This year, The Tour de France is celebrating 100 years in the Pyrenees - and we are commemorating the anniversary by cycling up a few summits and cheering on the peleton.
Our homebase for our Pyrenees adventure is Bagneres-de-Luchon, locally known as Luchon. It is a popular resort town for skiing in the winter and cycling in the summer. Located between two cols, it is a prime location for summitting some of the most famous mountains in the range. It is because of this location that Luchon is famous for hosting the departures and arrivals of 52 Tour stages since the race's first stop in the Pyrenees in 1910.
This year, Luchon hosted both the arrival of yesteray's stage 15 and the departure for today's stage 16 - two epic mountain climb stages of this year's tour. We were lucky enough to book our hotel last October because this town is absolutely packed with cycling fans, tour staff and press.
We are staying at Villa Florida - a beautiful three-story chalet a few minutes from the main boulevard in town. It is run by a wonderful French couple who opened the Inn five years ago after moving to the mountains from Paris. They are both experts in Tour viewing (the tour has stopped here every year since they opened the hotel) and jam-making (breakfasts are wonderful!).
Our room is beautiful. Another good choice. We have hardwood floors, a large bed, and five floor-to-ceiling windows that open to a large balcony on the front of the house. And it's steps away from the Tour activities and the bars and restaurants of downtown.
We love Luchon - it's a paradise for people who love the mountains and the outdoors. Looking down every street you see the tall peaks of the Pyrenees surrounding the town. And every direction out of town heads up up up into the hills.
And so yesterday, that's what we did. We got on our bikes (after picking up baguette sandwiches from town) and headed up up up a massive climb to the summit of Port de Balès - a dreaded summit finish of Stage 15.
It was incredible and just the type of ride that I've been training for the last year. We started at the Stage finish line, rolling down the main boulevard of town and under the 1K banner and headed out of town. The moment we left town the steep pitches began and we dug in for the ascent. I was nervous, but determined to make the climb out of Luchon to the summit of Port de Bales. I approached the ride as training for Thursday's climb of Tourmalet.
The beginning of the 12-mile climb was through the trees and then we emerged into a wide open valley. Small villages dotted the road ahead. And one by one we climbed our way past the stone buildings, churches, narrow alleyways and up and up the side of the mountain. About an hour into the ride, we passed the last town on the way up and took a sharp hairpin turn and the road got insanely steep. Groups of fans cheered us on "Allez Allez!!" and we kept pedaling hard. We were above the treeline now. Switchback after switchback. I kept thinking about how the riders would come bombing down this way in a few hours at 100km an hour. Nuts.
I was feeling great, my legs were okay, I pushed hard up a couple very steep parts, passing a lot of other riders along the way. Dave kept telling me how proud he was of me, but I wasn't ready to celebrate yet. Then we saw a sign. 3km to the summit! Almost there. We came around another tight turn and everywhere you looked on the ridges you could see people, cars, RVs - the summit was near. And then the final push to the banner on the horizon. I pulled out everything I had and sprinted up that final pitch to the finish line. I made it! One hour, 45 mins and I didn't stop once. Averaged 7 mph and climbed the entire way. OUCH. I shed a few tears, hugged Dave and took some pictures of us under the banner.
And then we looked around. Thousand of fans, bicycles, RVs, beer stands, food stands - the summit was a circus. A really awesome Tour de France circus. I can't tell you how awesome it felt to be up there - feeling on top of the world after just climbing that mountain and being surrounded by thousands of people who are as passionate about the Tour as we are. We're so totally hooked.
We worked our way down the other side a few hundred feet from the summit where we could see the finish of the climb and look down behind us to see where the riders would start snaking up. And then we waited. Eating our sandwiches and fresh fruit and making friends with people around us.
Our first friend was another American from Houston. He seemed very normal, and we had a nice conversation with him. Later on in the day, when the peleton arrived - this very normal guy stripped down to a red king of the mountain polkadot string bikini brief, and nothing else but a black wig and an American flag worn as a cape. He ran down beside us as the riders arrived so we could have an American group. At least we knew that he'd attract cameras and we'd have a better chance of getting on TV! On a side note, we asked him where he got the bikini and apparently his wife made it for him. His wife who wasnt there with him to witness what the rest of us had to endure!
So, we were waiting. First a few trucks of "free stuff" arrived and the crowd went nuts on the vans wanting stuff and more stuff. The amount of junk that was thrown at us was amazing. T-shirts, jerseys, hats, bandanas, food. Dave just kept filling his backpack with more and more freebies. They managed to clothe the entire summit in polka dot gear.
And then the caravan arrived to entertain the crowd. It's amazing how these drivers can steer giant trucks shaped like chickens and water bottles up these hairpin turns. I know I wouldn't want to be behind the wheel. But they arrived, music blaring, girls dancing and more free stuff being tossed to the anxious crowd.
After a few hours of waiting, we heard the helicopters get closer. There was an excitement growing around us. Groups began bursting into song - showing their French or Spanish pride. We even contributed to a round of God Bless America with our friend in the bikini.
And then the helicoptor came roaring around the canyon far beneath us and we saw the double motorcycles that signal the first rider. And then a lone rider in the distance. It was crazy, we could see the speck down below us, but couldn't see who the rider was until 5-10 mins later when he arrived close to the summit.
Being on the summit was an amazing experience. We waved our flag like crazy and were right up close and personal along the riders. As Dave said at one point, in what other sport can you run along side the atheletes, so close that you can touch them, after they have already been suffering on the roads for hours and hours. The passion for the Tour around the world is just incredible to witness.
It took about 40 mins for all of the cyclists to pass and then the crowd started to disperse. Without going into too much detail, let me just tell you that descending down the mountain, along with thousands of cyclists, cars and people on foot is a million times more difficult than climbing up. My hands were killing me by the end, as I was gripping the breaks for dear life. I have a greater appreciation for these cyclists than ever. Now when I see them powering down those hills, making those tight turns, my heart skips a beat for them. It's scarier than it looks on TV.
We got back into town that evening and relaxed in our room for a little while - recovering from the sun and scrubing the bike grease off our legs. I felt like we accomplished a lot that day. We cleaned up, changed, and headed out for a late dinner in town. Then came home and passed out for the night.
We didn't get enough sleep though, because we were up bright and early today to catch the Tour departure from town. The alarm went off at 6:30 and we were at breakfast at 7 a.m. Our hostess got up early to make breakfast for all of us heading out to see the start of the Tour today.
Dave and I were some of the first out by the start, so we got to pick a prime position directly across the podium by the start line. And, as we have become accustomed to, we waited for hours for the day to start. We had an ideal location for more free stuff and we also made friends with a lot of the announcers who got a kick out of our American flag on display. We saw the press come through (including our new friend from Bicycling Magazine who stopped to talk with us again). And after the crazy caravan came by, the riders started to appear to sign in for the day. One by one we cheered their names and waved our flag to welcome them to the day. It was a fun few hours. By 10:30, the 100+ riders were lined up in front of us, the TV cameras hovering all around and the horn sounded for the start of the day. And they were off! My heart went out to them as they rolled out of town to begin what was destined to be an epic Stage - four massive mountain climbs over 200km of road. We were ready to see some fireworks out there.
Now, Dave just headed out for a 45-mile ride up the back side of Port de Bales and I'm relaxing in the room watching Lance master the climbs in Stage 16. He may not podium during his last tour, but he's definitely showing us all that he has still got it. His climbs today were a great way to close a legendary career.
I'm off for a run before Dave gets back. And then no more Tour until Thursday morning. This afternoon and tomorrow we plan to do some exploring of our own of the beautiful Pyrenees. Then Tourmalet looms on Thursday.
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