Day 6: Fri 29th June 2007

 

Ride: Urdos to St. Lary - 255 miles

 

This morning we rode north from Urdos up the N134 to Escot, and then east over the Col de Marie Blanque on the D924 to Bielle. The N134 is an excellent road but the pass over the D924 is nothing to write home about. From Bielle we headed south on the D934 to Laruns and on to the Col du Pourtalet.

 

Whether you are going south from Laruns on the French side, as we were, or heading north up from Biescas on the Spanish side, the Pourtalet is a wonderful Col to ride. It's tight at the bottom if you're coming from Laruns but as it climbs it opens out and you get some wonderful views. In a car you would be stuck behind slower traffic until the pass opens out but you could enjoy the road further up. On a bike though traffic is rarely a problem for more than a minute or so.

 

 

While the D924 pass road over the Marie Blanque was nothing to write home about, the D934 over the Pourtalet is spectacular, and so are the views as you can see from the photos below.

 

On the way up the Pourtalet the group got spilt in two and by the time Chris B, Pete, Kyle and Phil got to the top there was no sign of the others and rather than chasing after them it seemed like a good place to take a break, so they stopped for a coffee and took in the views.

 

 

 

Meanwhile Cat, Chris P, Gaz and Mark had also stopped for a coffee - on the Spanish side of the Pourtalet - and were waiting.

 

 

From the Pourtalet we then rode down to Biescas and took the N260 through Broto to Boltana. The first part was ok but beyond Broto the road surface deteriorated significantly until a few miles before Boltana and we wouldn't recommend this road for car drivers. You could be stuck for miles behind a coach or something similar. Before Boltana the road has been modernised and becomes a very fast road for the next 20 miles or so until it dips into a gorge near Campo, where the scenery was quite spectacular, to Castjon de Sos.

 

At Castejon the N260 continues over two nice Cols - Coll de Fadas and Coll de Espina - until it joins the N230 where we headed north to Vielha and back into France. From Boltana onwards a car driver could enjoy this road, although through the gorge it could get a bit slow - it took quite a bit of time for all of us to get past a convoy of two tankers and four cars. The N230 is a fast modern road but you have to sit and suffer through a long dusty tunnel before Vielha.

 

After Vielha it was fast untilI we reached St. Beat where we turned right over the Col de Mente - a typical hairpin pass Col - and then over the Col de Portet d'Aspet to St. Lary.

 

Both of these Cols have memorials to Tour de France riders. On the eastern side of the Mente there's a plaque for the Spanish rider Luis Ocaña, who crashed out on the 14th stage of the 1971 race while he was wearing the leaders yellow jersey. And going up the Portet d'Aspet we noticed another larger memorial with fresh flowers on it. This is for Fabio Casartelli, an Olympic gold medal winning cyclist from Italy who tragically died descending the pass on the 15th stage of the 1995 race.

 

 

At St. Lary we stayed at Auberge a l'Isard. This hotel is run by a very friendly family, it's clean and comfortable with good food, and it comes recommended.