Cloudy and very cool in morning, fortunately, the sun peaked out after breakfast. The day turned out to be mostly very cool and cloudy; no rain, however. Terry sagged in morning. Robin and I took off for first climb — Col de Latrape. It was a pretty easy climb, mostly 7 – 9% gradient, but some sections were 11%+.There were many, many homes up in the hills here, probably vacation homes as shutters were closed and no autos nearby. They were either summer homes or winter homes, I couldn’t tell. Many of these were very nice. Vacation homes for some sort of community. Here’re samples of valleys we rode through. The second photo below doesn’t show any specific landmarks, but the photo has good color and texture and turns out one of the few moments of sunshine for the day. I just had to include it here:
Robin and I completed the climb, Terry showed up, and so we took pictures all around:
The descent from Col de Latrape was nice and easy, dry roads, only 5km long. We started up Col d’Agnes — 10 km with 8.2% avg gradient. It was rather steep at the bottom, many sections were 12% or better, but it leveled off near top.
A nice quiet road up to Col d’Agnes.
Here’s yet another valley on the way up Col d’Agnes. I can see why there are many vacation homes in this part of France.
Dave took over sagging and arrived at top with the van and took pictures all around. The top of Col d’Agnes was basically a sign marking the top of the mountain and, of course, cows….
Yes, we are definitely in the French countryside. Not even a small café for a quick espresso. Bummer.
A rather large herd of cows walked by as we were taking pictures. I had to wait to descend until the herd made it across the road.
We then had a quick descent to a lake and café. This is actually one of the very few lakes we saw on our trip. Lunch in the café parking lot. The café is in the distance in the photo below.
Terry decided to forgo lunch and took off on his own. Dick and Dave arrived at cafe about 20 minutes after Robin and I. After lunch, Robin, Dick and I took off to Port de Lers. It was an easy 4km ascent. The route was really just along the ridge through a mountain top meadow. The meadow was full of animals – horses, cows, sheep. At Port de Lers, nothing but sign and horses. Pictures all around.
Dick, Robin and I descend. The road was very narrow and somewhat bumpy, and fortunately not very technical. I think cars that met each other would have had to wait for one car to pull through while the other one waited. There were just a few hairpin turns. Most of the steep descent was in deep woods and we flew through the woods on the narrow road. Robin hit his max speed (65 kpm) on the descent. I’m guessing I was close to that.
The descent and final push into Taraçon-sur-Ariège consisted of 12 km of rather steep stuff and then 15 km of 3 – 6% gradient. We passed, and rather quickly at that, a gentleman on a three-wheeled bike. We on cycles didn’t stop but Dave in the van stopped and chatted for a bit. Apparently the gentleman was also doing the Raid Pyreneén, just in the opposite direction as us:
Terry told Dave to meet him in a town at the bottom of steepest portion. But he was not there when we arrived…… Robin and I carried on whilst Dick shed some clothes and deposited them in the van. Robin and I flew down the remainder of the road and wound our way around the destination town and found the hotel with Dave’s help. But where was Terry? He had no map and didn’t know the name of the hotel…. Dick found us about 20 minutes later.
Dave and Robin went out looking for Terry. And found him about an hour later…. We all gathered to berate Terry for not waiting for us in the designated areas (where he told us he was going to be or in the town center, the default meeting point). But after a few beers, the abuse turned rather jovial. In the end we all thought Terry had deserted us and rode to Andora and started a new life….
After a quick nap and walk around town, we all decide that the destination town was basically a retirement community. Our presence lowered the average age significantly. The hotel and restaurant (in hotel) was full of retirees. Unfortunately, it was the only hotel with open rooms for quite some distance. Oh, well.
End of day 7. Statistics:
- Start: Oust
- End: Taraçon-sur-Ariège
- Distance: 72 km
- Climbs: Col de Latrape, Col d’Agnes, Port de Lers
- Total gain: 1698 m