Biarritz to Barcelona

Saturday May 17th. Having travelled down overnight on the sleeper from Paris, the group will meet up at 7.00am with the vans, drivers and more importantly, bikes!

Day One will be the first chance for the group to ride with each other so it will be an opportunity to get to know each other’s riding styles and provide an indication as to the speed we can comfortably maintain. We will leave Biarritz and ride through Hasparren, St Palais and arrive 85kms later at Mauleon Licharre, or first rest stop. This will probably be the easiest of the days!!

Day Two sees the group leaving Mauleon Licharre and heading into the lower regions of the Pyrenees. The day will involve some gentle but challenging climbing as we ride 63km. We will pass through Tardets, Sorholus, Oloron and Arudy before our second rest stop at Beost.

Day Three sees the start of the serious climbing! Just after we leave Beost we pass through Laruns and then we hit the Col d'Aubisque. Together with the Tourmalet and the Galibier, the Aubisque is one of the great legendary climbs of the Tour de France. Starting from Laruns, the Col d’Aubisque is 16,6 km long. Over this distance, we will climb 1190 metres. The average percentage is 7.2. From there we continue to Argeles Gazost, Luz St Sauveur and on to our second climb of the day, the Col du Tourmalet. From Luz St Sauveur, the Tourmalet is a very regular climb at nearly 8%. It will probably take over 2 hours to cycle the 18km and reach the top at 2115 m. Over this distance, we will climb 1404 metres. The average percentage is 7.2. At the top we arrive at our third rest stop, La Mongie having covered 85km.

Day Four. This is when we start to question our sanity! A lovely long ride down to St Marie de Campan before we are confronted with our third Col, the Col d’Aspin. Starting from Sainte Marie de Campan, the Col d’Aspin is 12,8 km long. Over this distance, we will climb 642 metres. The average percentage is an easy 5%!!

Then it’s on to Arreau and Loudervielle as we make our way to the final climb in France, the Col de Peyresourde. Starting from Loudervielle, the Col de Peyresourde is 8,3 km long. Over this distance, we will climb 629 metres at an average percentage of 7.6. On reaching the top we carry on to our next rest stop, Bagneres de Luchon, a total distance for the day of 71km.

Day Five and it’s “au revoir” France and “hola” Spain as we cross the border at Bossost and head towards Vielha with the small matter of the Col du Portillon to climb on the way. Starting from Bossost, the Col du Portillon is 8,6 km long. Over this distance, we will climb 583 metres at an average percentage of 6.8. (Thereafter our original route was to go south on the N230 until we found out that you cannot cycle through Le Tunel de Vielha!) Our route now takes us through Salardu, Esterri d'Aneu, Llavorsi on to our next rest stop at Rialp. We will cover 110kms on day five.

Day Six and it’s all downhill now as we head for Talarn, Isona, Coll de Corniois, Ponts and then our penultimate stop at Tora. A gentle 120kms.

Day 7 and our final day. Leaving Tora, we head for Calaf, Igualada, Capellades, Martorell and finally, 103 kms later, with glasses of champagne held high in true Tour de France style, a fitting finish at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona.

In total we will have cycled 640 km and climbed 4500 metres. No doubt there will be bruises, blisters and a few sore backsides. Nonetheless the overwhelming feeling will be elation and a great sense of satisfaction and achievement.