The Climbs: Port de Pailheres; Ax-3-Domaines
We started the day leaving Revel with a welcome flat start of 50km took us to the foothills of the Pyrenees were some gentle climbing meet us before we passed into a huge gauge and approached the Giant of the day the Port to Pailheres.
The Pailheres is another Hors Categorie climb and would take us from 225m to 2001m, steadily at first but the steeper and steeper. As the steepness increased the scenery become more and more dramatic. Absolutely stunning!
The day had started a little more overcast then previous days and rain was forecast for later in the day, but what met us halfway up the Pailheres was a thunder storm of monumental proportions. As we climbed first it started to rain, then lash it down as thunder and lightning cracked all around us echoing around the mountains before arctic hail started to fall from the sky the size of sugar cubes. The hail hurt! Luckily for Williams and I a support van was a few hundred yards down the road as the worse of it hit and we managed to shelter there for a few minutes as it passed. The atmosphere with the mist, the rain and the thunder was brilliant!
Once to the top, what would have been a super fast descent became a dangerous one with the steepness and the rain and, as our tour leader Phil found out, the wild animals. As he was descending he passed a herd of cows crossing the road and tried to edge past them and was promptly headbutted off the road and into a ditch!
The last climb of the day too us up to Ax-3-Domaines, another relatively steep climb but thankfully I had a lot of gas left in the legs and was able to breeze up at a comfortable pace.
Another 170+km ride through the mountains done and I still feel good. It may be dangerous to say it, but it feels like I am getting more and more comfortable... we will see how I feel in a few days time. Am definitely riding well within my comfort zone.
We have a transfer in the morning, which will delay our start time and as a consequence our finish time...so it has the potential to be a long day!
S
Time: 9hrs 12mins
Distance: 185km
Av Speed: 20.1km/h
Total Ascent: 2833m
Av HR: 114bpm
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