Tomorrow we begin the Raid de Pyrenee sportif ride. This is a ride from the west coast, right on the border of Spain and France, to the east coast in the Southern corner of France (just south of Perpignan), Atlantic to Mediterranean, right through the Pyrenees mountains. It is an event started in the 1950's by a Basque cycling club and requires participants to complete the 720 kms and 11,000 m of climbing in 100 hours (4 days and 4 hours).
We will be starting at 9 am tomorrow and need to finish by 1 pm on Wednesday to qualify. Along the way we have a number of checkpoints where we need to get a 'passport' stamped to prove we have ridden the route. It is a very testing ride at about 180 km and 2,500 m on average each day. We will be climbing many of the iconic cols of the Pyrenees, and I am sure the scenery will be magnificent - photos to follow.
I promised I would up load some video from around Saint Savin, see below, but it is only a short piece as the upload is very slow. Also below are some photos of various sites and buildings I found interesting.
More tomorrow!
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| The abbey at Saint Savin dominates the village from every angle! |
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| The Lourdes Town Hall is nearly as impressive. |
This is the super fast bike trail from Pierrefittes to Lourdes. Beautiful surface on an old train line, complete with old stations turned into cafe's - 20 km of bike heaven!
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| The streets in Inrun are traditional Spanish |
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| The Atlantic water is warm and the surf is great (so are the coffee and the beer!). |
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