67 km. Details.
Blogging earlier than usual after a surprising ride.
I spent a good deal of the morning riding false flats. For the non-cycling reader, these are roads that appear to be level but are actually, according to your legs, uphill. They can be very demoralising, especially in headwinds, because your brain can't stop seeing them as flat and you feel therefore that you should be making rapid progress, but you aren't.
Today, however, they were a source of high morale, because they meant that I was gaining the height I knew I needed in a gradual, pain-free manner - considerably removed from the shorter, savage climbs I'd been anticipating. Until I got to Lourdes, that is, when in the space of a couple of kilometres I lost a chunk of the altitude that had been so painstakingly won. Now that is dispiriting, because one just knows that one is going to pay for it.
Incidentally, unless you're a true believer in need of a miracle, I'd give Lourdes a miss. Apart from a very impressive boulangerie at which I stopped to pick up a bit of lunch, it seems to have very little to recommend it.
Anyway, I'm descending out of Lourdes and bracing myself for a brutal last 15 kilometres or so, when I discover an absolutely superb cycle path leading to Argeles-Gazost and beyond. Laid out on what looks to have been an old single-track railway, beautifully maintained, and, incredibly, almost as flat as a board; following a little river valley all the way into the hills. So after pottering along this morning at positively geriatric speeds to save myself for the hardships to come, I find that the last section is one of the easiest of the trip to date. As a result I arrived so early that I continued a few kilometres past the town just to see what lay in store. And the answer, unsurprisingly, is this:
and this.
I'm staying here for three nights, so for a couple of days I get to leave the baggage in the hotel and just ride. That's where coming on the sportier of the two touring bikes comes in - unladen, this one handles pretty much like a proper road bike.
I'm in the Hotel Beau Site in Argeles-Gazost. Straight out of the 1970s, in terms of style, but clean and well-kept and run by an absolutely charming elderly couple. They must be in their 80s.
2 comments:
Mike, Brian & Rob were asking about your progress, which seems to be going a lot better than the progress of my golf game! So, I have sent them all a link to the blog, wonder if they will summon up courage to add comments. It all looks wonderful!
No problem, all welcome. It is pretty good, I must say.
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