Pyrenees Extreme 1601
30 Jun 2016
Riding Day 1 - Castelldefels to Avellanes
The first riding day of our Pyrenees Extreme Tour started with ab bit of everything. In the morning it rained a little and we warmed us up on the twisty roads around Begues before we visited the Monistrol de Montserat in perfect sunshine. We visited the Castle in Cardona and just before we reached Berga it started raining so quickly, that we were soaked before we could put our rain gear on. When we continued it even started to hail as we got deeper into the mountains. So we were all very happy to reach the lunch spot. We decided to leave the mountain area and that was just the right decision, as it stopped raining as soon as we reached Solsona. And then we dryed up quickly as we were going up the Coll de Boixols. After a challenging riding day with all kinds of different weather conditions, temperatures and curves we arrived at the Monestir de Avellanes. What an exciting day!
Riding Day 2 - Avellanes to Pamplona
We started our second riding day with a little road going up from Ager to the 1688 m high mount Santales from where we had a wonderful view over the area. We continued to Tremp and enjoyed our first pass road. After riding alongside the "Panta d' Escales" we hit two more pass roads and had lunch at a very nice little spanish restaurant. The whole day we were riding in perfect sunshine and we could barely reach our hotel in the city centre of Pamplona as the whole city seemed to be on the streets to celebrate the local soccer club.
Riding Day 3 - Pamplona to San Sebastian and back
On the third day of our tour almost everybody got on the bike to visit San Sebastian. We enjoyed our lunch right at the beach before we went back to Pamplona through the countryside. In the evening there was enough time to visit the city centre of Pamplona and have a look at the places, where the bull run festival takes place every year. We closed the day with a visit at a nice Italian restaurant.
Riding Day 4 - Pamplona to Luz Saint Sauveur
Today we crossed the border into France and found out that on this side of the mountains the roads are much more bumpy and narrow. We discoverd a nice restaurant for lunch and went up all the way to the Col d Aubisque.
Riding Day 5 - Luz Saint Sauveur to Ax les Thermes
Today we enjoyed the nice little backroads of the french side of the Pyrenees. The first pass road was already the Col de Tourmalet which is a famous Tour de France pass. In some parts the quality of the roads was very bad and there was a lot of gravel on the road. It was also very hot with temperatures up to 35 degrees centigrade.
Riding day 6 - Ax les Thermes to Argeles sur mer
Today we went back to the coast of the mediteranean see. We enjoyed the 50 km long pass road N-260 between Puigcerdà and Ripoll. In the afternoon it became even hotter than the day before and after we reached the hotel we all went into the pool to cool us down. What a nice day!
Riding day 7 - back to Castelldefels
Our last riding day took us from Argeles along the coast to the small town of Cadaques. Later we visited the beach at Loret de Mar and went back to the hotel in Castelldefels. I think this tour was a great adventure and a lot of fun for everyone as we all did a great job on the bikes.