71 miles
Today started out with brisk temperatures and overcast skies. I was quite sore and tired today, which may have been caused by the racing that we did to the finish line yesterday.
The upshot of this is that I went off the back of the group pretty much immediately. I rode most of the day thinking I was at the very back, but later found that others had stopped and I had passed them unknowingly. More on that later.
The climbing today consisted of three major climbs and a smattering of other general uphill thrown in for good measure. Leaving Tarascon, we immediately headed up the Pas de Souloumbrie (911m). The road was very small and there were huge limestone cliffs off to the right, occasionally with big holes which might have been entrances to caves. As is always the case in this part of the world, we passed through many small villages with stone houses and the occasional farmer walking up the road. In one village, three men were busy rebuilding the roof of a very old and very large house. It looked like quite a project.
After the summit, the road stayed up at altitude, bypassing a huge industrial complex down in the bottom of the valley (we could smell it way up where we were). We also bypassed the major town of Ax-les-Thermes. Well most of us did, Ron missed a turn and rode all the way down the hill into town before realizing what he had done, and had to climb all the way back out again. Despite this, he later caught up to me and passed me on the next climb. Ron is a machine, and 71 years old at that.
The next big climb was the Col de Marmare and Col de Chioula, which is actually just one climb because you continue uphill from the first to the second with no intermediate descent. The high point is at 1431m. The early part of the climb was one of my favorite roads so far, it was a tiny forest road, barely one lane wide, (if two cars encountered each other, they'd both have to drive off the pavement to pass). Also the views on this climb were fantastic and the grade was really gentle, something which we haven't had much of on this trip. At the top, however, it started to rain and things were looking grim for a while. The road was wet and I had to take it easy on the downhill. Luckily that didn't last long.
The final big climb of the day was also the final big climb of the tour. We still have five riding days left, but no big passes anymore. This final climb was the Col de Pailheres (or the Port de Pailheres, depending on who you ask) at 2001m. It was a brute of a climb, both steep and long, and very very cold on top. We went through a ski station halfway up and by the time we got to the summit we were at the level of the top of the lifts. I enjoyed seeing a couple of shepherds and their dogs herding sheep down on one of the ski slopes, which evidently double as grazing land in summer.
The back side of the Pailheres is a fantastic descent, and I regret not doing it as a climb. Outside of Alpe d'Huez, I've never seen so many switchbacks. The road was more like a ladder making its way down the side of the mountain. And the switchbacks were not the 1/4 mile switchbacks we've been seeing. Some of them were maybe 100 ft long. It was great riding.
Once down off the mountain, we still had a long way to go to the finish. Some of it was up, some of it was down, but no more huge climbs. The landscape has changed rather dramatically. Once past the Pailheres, the mountains started looking much more like the Sierras, with big grassy plains separating the mountains.
After riding most of the day thinking I was at the back of the pack (except for the one time Ron passed me after getting lost), I finally came across Craig waiting at an intersection in the middle of nowhere. He said that everyone was behind him, but I had not seen anyone, so we were perplexed as to where the other riders were. Additionally, I had not seen the support van since before the Pailheres, and was out of both food and water. Craig and I rode a few miles on before we got to a small town and I was able to get some water at a public fountain. We looked for a good place to eat where we could see if the van went by, but the only place we saw was out of the way. So we rode on, very hungry. A couple of miles later, Allan showed up in the van (finally) and we had a 45 minute lunch stop in a beautiful prairie (Allan was singing the Bonanza theme song) while waiting for the others.
After the other riders showed up we continued on into town to the hotel. This hotel has the distinction of being the highest overnight so far, we are at 1700m, higher than many of the Cols we have crossed! And we are in a big town, not on top of a mountain somewhere. The view out the window is great, the town is perched on the side of a hill overlooking one of the great plains that seem to be common here.
Tomorrow, I've been told it's all downhill to the Mediterranean. We'll see about that!
I didn't take many photos today, but I like these:
These are the switchbacks going down from the top of the Pailheres. These are still pretty long switchbacks, and the hillside isn't so steep. Further down, the switchbacks are much shorter, and the mountain is much steeper.
Here's our prairie lunch stop with Allan and Craig.
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