Day 20 - the Col du Tourmalet and Col d' Aspin.

Day 20 - the Col du Tourmalet and Col d' Aspin.

Bob, myself and six of the other guests headed for the Col du Tourmalet on a cloudy day that had already seen rain fall. Apprehension for me was high as the Col du Tourmalet has been talked up as a massive climb. This was also another day in a row of riding and yesterdays climb was fresh in my mind.

It took us over an hour to drive to the other side so we could ride up the way the tour will go up tomorrow. This also meant we could ride the Aspin and then make our way back for another 108 km ride. Bigger than yesterday given the 3600m of ascent.

We headed off and were very grateful for the cool weather. Sweat still flowed freely but I didn't overheat like yesterday. It was very cloudy going up. It was a long relentless climb but in the end was not as bad as I thought it would be. The last bit was steep and you looked straight up a long way to see the road above you and could tell there was only one hairpin to get there. Seriously steep. We got to the top, and hit a wall of people. It was so crowded. Buses stuck, cars trying to push through, hundreds standing around the top of the climb on the road. Sensational. Thank goodness we had ridden through the cloud so it was nice and clear on top.

One car was pushing through and got stuck. I was right at the passenger door and looked down to see Phil Liggot, the commentator. His window was down so I got his attention and said " Hi Phil, how are you going mate" his reply, "I am good mate" I was very happy :-)

We caught up with the some of our group and then headed down. It became very cloudy and instantly very very cold on the way down. The road was also wet with terrible traffic. I had another near miss with a car stopping in front of me suddenly and me trying to stop quickly lost the back wheel for a little while. I thought I was going to hit the car but managed to get traction and stop just in time. Scary one.

The rest of the trip down was uneventful thank goodness and Bob and I stopped to get pizza at the bottom. We were shivering it was so cold. Pizza, coffee and a good chat to 2 South Africans and away we went. It didn't take long to warm up and we made our way to the Col d' Aspin

This was a much easier ride with low grades for most of the 12km and only the last 5km being around the 9% mark. The view, I discovered as we headed down was absolutely amazing. There was a village nearly straight down and a long way down with the road winding it's way down very visible. Clouds were pouring down the mountain and looked stunning. This was a great descent. It was not so cold and the road steep and reasonable straight for sections.

Once at the bottom we made very short time of the next 40kms sitting on ever 30kms/hr average. Great fun but the legs hurt a lot. Stopped at the patisserie for some gorgeous cake and then a quick spin back. Another great days riding and the knowledge I have tomorrow off to rest and take in a decisive day of the tour.