Bordeaux to Barcelona

paul_smith_srcc

The Group; can't remember where!

I has always wanted to ride over the Pyrenees and this tour being from Bordeaux to Barcelona for me seemed the perfect way to do it, with a variety of country side and terrain either side of the mountain range for good measure this camping tour with odd night in a hotel towards the end was ideal.


The old railway line out of Bordeaux

The tour started in Bordeaux on a fine Sunny Monday morning, crossing the river from Bordeaux Train station almost immediately had the group of seven of us cycling along a disused railway line that had been converted to a cycle track, with many of the stations and even platforms still in place this was one of the best starts to a tour out of a busy town than I could have hoped for as the line meandered through some lovely country side, connecting the small villages that I assume were not large enough to support a rail road!


We rode through Vineyards like this a lot in the early days


Bob advising that headbands are “just so last season" and banned me from taking a picture wearing it!!

So here we are

The paths lasted for most of the morning on route to the lunch stop, after which we headed through the Vineyards and sunflower fields that typify the area, all in all the first day was relatively flat and easy; no on complained though as we all knew that the Pyrenees with foot hills each side would be challenging enough in days to come. We all chose to eat at the camp site, in France especially the campsites often have a small restaurant, on occasions the food was quite simple, but plentiful and well received by a bunch of hungry bike riders, although on occasion we found the menu and quality were as good as any restaurant to be found in the local town and at a fraction of the cost.


Alan and Richard, Landes de Gascony Regional Park

Louisa and Dan, Landes de Gascony Regional Park

Much of the second next day was again flat, the whole day all along deserted lanes of the Landes de Gascony Regional Park, in effect one huge pine forest, we could ride for miles without seeing a car, obsolete bliss compared to the after the London suburban roads I am used to that’s for sure! The next day after leaving the forest we visited a small 12th century church filled with cycling memorabilia called the ‘Notre Dame des Cyclistes‘, literally packed with Jerseys and old bikes; well worth a visit. This was to be our last easy day as we headed towards the Pyrenees.


Just outside La Bastide D’Armagnac was the 12th century church filled with cycling memorabilia called the ‘Notre Dame des Cyclistes'

For many the harder days were not to be in the mountains, but in the foothills each side, in part as you climbed just as much overall during the course of a day as you would in the mountains, without the advantage of riding up in to the cooler air. None the less I personally found these days some of the best riding on the tour, the first view of the mountains on the horizon are magnificent, a stark contrast to what we had been riding through and hard to believe that we would soon be wobbling our way up and over them starting the very next day!


If you look closely you can just see what was one of the first views we had of the Pyrenees

The first mountain was the Port de Bales at 1755m, at just under 12 miles long I was expecting a gradual climb and that is exactly what we got, a very gradual climb for the first half that had Louisa wondering what all the fuss about riding up a mountain was all about, I confess to being a tad concerned as this was infact not good news at all, we needed to go up and this simply wasn’t going up enough to get us to 1755m! Sure enough at the halfway point it promptly made up for lost time by making up the height with a steepness to rival any of the high mountains that I have ever ridden.


Yes yes yes I know you want a picture but quickkkkkkk it’s freeeeeeeezing!!!

This climb was first used in the Tour De France in 2007 and has much less traffic than the busier climbs of the Col de Peyresourde that it descended to join at the bottom, it turned out to be the toughest climb of the tour and indeed as tough as any I have ever ridden in the high Alps. When I finally got to the summit the visibility was such that while waiting for Louisa to arrive I turned on my camera to capture her arrival, only to hear her say that she could hear the peep of my camera and no way was I going to take a picture of her all sweaty and unnecessary, all a bit odd as I could hear her, I was looking in exactly the right direction yet still I couldn’t see her, so thick was the mist on what was a windless mountain top with only the every present sound of cowbells braking the eerie silence; the views we are told on clear day are spectacular! being a tour climb the road surface was good so the descent would have been fast if we could see where we were going, fortunately it did indeed clear after a mile or so which enabled us to descend into warmer air on route to the campsite at the pretty town of Bagneres-de-Luchon.


Bagneres-de-Luchon where we spent our rest day

The next day had us riding into Spain where the cooler greener climbs seemed to be immediately replaced with warmer browner versions, horses for courses as to which people preferred, personally each has a beauty and magnificence and I love each in equal measure.


Port de la Bonaigua. At 2072 metres above sea level

The highest pass on the tour was the Port de la Bonaigua at 2072 metres above sea level, from then on had a 25 mile descent to the next campsite, mind you the headwind when we had descended down into the valleys normally made the going tougher than expected, as did the heat, Spain can and does get very hot as it did on this tour, a few did indeed struggle with the heat and needed to keep themselves well covered, as heatstroke can take riders by surprise especially as they are often out in the sun longer than they would be normally at home; fortunately the support vehicle allowed some to take time out if necessary.


The Campsite at Arties was our first night in Spain

Day ten took us along the mountain route from Organya to Solsona, I have ridden what must be approaching 200’000 miles in my lifetime and I have to say this route is right up there with one of the best routes I have ever ridden, it had everything, quite roads, rugged beautiful climbs through gorges that simply took your breath away, with stunning views that seemed to vary with each turn of a corner, along the whole route frequent stops were required to take in each as they were so spectacular; we even rode through a lightning storm which made the whole day memorable that’s for sure!



The mountain route from Organya to Solsona was one of the best rides I have done; ever!

Solsona was to be the last night under canvas, as the next evening was at hotel at the monastery at Montserrat, although now out of the mountains the route was still quite hilly and took us along some rough tacks alongside a wind farm, from where we got our first view of Montserrat on the Horizon


Windfarm on route to Montserrat

Montserrat is the famous location and the spiritual home of the Catalunya and although very popular by the time we got there it was quiet and we were able to wander around in the piece and quiet; it gets my vote as well worth a visit as an evening stop on a cycle tour that‘s for sure, as did the Hotel and a welcome first night in a proper bed luxury of an ensuite bath room! Although I love camping I did make a point of getting up in the middle of the night in the hotel to go to the loo; just because I could! I dare say that I am not alone when camping when I confess to spending an eternity each night lying in my sleeping bag trying to convince myself that I don’t need to go; when I know that it’s just a matter of time before I just have to!


The view from our Hotel Window at Montserrat

The next day was a fairly short ride that took us briefly through the industrial suburbs of Barcelona before we headed into the quieter hill side route that took us right into Barcelona town itself, we all had an extra day at the end to take in the Barcelona sights which rounded off a superb tour perfectly.


Barcelona

Paul_Smith

priory

where are the tents, cookers, etc? Did you have a van as well?

Was your route on the main roads over the pyrennees or back roads?

Have you put the route on bikely? how do we find it?

Did you plan every stop and book ahead before the start or make it up en-route?

TerryJ

daniel_b

That looks like an awesome tour Paul!

Great pictures.

Terry, in one of the posts he mentions a support vehicle, and a quick google came up with this website, which seems to match up pretty much?

http://www.bikeadventures.co.uk/supportbordeauxbarcelona.html

Paul, what was the process for getting back from Bacelona?

Dan

rouleur23

You look like a mad bloke that sold me stuff when I used to live in the UK. In a shop called Pearsons. I am sure it is you.
Trip looks good. I organise these type of things from time to time and they are the best fun and a right crack if you have the right company. Good to see you still ride.
Nice pictures too.

If you do another.......I'd go to let someone else take the pressure of organising.

reeespect

rouleur23

You look like a mad bloke that sold me stuff when I used to live in the UK. In a shop called Pearsons. I am sure it is you.
Trip looks good. I organise these type of things from time to time and they are the best fun and a right crack if you have the right company. Good to see you still ride.
Nice pictures too.

If you do another.......I'd go to let someone else take the pressure of organising.

reeespect

paul_smith_srcc

priory wrote:

where are the tents, cookers, etc? Did you have a van as well?

Was your route on the main roads over the pyrennees or back roads?

Have you put the route on bikely? how do we find it?

Did you plan every stop and book ahead before the start or make it up en-route?

TerryJ

As Daniel correctly deduced it was an arranged tour, through Bike Adventures, the tents were taken in the support vehicle I mentioned. With the exception of the Port de la Bonaigua all the climbs were virtually traffic free, infact to give you some kind if indication this is what greeted us as we climbed the Port Port de Bales, so that quiet !



For anyone interested there are more details about this tour on their website here, I have been with them a few times now as you can see below. Initially I used them as I wanted to meet new people, although I came to realise that I find the back up reassuring even though I am an experienced rider.

For example you will see in my London to Paris write up listed under my signature that I dislocated my shoulder walking down a footbridge, it took the hospital so long to pull it back into place when I came out I was so woozy with Morphine that I didn’t have a clue where I was let alone who! The Bordeaux to Barcelona tour was the first for Louisa and she was one of the three who got heat stroke in the foothills after the Pyrenees, severe enough result in her being taken to hospital, again knowing that she could spend the last 40 odd miles in the back up vehicle was again a reassurance, a shame she didn’t finish it but the right thing to do of course, in fairness if I listed the tour highlights the industrial and very busy Barcelona suburbs would not get a mention, some of the last day was is in effect a means to an end, so she didn‘t miss much, although the descent into Barcelona was very good with views from right accross town.



She really enjoyed her first tour though and would go again; I noticed that she now says that she roder “Trigger the Trek” over the Pyrenees when she talks to her friends, sounds even more impressive than Bordeaux to Barcelona anyway

Daniel B wrote:

That looks like an awesome tour Paul!

Great pictures.

Terry, in one of the posts he mentions a support vehicle, and a quick google came up with this website, which seems to match up pretty much?

http://www.bikeadventures.co.uk/supportbordeauxbarcelona.html

Paul, what was the process for getting back from Bacelona?

Dan

We got to Barcelona Friday afternoon, had Saturday to sight see, most flew back Sunday am where as Louisa and I decided to fly back later that night so that we had effectivley two days in Barcelona, the support Vehicle bought all the bikes back to the UK, no one had to take them on the plane.

rouleur23 wrote:

You look like a mad bloke that sold me stuff when I used to live in the UK. In a shop called Pearsons. I am sure it is you.
Trip looks good. I organise these type of things from time to time and they are the best fun and a right crack if you have the right company. Good to see you still ride.Nice pictures too.

If you do another.......I'd go to let someone else take the pressure of organising.

You have a good memory as yes it could have been, I was the manager there for 15 years until 2001 before moving to BikePlus to first run the CTC Shop franchise and then BikePlus mail order, I now work at a local bike shop near Epsom Downs called Corridori.

Paul_Smith