Check out my Ride!

Hi, Check out 09/13/2010 Avajan, Midi-Pyrénées, France on Strava.com! It's a 255mi ride I did on Monday, September 13, 2010. ok well here's the last 250 miles of the 450 mile ride. blame the garmin memory... sadly we lost data from cols Tourmalet, d'Aspin, d'Aubisque and Marie Blanque (among others). But this does show off a very cool app (strava.com) -- BIG thanks to cycling guru and Klarna legend Pelle for setting us up with the kit to record this PS needless to say, we didn't break any records... See you on Strava! ©2010 Strava | 35 South Main St | Hanover NH

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The Cols

The Cols and their altitudes...

Start - St Jean de Luz - on the Atlantic

Day 1
Col de St Ignace - 169m
Col d'Osquich - 495m
End - Arette

Day 2
Col de Marie Blanque - 1035m
Col d'Aubisque - 1709m
Col de Soulor - 1525m
End - Aregeles-Gazost

Day 3
Col du Tourmalet - 2115m
Col d'Aspin - 1489m
End - Arreau

Day 4
Col de Peyresourde - 1569m
Col des Ares - 797m
Col de Buret - 598m
Col de Portet d'Aspet - 1069m
End - St Girons

Day 5
Col des Caugnous - 947m
Col de Port - 1250m
End - l'Hospitalet pres l'Andorre

Day 6
Col de Puymorens - 1920m
Col Rigat - 1493m
Col de la Perche - 1579m
End - Prades

Day 7
Col de Ternere - 233m

End of route - Cerbere - on the Mediterranean

Stay - Banyuls-sur-Mer

A statistical retrospective

For those interested, and mainly for ourselves when we've lost the bits of paper that these are written on, here are the day-by-day stats for the ride...

Day 1
Distance - 84.0 miles
Time on the move - 6:44
Vertical ascent - 5433ft
Average speed - 12.4mph
Maximum speed - 30.5mph
End of day elevation - 1073ft

Day 2
Distance - 57.0 miles
Time on the move - 6:08
Vertical ascent - 7131ft
Average speed - 9.2mph
Maximum speed - 35.2mph
End of day elevation - 1520ft

Day 3
Distance - 52.7 miles
Time on the move - 6:29
Vertical ascent - 7300ft
Average speed - 8.0mph
Maximum speed - 30.2mph
End of day elevation - 2391ft

Day 4
Distance - 73.2 miles
Time on the move - 7:13
Vertical ascent - 6370ft
Average speed - 10.2mph
Maximum speed - 33.7mph
End of day elevation - 1318ft

Day 5
Distance - 64.9 miles
Time on the move - 6:18
Vertical ascent - 5971ft
Average speed - 10.2mph
Maximum speed - 27.2mph
End of day elevation - 4737ft

Day 6
Distance - 58.6 miles
Time on the move - 4:32
Vertical ascent - 3511ft
Average speed - 12.8mph
Maximum speed - 33.3mph
End of day elevation - 1197ft

Day 7 (to Cerbere, end of the route)
Distance - 58.7 miles
Time on the move - 4:11

Day 7 total
Distance  - 66.0 miles
Time on the move - 4:54
Vertical ascent - 2259ft
Average speed - 13.4mph
Maximum speed - 35.1mph
End of day elevation - 0ft

Trip statistics
Distance - 456.4 miles
Time on the move 42:17
Vertical ascent - 37,975ft
Average speed - 10.8mph

YouTube if you want to... (aka The Cerbere Monologues)

tourmalet - sing along

i have been (mostly) delegating blog posts to my more learned (and lucid) comrade but i thought i would share a little ditty with you. this was composed col by painful col - and to a familiar tune...

there aint no mountain high enough, Tour-ma, Tour-ma
all this cycling makes you buff, Tour-ma, Tour-ma-let!
Tour-ma, Tour-ma-let! Tour-ma, Tour-ma-let!
aint no mountain high enough, Tour-ma, Tour-ma-let!

cyclists need a hearty meal, cass-ou, cass-ou
easier said than done i feel, cass-ou, cass-ou-let!
cass-ou, cass-ou-let! cass-ou, cass-ou-let!
easier said than done i feel, cass-ou, cass-ou-let!

the breakfasts here are very mean, petit, petit
un croissant et une tartine: petit déjeuner!
petit déjeuner! petit déjeuner!
un croissant et une tartine: petit déjeuner!

drink it black or send it back, thé-au, thé-au,
tea with milk they just can't hack, thé-au, thé-au-lait!
thé-au, thé-au-lait! thé-au, thé-au-lait!
drink it black or send it back, thé-au, thé-au-lait!

at night we like to have a drink, vin-de, vin-de,
cheaper than milk - don't ask, don't think - vin-de, vin-de-pays!
vin-de, vin-de-pays! vin-de, vin-de-pays!
we cyclists sure do like a drink, vin-de, vin-de-pays!

come, let's celebrate in song: cab-a, cab-a,
the bikergroove sing along: cab-a, cab-a-ret!!
cab-a, cab-a-ret! cab-a, cab-a-ret!
We're home so put the kettle on: cab-a, cab-a-ret!

Fin (and Gin)

We finished! After 455 miles of cycling, 37,975 feet of climbing, 25 bananas, 12 clif bars, 10 litres of lucozade (not forgetting 5 litres of vin de pays), we arrived in Cerbere.

Cerbere is 4km from the Spanish border and light years away from civilisation. It was marginally better than arriving in John o'Groats but that's not too prestigious an accolade. We were especially put out to find that the "crowds" lining the road for the last 200 yards were there not to welcome us (indeed the triumphal reception we'd planned didn't quite go off) but were rather watching the construction of a sea wall. Out of all proportion to the town's size or likely importance, these prodigious works were providing employment for almost half the regional workforce and entertainment for the rest. See Luke's reaction in the video.

So we backtracked to Banyuls-sur-mer. There is marginally more to this place, not least the eponymous local vin which is a cross between sherry and tawney port - and very quaffable. Which is just as well because no sooner had we parked our bikes and peeled off our Lycra but the heavens did well and truly open.

Twas a bummer, but it reminded us of our tremendous good fortune hitherto. While on the road we had no rain, no bike trouble, no punctures, no detours; Luke did a magnificent job navigating and not once did we get lost. And Saturday afternoon it cheered up sufficiently for us to splash about in the Mediterranean as though this had been, after all, a holiday.

More thoughts, pix and stats when we get home

Xx

On the road