Tuesday, August 3

In the morning, I chatted for the while with the German ladies and at around 9:30, rather late for me, I started riding.

Here I saw more signs reminding me I was in Tour de France territory. Getting to the town of Campan, there was a statue of Eugène Christophe, who, during the Tour of 1913, broke his bike fork and walked 10 kilometers till he could repair it – and was able to finish the race.

That day, I was probably the slowest biker on the incline heading up to Col de Tourmalet at 2,115 meters, but oh well, I managed to make it. A few kilometers short of the top I thought to have made it, but nope, that was just a false summit with hotels, ski lifts and restaurants – and a bunch of alpacas roaming around. I spotted a young one on a slope, closed in to take a photo, it ran – not away, but towards me, emitting a strange noise, not wanting to attack, just to meet up with the mother. My apologies, did not mean to scare you, young buddy! Later I saw some mountain goats as well.

Finally I reached the summit, there was quite a commotion, with literally dozens of bikers , though most of them without luggage. There were more statues and plagues for people important to the tour, such as that of Alphons Steines, who was one of the co-founders.I sat for a while, enjoying the awesome view of the other side, looking at the winding road I was about to follow, surrounded by majestic mountains. The wind was howling, so did not stay put for all too long, so I started the drop.

I must have been really beat, as I simply do not recall what happened that afternoon. I got to a village called Argeles-Gazost at an elevation of 460 meters, technology tells me I stayed at Logis Hotel le Miramont – I do mention seeing something on the television in a mail I sent to my partner the following morning, so most probably I wasn’t camping – do not recall. I give up, sorry.

Here you can see the trip in Google Maps, it was 55 kilometers, with 1,361 meters of climbing and 1,863 meters of descending.