After climbing Port de Bales we made our way to Lourdes, France, where we stayed for three nights. Lourdes is nestled at the base of the Pyrenees mountains, close to several popular climbs featured in the TdF. Quite a place is Lourdes. It is one of the main pilgrimage sites for Christians. Apparently someone saw an image of Mary in the 1800's and since then Christians from all over the world (6 million per yr) come here to see the place and, I guess, hope for a miracle. Literally thousands of people, many in various states of ill-health, roaming the streets during the day mostly shopping for religious paraphernalia in 100's of souvenir shops. There are hotels everywhere, apparently one of the largest concentrations of hotels on the planet. In the evening, at sunset, people make a short pilgrimage (short walk) to the cave (grotto) where the Mary-sighting took place and get blessed or something like that. Quite a spectacle.
On Thursday 7/24 we rode from Lourdes along a bike path to the small village of Argeles-Gazost. Nice little town since two historic TdF climbs start from there -- Hautacam (featured in this year's TdF) and the HC climb to the Col's of Soulor & Aubisque. The climb to Soulor & Aubisque features absolutely stunning scenery and a difficult climb. It's about 30km to the top, 1250m up, with an average gradient of 4% with a few flats and many long steeps in the 8-10% range. The road winds through several small villages and farms. Livestock roam the hills and crowd the road. One of the major hazards during the descent is livestock. This guy. standing in the middle of the road at the Soulor summit, wouldn't budge an inch as cyclists rode by.
Sheep everywhere. Reminds me of New Zealand.
The road between Soulor and Aubisque is a rim-road that wraps around the mountain.
Happy campers at the summit of Aubisque.
After the fast and technically difficult descent down the mountain to Argeles-Gazost, we caught up with the TdF riders (stage 18) just before the final climb up Hautacam. This was a key stage/win for V. Nibali, the yellow jersey winner of this year's TdF. For me, an opportunity to chill on grassy knoll.
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