On the route for day 2 was one major climb in the morning but all down hill in the afternoon. As what turned out to be a precursor for the most of the trip, we woke up to overcast sky and cool temps. Here’s the group preparing for the day. Terry sags in the morning.
In fact, rain starts almost immediately as we roll out. We travel through was I suspect would be spectacular valleys, but due to the low clouds and drizzle, make them only great…
The lower portions of climb are steep — 11+% for a few km and there’s animal manure all…over…the…road…. We encounter a herd of goats and a herd of cows just walking down the road, no farmer/hearder anywhere. The goats were oblivious to cyclists and just minded their way as they sauntered down the road. In fact, we couldn’t get past them…. It was’t until a car passed us that the goats split and allowed us through.
The sky clears somewhat as we ascend Col de Burdincurutcheta, but clouds return near top. Here’s a common sight for the trip — a narrow road winding up into the fog. Note the lack of guardrails, but because of the fog, we really didn’t tell what lay over the side of the hills. Maybe that was a good thing?
At the top, the fog is rather thick and as you can see in the photo below, a bit chilly. We all use our taillights for the descent.
On the last trip to France, I didn’t have appropriate gear for riding in the rain. I’ve had plenty of experience of wet weather in Minnesota, but nothing like the all-day rains we experienced in the Alps. Consequently, I purchased a good rain jacket and long pants — and they worked great. I had no problem with rain throughout this trip.
The roads are wet and steep and light rain falls as we descend Col Bagargui. We all take great care coming down from this mountain. We stop for lunch 10 km or so down from top and weather clears. And, as we also experienced in the Alps, many of the roads were used for recent Tour de France stages. Many of the roads were painted with various messages. These messages included personal notes (“Cheri, will you marry me?”), advertisements for products (“T-Mobile!”), and, of course, messages urging spectators’ favorite riders to the top of the mountain.
This year, there were many messages to and about Lance Armstrong. And quite honestly, the vast majority were not kind to him. This author is extolling the virtues of prunes over EPO….
I start sag for the afternoon. The roads are clear and weather warm and sunny for remainder of ride into destination. The hotel was large building with an atrium in the middle. I suspect at one time the atrium was open to the sky, but it is now covered with a domed glass roof — that leaked profusely when it rained. There was also nice outdoor pool that Dick tried out.
There were three other people in the hotel that night with us so it was very quiet. They did laundry for us — but had no dryer so Dick and Terry had to find a dryer the next day to dry the clothes.
End of day 2. Statistics:
- Start: St Jean-Pied de Port
- End: Lurbe/St Christeau
- Distance: 87 km
- Climbs: Col d’Haltza, Col de Burdincurutcheta, Col Bagargui
- Total gain: 1353 m