Day 2: Thursday 7-14-2011 Pyrenees Mnts: Col du Tourmalet AND Luz Ardiden

Day 2: Thursday 7-14-2011   Pyrenees Mnts:   Col du Tourmalet  AND  Luz Ardiden

Day / date / Location: 

Miles on bike:    15.35 to top of Tourmalet;  2 hr 40 min up             Elevation gain:  5008      

                                 11.44 to 8 k from the top of Luz Ardiden               Elevation gain: 1255

 I bonked and rode the van up

Biked down thru the crowd and cars to bus 11 miles          

                                Total miles: 57.79

$ toward Pledges at 0.026 per foot gained:  3117 x 0.026 =  $243.88

Highlights:

Start the ride at 7:15 AM;  cloudy, cool, mountain in the clouds; lots of crowds; one bus of Gendarmes crowded me off the road for a slow fall into mud, pride hurt, but I smiled at them, Unending 9+ gradient, very hard,  I loved it. 

Tim road the van to the top of Tourmalet and started down with me from there.  Incredible downhill; seemed like 20 miles and brutally fast if one let it.  We didn’t.  I had a front wheel flat while going very fast down but no problem stopping; changed it and then remembered to start the Garmin again.  Tim and I stopped frequently to take pictures.  WOW

Tim went on ahead of me and missed the turn to Luz Ardiden and has a very interesting tale of how he figured out a way to reconnect with us at 11 PM back at the hotel.  He watched the tour on TV at a distant town while we had our pictures taken on the Podium and viewing the finish right at the finish line in the stands.  Self-rescue in a foreign land.

Tim loved every min of it. 

Luz Ardiden is a BRUTAL climb.  We had an official escort over the finish line, podium pictures, VIP seating was too cool;

We also had to ride the bikes going down thru the crowd, cars, vans, other bikes and motorcycles with hairpin turns and no shoulder; 13+ kilometers! oh my! That was intense, arm and hand cramping, insane, never want to do that again, but I loved it…

Ferdando, one in our group, lost it on a turn down Tourmalet and ended up in a boulder strewn embankment; we saw him surrounded by medics but didn’t know who it was.  They medi-helicoptered him out; bruised vertebrae, mild concussion, he came back tonight in a brace and in good spirits.  He flies home tomorrow.  

We ate at 11 PM and got to sleep at 12:30

Tomorrow is early again…..

 Pics from today:

                                         TDF Podium