Day 7 : 35.86 miles, 4:24 hours, Laruns
[ MAP ]

It rained softly last night. I woke up after dreams of favourite people but still felt exhausted from yesterday. Tourmalet Syndrome.

I took my time. It was hard going. Straight out of town there were ten percent inclines along the main road. My knee was already giving me troubles and I seriously considered skipping the first Col. It was off the main road and only added several miles of uphill to the journey. The thought that I could miss out on a potentially wicked downhill kept me sticking to the plan though.

The humidity was like the tropics. No wonder my pannier gear smells so bad, I sweated all over them. The tiny side road wound through a small village and then along a valley. When the road started to head up to the summit it was steep. Some places it felt like more than ten percent. The summit was between mountain peaks and because it was relatively low there were several farmhouses at the top. The small road descended down the other side with brilliant views of the mountains in front of me, still yet to climb.

I started the climb to Col du Soulor after my lunch break in Arrens. The Col was a steep bastard. I stopped many times to rest, once beside a herd of cows all wearing bells. It was like a out-of-tune choir of bell ringers.

I eventually got to the top after an hour (average 4.5 miles per hour to climb it) and it was a short drop to the start of the climb to Col d'Aubisque. The picturesque road hugged the side of the steep mountain and threaded through two short tunnels.

It wasn't too difficult to get to the top. A group of French tourists spent about five minutes interpreting my map, eventually being useful enough to point out where I was. As if I didn't already know.

I hung out at the top a while where feral horses grazed amongst the parked cars. I swapped stories with Jordi and Jeff and who'd spotted me yesterday on Tourmalet. They were credit card touring from Barcelona and looping back to Pamplona. Both were suffering the effects of Tourmalet Syndrome as well. On top of that, Jeff's stomach was playing up from eating too much cheese.

Another wicked downhill to the turnoff to Laruns. The LP guide suggested I ride another forty-five kilometres and over one more col for the day. Screw that. While I was contemplating the stupidity of carrying on, a car pulled up and out jumped Jean-Michel.

I rode into town and unfortunately took the first campground I could find. Bit of a shit-hole really. But it did have fantastic views of the mountains on either side. Actually, probably anywhere in town had good views of the mountains. Ok, so it had nothing going for it.

Totally shagged.

[The hills:
    13.   Col des Bordères: altitude = 1156m
    14.   Col du Soulor: altitude = 1474m; dénivelé = 915m; distance = 17km; grade = 7.5% average
    15.   Col d'Aubisque: altitude = 1709m; dénivelé = 351m; distance = 7.5km]