages, along a river that flows swiftly down to the valley. The weather was holding for us, although dark clouds were everywhere. Although it is only a category 3 climb, the latter part had some portions that were 8% and above. We went over the summit and then headed down to Arrens-Marsous, which was a delightful downhill through the forest and into a pretty Pyreneean town. The rain began to spit, but as we climbed out of town on to the route to the Soulor it stopped. For a moment we hoped that it would clear up, as the sun struggled to come out despite the heavy cloud cover.
We were passed on the road to Soulor by three folks from Portland, Oregon - Jim, Ann and David. I promised that I would post their picture from the summit of the Soulor and I have. They were exceptionally nice people and we saw them again when we had lunch at the top of the Col d'Aubisque. But more on that later.
We got to the top of Soulor and the clouds were thick. We decided to make a break for the Aubisque. It is only 300 meters higher, and you climb that distance over almost 7.5 km. We had a smooth and gliding downhill for a brief bit and then we were hit with a cold and steady rain. We donned as much rain gear as we had and pedaled on. After all, we had not traveled all these miles to miss climbing what is really the last of the famous cols in the Pyrenees that we hadn't done. The road was spectacular, built into the side of a cliff looking over a beautiful lush valley. The problem was that we couldn't see a thing, as the fog was so thick and the rain so hard that it was all we could do to see in front of us. But we made it - wet, cold and tired - to the top. It was the stage of the Tour in 2007 that Rasmussen won, finishing at the Aubisque, only to be dismissed from the team that night for failing to disclose his whereabouts during training the weeks before.
Another bowl of garbure at the restaurant at the top of the col hit the spot. We saw our now, new friends from Portland and wished them well on their journey.
We decided to load the bikes in the van and not attempt the descent in the fog and rain. Good call. It was basically tough weather all the way back to Pau. We arrived about 3:30, packed up our bicycles and began the process of thinking about re-entering our regular lives. More on that later.
Dinner tonight was at a Moroccan restaurant. Excellent food and Pau is really a delightful little city. And now it's time to sign off, after posting a few pictures. I will try to wrap this up in the next day or so, but I want to take a little time on the flight home to reflect.
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