4PE260C The HBMC on the Pyrenees extreme tour
The group arrived to the start hotel in Badalona this afternoon. All made it well despite the heavy rain which hit Barcelona and caused some flooding. We met all together in the hotel bar for the welcome briefing and introduction to the Tour. It sounds like a crazy adventure which will start here. After the welcome briefing everyone was excited to see their bikes, so we went to the garage, had a look and set them up for the next day. A bit later we met all again in the restaurant for our first dinner, talked about the upcoming trip and previous tours. Lots of jokes has been told, lots of laughter and we wrapped the evening up in the rooftop bar of the hotel.
We had to get up early this morning as the hotel informed us about a planned maintenance on the garage, so we had to leave before 8am. We all got in riding gear to the breakfast to speed things up. We met at the bikes afterwards to pack all our stuff on them and to learn about the coming day during the short dayli briefing. We used some highways to get out of the city and headed in direction of the Montserrat mountain region. After all that traffic and the highway we got finally rewarded with some nice twisty roads. Not too much, not to tight, just perfect to get used to the bikes. A short stop to take some pictures of the nature around us and after a short stop for a coffee. That’s all we need, the twistys are calling! After a while we got hungry and started to look for a good lunch opportunity. A beautiful view from the terrace of the restaurant and delicious food gave us fresh energy for the next part of the day. The col de Jou and the col de Boixols are awesome mountain roads. Almost 60mi pure curves. We had to stay concentrated, the roads where not really wide. Luckily there wasn’t much traffic and so we had lots of reasons to smile as we arrived afterwards at a cafe for a short stop. The roads where getting a bit more straight but hold beautiful nature on their side to enjoy looking at. It didn’t take long anymore and we arrived at the hotel for the next night. Just a quick shower and we met again at the bar to have a beer together. Well… to bridge the time until dinner it took maybe a few. But to wait for the dinner was worth it. Excellent food and lots of variety made that evening to a perfekt end of this first riding day.
It was still dark this morning when we woke up. We wanted to get everything ready on the bikes before the breakfast starts already. Eventually we met all in the Loby, no one wanted to go out to the bikes. The rain was so heavy that even the end of the parking wasn’t visible. 30% rain possibility the forecast said yesterday…. We went to the breakfast first to discuss plans again. We took some time for it. In the end the decision was clear. Honey Badgers don’t care, also not about rain and all wanted to go the same route, every single curve which we planned to ride will be ridden today. Bikes packed, clutch out and off we go. After some more than an hour through the rain we stopped for a coffee. No regrets, we where still good with our decision and so we continued through beautiful nature along the Benasque national park. The rain continued all the way until we arrived at our lunch break, just before it stopped. We enjoyed the break, and as we went out of the restaurant it started to rain already again. We moved on and arrived in Jaca where we had another coffee. We just left Jaca when it continued already to rain, almost all the way to Pamplona. After a shower (not that we needed more water from the top today) we met in the bar, outside, it stopped raining now…. We spoke about the day, everyone was smiling. All this nice curves and twistys of today where soo much fun despite the rain. Time for the dinner and afterwards for the bed to get some energy for the next day. San Sebastián we are coming!
It’s 7am and time for breakfast on this restday in Pamplona. We have a full day planned and want to leave on time to manage to go through all these nice roads and also to spend some time in San Sebastián. Not all of us wanted to go on the long ride and so we just went with three bikes out of the hotel garage. Some bigger roads brought us out of Pamplona towards the first curves of the mountains around us. First some narrow ones until we spotted a little coffee in one of the countless bask-villages we saw today. After this short break we moved on, some wider roads with smooth sweepers all over, brought us further in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean. Eventually we turned into a narrow mountain road, some tricky curves which made lots of fun, and we arrived on top for another coffee. We talked about these fun roads, comparing our leaning angles with each other and relaxed a bit in the sun. Time to move on, the lunch break is waiting and we still had a lot of curves to go to arrive in San Sebastián. The view from the top of Monte Igueldo, where we had lunch, was stunning and definitely worth going up there. Unbelievable but the roads where just seam to get more and more curvey. And so we moved in the direction of Pamplona almost without going straight, the bike was always leaning to one side or the other. Just another coffe in between, a short evaluation of which route back to the hotel we should take and we made our way to Pamplona where we had a cold beer up on arrival. For the dinner we met later again in a restaurant close to the hotel. After we discussed the plan for the next day we went to bed. It has been a tiring day but we enjoyed every minute of it.
It took a bit longer this morning after the rest day to get all our luggage packed and fixed on the bikes. After the dayli briefing we directly started off and after just enough time to get warm with the bikes we went already on the first twisty sections of today’s ride. Beautiful sweepers, perfectly paved roads but the roads where still a bit wet. It’s fun to test the limits in that conditions and get the response of the bike and tires. The roads where getting more and more technical and narrow. Some pilgrims who walked the famous Camino de Santiago on the side of the road required our full attention on the road. Time to have a coffee to get out of that hyperfokus. But not for long and so we moved on. Narrow roads again through beautiful nature. Some cows on the side of the road and sometimes even on the road made the ride to our lunch stop a really special experience. We got some Sandwiches on top of a mountain with delicious local sausages and cheese. We didn’t want to stay longer, the roads were calling, wide and perfectly constructed for motorcycles. Eventually we turned of the main pass into a very narrow, technical road which were winding around the mountain. The tarmac was still wet and here and there some gravel. We rode carefully and payed full attention to the road. That’s part of the adventure of an extreme tour. Exactly what we were looking for. We made our way further to reach the highlight of today, the col d‘Aubisque. Very well known from the Tour de France. Just in the beginning of it we stopped for another coffee. The place where located on a plateau and had some beautiful views from there. Unfortunately it started to rain right after this stop and we had to pull our rain gear out. When we arrived at the hotel we agreed that it has been a wonderful day anyways. Even if it’s raining, the Pyrenees are breathtaking. We met for some beers and cigars in the bar before we went to dinner. Some nice local specialties has been served and a lot of bread and butter.
The view up to the breche de Roland this morning from the parking of the hotel was amazing. The sun just came out and touched the rock formation. The perfekt time for our morning briefing. A lot of mountain passes were on our list today, a few of them are part of the Tour de France, so is the first one for today, the col de tourmalet, one of the most famous. Steep uphill, a few hairpins, a bunch of curves and good pavement guarantee lots of fun. Of course the fun didn’t end here. We had all day long curve after curve, on wide roads, on narrow roads, with gravel, animals and their leftovers on the road, some wet spots suddenly appearing. Just a fine mix of everything which brought us pure fun and made us also a bit tired. After the dinner it got a little quiet though and we went to bed early, gaining some energy.
Still tuned? Good because we have to tell you something! You remember initially we told you we are about to do more than 30000 curves? Only today we did probably already 10000! It started already right after our dayli briefing, just a few minutes for the warm up and the first turn where there. A little bit tricky to see them because the sun was blinding sometimes so we took it easier and a bit careful this morning, but of course with a lot of fun. The roads changed continuously during the day and we got almost every kind we could imagine: Wide roads with large sweepers, narrow roads with tricky sharp turns, all kinds of switchbacks and hairpins. Hits hard to really pick a highlight out of this day. If I would have to it’s probably the Collada de toses. Curve after curve and seems to never end. The day was actually pretty exhausting and so it was the perfect surprise to have a bootbeer right after we arrived at the hotel. We chattet a bit during the beer and went to get a shower afterwards. Before the dinner we met again for another beer and some cigars, relaxing a bit after this long day. The dinner was amazing and we had lots of fun talking about our experiences of the day. But there is another day coming and to be ready for that one we went to bed early again.