Day 2, Tour De France

After a two hour bus ride to the town of Laruns we were in base camp. We all got a much needed expresso. We then mounted our bikes and headed out for our journey up the HC, beyond category climb, called the Col d' Aubisque a 16.5km mountain with a 7% grade. After one hour of pedaling we had gone 7.5 miles. We were impressed with ourselves and feeling pretty good. The climb would range from a couple of degrees of rise to as much as 13% in some places. All the way up we were going thru small quaint little towns, passing 100's of campers, cars and spectators along the side of the road. You could look out over the landscapes and see far off farms with sheep hanging off the cliffs. The mountain seemed to feel our presence and decided to try to get ride of us by steadily getting harder as we went higher. At the 9 mile point we were in the small ski village of Gourettes, where stopped to do some shopping and take a breather. Trek Travel had a base camp here complete with tents, chairs, beer, and lunch. They reserved a ski lodge for the day and had a viewing room set up with a large screen TV for us to be able to watch the race up to the point of them getting to the mountain, then we would go out and cheer them on.

I am getting ahead of myself, we first decided to finish the last 2.3 miles to the top so we could say we defeated the beast. We saw, and smelled, the devil, and I think I got a picture of him as we rode by. I must say with great delight that I beat Jodi to the top by about 4 minutes. Not bad, she is getting very strong, at one point early in the climb I thought I was in trouble after she passed me, but it was a short spurt of energy for her, and I was able to go back around her after only a couple of minutes.

We made it to the top and spent about 45 minutes there enjoying the sites, and sounds of the tour and the energy everyone was putting out. We had a sausage and some frys, did a little shopping and then rode back down to Gourettes where we had lunch and watched the race on the big screen until they were just a few miles from us then we went down to the road and cheered them on as they rode by. Lance was right where he needed to be and they all went by in a matter of minutes. Sorry I thought I could put pictures up, but have not figured out how so I will have them all at the shop when we get back.