Day 7
We woke up to rain but the sky looked like it might clear in the direction we were going. We had a breakfast of corn flakes and croissants. I also had some local cheese that was pretty good. This place we stayed, like all the hotels we stayed at in these little towns, are family owned and run. The wife cooked all the food and the town comes to have dinner in the dinning room. It is a great atmosphere. After breakfast I put on all my warm gear and we set off. Eric (our guide) was hammering at the from from the start. We wound up through these little tiny towns to the first climb of the day that is as hard as the Tourmalet. It is long and very steep with sections of 14% sustained. Its name is Col de Bagaui but we callled it Col de Bag-o-gooie. We hit the first part and I drilled it. The first 6km are around 10% and I reached the little town first. There is a very short descent and then the climb continues. The roads were wet and at the bottom of the short descent was a 90 degree turn over a small stone bridge. I took the turn wide and hit gravel on the far side. I slid into the bridge wall and took the impact on my saddle and left shoe then went over the handlebars. One of the Aussies behind me had taken a more narrow turn and slid out too. I got up and checked the bike out. It was fine other than my saddle was toast. I had a small rip in my glove and my knuckle wa bleeding a little. My left show cover had a little tear in it. Everything else was fine. The sag wagon came down the hill and we found that the spare saddles are in the other van that was up on the climb somewhere. i thought about climbing it without the saddle and then replacing the saddle at the top but descided against it. Matil (the driver of our sag wagon) took my bike and me up the climb and we caught the other van about 4 km fromn the summit. I hurried and put a replacement saddle on, checked the height and began descending back down the climb. I caught the group, went below them and began climbing again. We reached the summit and the Assies were pretty nervous about descending in the rain so they got in the van for the descent. I descended fairly cautiously to the town of St Lary Sulon were we stopped and had pizzas at a cafe. Mine was some kind of local cheese wtih goat and chicken meat on it. It was really good. The rain had stopped as we finished lunch so we set out for the last 3 climbs of the trip. The next climb was the Col d'Ispigi (we called it I-spy-a-guy). It is not a long climb (comparing it to the monsters we had been over) and the grade is more reasonable, about 6%. I took off at the start and the stronger of the Aussies came after me on my wheel. After about a km I attacked him and dropped him. I then sat and pulled away putting about 2 minutes into him by the top of the climb. We descended and rode through several little quite villages to the 3rd climb of the day. It sounds like Col de Ox-tongue but is spelled much more French like. I attacked at the bottom again and the other Aussie covered me. I stood and attacked again with him right on my wheel, he then counter attacked hard and got 15 meters on me. I could tell it took alot our of him. i clawed him back and counter attacked him putting him 40 meters behind me. I thought he was gone for good but 100meters from the summit he charged back and passed me I recovered and beat him on the line by less then a foot. That win was great. We descended and were in a 2 man pace line with Jan and I driving at the front to the final climb of the trip. The roads had dried and the sun was out. We went through a little area of traffic and so narrowed to single file with me at the front. There was a curve in the road, slightly down hill, on new road that we came to. I didn't notice it but there was a tree on the apex of the corner that was dripping on the road and shaded the apex, keeping it wet. I was not going fast but slid out in the corner. Jan was right behind me and, which he tried to jump me, ended up hitting me and going over his handlebars. I scrapped my hands and smaked my head on the pavement breaking my helmet. I also had a rasberry on my right shoulder and right hip. We were lucky there were no cars coming the other direction. It coulde have been much worse. The bike was fine. I was again reminded why I spend $140 on a helmet and why I will again. Eric asked if he should call up the van but I felt fine and wanted to finish the last climb of the trip and ride to the hotel. We got back to it and at the bottom of the climb Jan went, I followed and the Assies were close behind. I attacked Jan and got a good lead. In the last 100 meters one of the Aussies powered by me. He was flying, seated. I almost lost the drive with how fast he went by me but I was pretty angry about sliding out earlier so I went to my drops, geared down and sprinted after him. I caught him and flew by him taking the last summit and a hat-trick for the day. We rolled the rest of the way to the hotel on the Atlantic Ocean and showered. Jan and I walked down to a cafe and had sandwiches to hold us over until dinner. Dinner was salad, a great dish of rice and chicken with this local red sauce, and a dessert of strawberries on a flakey pastry. It was really good. We all talked over dinner about the days of riding over the Pyrenees and what our favorite partrs were. It is neat to think that we rode from the Mediteranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean over the biggest mountians in cycling and we rode every inch. It took 36hrs and 30min of saddle time. I haven't calculated the total distance but it is something like 600-700miles and around 50,000 vertical feet of climbing in 7 days. It is actually in 6 days as the first day was a warm up loop and the 2nd day was when we left the coast.
This is that dessert from last night "il floataine de la mason". Good gravy! A sweet death.
Had to jam on the breaks on the descent for this group of sheep
This col came right after Bag-o-gooey. Check out that name! Sheesh.
