Day eight (Day one of Pyrenees RAID). Whew! 69 miles. 5 cols. 7000 feet of climbing (this is our "flat" day). Unlimited overlooks of French/Spain villages and farms...priceless. We were up at 6 and Kenny made a quick jaunt to the coast to dip his wheels in the Atlantic. After an amzing breakfast of breads and fruits, we filled our water bottles with Perrier and stuffed a baguette in our tail pockets and hit the road. Before we could say "Au revoir" we were climbing our first col (pass) - Col de S'Ignace. We crossed into Spain for our second col which was actually a puerto (Puerto Olsondo before our third and highest col (Col de Ispeguy) for the day took us back into France. The view constantly overlooked mountainsides covered with pastures and sheep/cows which had a strange habit of wandering, if not sunning, across the road in the middle of a harpin turn that you were trying to negotiate at 40+ mph. After a well-deserved picnic lunch we found some awesome backroads that led to the final two cols (Garnia and d'Osquiche). The final descent led us to our resting point for the night (Mauleon Licharre) where yet another wonderful meal with the group awaited us.
No comments:
Post a Comment