Tourmalet - 20 July

And then there was Tourmalet! Giant of the Pyrnees, highest and longest climb of the tour, and 100 years since it was first attempted on Le Tour. What a brilliant day it turned out to be.

We peeled out of our guest house at 7.30am to head for the summit before the gendarmes closed the roads for Le Tour at 11.30am. Tourmalet was 32km and 1800m of climbing away - occasionally revealing its massive peak between the passing scenery. Village after village went by and the going seemed good. But I had been warned! Expect it to get harder. And after 15km, it kicked up another gear - the first 8.5% incline. And then after 22km, it was mostly about 10%. Tourmalet is a true moutain - the higher it gets, the steeper it gets and the more it hurts.

Eventually the alpine village at 5km came into reach and led on to 'the Mongine' - the final cruel switchbacks leading to the summit. Without any great authority, I decided mongine was french for mongrel because that's what the climb felt like at that stage. And at last the final crawl to the summit. Hooray! And a picture to confirm the moment.

The crowds along the way, especially the last 5km were incredible. In parts sitting cheeck to jowl along the road in front of their caravans and yelling or just watching and talking, taking in the atomosphere. Every now and then someone in the crowd would pick you out and yell something, usually in french, presumably encouraging and you try to smile and pick up the cadence a little. Only to fall back shortly thereafter near exhausted!

After recuperating at the summit, I found a great switchback view within walking distance to camp out and wait for the pro riders. From where I stood, you could look down half a dozen lazy curves and 5km of valley to see the riders approaching. Lance Armstrong chose today to launch a brave attack and lead the charge up the Tourmalet, only to get over-run in the final sprint of the day.

When the final riders passed, I joined up with a Kiwi buddy to make a super fast 30km descent down the other side of the Touramet to Anglese-Gorasz and then on to Lourdes and a final closing of the circuit back to Bagneres-de-Bigore. By the time we reached home, we had 110k on the clock and been in the saddle for around 5.5hrs. A big dinner and a few wines were the only thing between me and a good sleep.