We experienced another nasty thunderstorm during the evening at St Béat but the clouds cleared out and the morning turned out to be nice and sunny. Chilly, but sunny.We bit our adieu to the other cycling group in the hotel and took off. Since the first climb of the day, Col du Menté, started right outside town, we took a couple of laps around town to warm up. The climb up Col du Menté was good, excellent roads, 9% gradient average. Given the rain we had the previous evening the roads were wet. Fortunately traffic was very light as well so we had no problems in the morning.
Terry, Robin, and I descended to start of Col du Portet d’Aspet. Dick was sagging in the morning, Dave was riding and was about 30 minutes behind us. Near bottom of d’Aspet is a memorial to Fabio Casartelli, a Tour de France racer killed during the descent of a TdF stage in 1995. I missed the memorial completely. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!! It is a large memorial that also includes a plaque along the stone wall. Robin and Terry were yelling at me to stop and take a photo. I must have been in the zone….. Fortunately Dave and Dick saw it and took some photos.
The climb up d’Aspet was very steep — 489 meters in 4.4km. Since some sections were not so steep, others were downright walls. I had trouble keeping the front wheel on the ground going through some of the switchbacks. Robin clocked some sections at 17%. 26 minutes to the top for me, 27 for Terry, 28 for Robin. More photos at top and then down to Audressein for lunch.
The road gradient on the west side of the mountain was not as steep as the east side (which we had ascended); consequently, the descent was muuuuuch less treacherous than I expected. Dave and Dick were an hour behind Terry, Robin, and me.
We had lunch along the Lez river. A few local kids entertained us with their bike jumping skills. They constructed a small ramp and were jumping mountain bikes over it. The older kid was very good; fortunately none of the younger kids fell…. Here’s Dave enjoying a cool, refreshing bottle of IsoStar:
Robin took sagging duties for afternoon and the rest of us took off to the last climb of the day — Col de la Core. After a full lunch, Terry and I weren’t sure how quickly we would ride, but I stormed off and actually felt good. Rain threatened and the top 5 KM and the top of the mountain were wet, but we had mostly dry roads for the descent.
Terry trails me by 6 minutes to top. Pictures all around and Terry and I took off for bottom. Here’re Terry and me:
Dave n Dick:
The valley from whence we rode:
And our destination:
As we rode through some small towns near our destination, we rolled by a rugby pitch with a match in progress. A hunting dog pealed out after us from the bunch of people watching and ran along side us for a couple of KM. He stopped to take a pee and then caught up. He then stopped to take a drink of water from the ditch and caught back up. By that point, we just decided to let him lead the way; we couldn’t shake him. Then, literally, the dog turned into a doorway stoop of a building and the building just happened to be our hotel. What an escort. Of course, the hotel dog was sleeping in the doorway and I have a sneaking suspicion two just wanted to play… I suspect they play together most of the day.
Dave and Dick were an hour behind. It was a great hotel with not many other guests for the evening. Dinner included leg of duck and lots of bread and wine. We were all hungry as we had three mountain climbs for the day. We had YATDD – yet another thunderstorm during dinner. I think it rained hard (thunderstorms) every evening on the trip up to this point. The power flickered a few times while we were eating dinner.
End of day 6. Statistics:
- Start: St. Béat
- End: Oust
- Distance: 73 km
- Climbs: Col de Menté, Col de Portet d’Aspet, Col de la Core
- Total gain: 2140 m