Stage Distance: 202km
Total Distance: 1354km
This was our first big mountain day with an HC climb followed by a Cat 1 climb. As is often the case, we actually ride slightly further than the pros as we either ride to the start, or from the end of the stage. Today it was the latter, having to descend back from the stage finish at the top of the Cat 1 climb.
Being at the back is often very lonely, however today I had the pleasure of the company of Ally (from Edinburgh) and Sarah (one of the tour doctors). This made the day far better for me, with our own little group. Ally was in a similar position as to myself as to climbing ability, Sarah on the other hand was a significantly better climber but anted to stay back claiming that she couldn’t descend as well, so it balanced itself out. Either way it was a nice group to ride in.
The ride started with bad weather in the morning, grey and drizzly, the first non-sunny day of the trip. The route took us a fairly uneventful 120km from Castres until we arrived at the Gorge de St George just after lunch. From there the road started to climb, though at times it was difficult to tell. Though constantly up at about 2 degrees gradient for about 20km, the road following the river, at times you actually felt that you were riding downhill, prompting you to coast. I dont know what illusion this was but it was one of the strangest roads I have ever been on, I couldn’t get over the sensation, even though I knew the reality. It was a beautiful place to ride, with canyon walls either side of you and the river never far from the road.
At the end of this section we stopped off to recover and ad ice cream, knowning what was coming up, a right turn onto our first HC climb. It was one of the toughest things I have ever done, the 15km climb taking me nearly three hours, topping out at 2001m over the Col de Pailheres, apparently the highest point of this years tour.
After a quick break Sarah, Ally and myself headed off and arriving at town I really felt like finishing there rather than up the next climb only to return to town again. I was becoming aware of how late it was becoming but fortunately Ally and Sarah managed to get that thought out of my mind and we started the ascent. Seeing so many of our riders coming back downhill convinced us that we weren’t actually that far behind so up we rode towards the stage end of Ax 3 Domaines, a ski town pretty much dead for the summer. It never ceases to surprise me how many ski towns are virtually abandoned during the off-season. About an hour of climbing later and we turned straight around for the descent into town.
We arrived half way through dinner to a huge round of applause, uncomfortable for both Ally and myself as it was basically a round of applause for being so slow. Sarah missed this part, sneaking off to the staff dinner.
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