Col du Portillon and the man flu

Yes you guessed it, David has come down with a heavy cold.  A couple of miserable days of rest for him, lots of heavy breathing, moaning, coughing, blocked nose and ooh, something else?  Oh yes, a sore throat, not pleasant, especially when you're on holidays, no one wants to get a bug. Chicken soup is a good fixer.

But he did look better this morning compared to the past few days.  We woke to brilliant sunshine and he was keen to ride.  'I can always just turn back Ang'. Must be feeling better. We chose a route that wasn't too long or too much climbing, Col du Portillon, 7.1km in length with an average of 9.1% on a 60km loop.


The climb starts immediately from the village of Luchon, no warm up to the legs but we take it easy and try to get into our groove.  The road is steady as it makes its way, wide sweeping bends with few cars, a couple of cyclist's wizz past like I was standing still.  The road kick's up after the 3km mark to 8% and I loose Dave quickly, so stop on a couple of corners to check that he is OK, 'yep all good, just taking it slow' 

We both remove our under layers as it's hot. I give him a couple of gel lollies to suck on as I know that the climb is more taxing towards the top, and he reassure's me again, he is OK. 

The road markers tell me I have two km's to go, next km is 9.9%.  It's tuff and my brain thinks of ways to distract from the grind and the heat.  I undo my front zipper and let the cool air from the dense forest, flow onto my skin.  Lorna Jane is covering the important bits and I check that the muffin top is tucked into the bib Knicks and not hanging out for all to see.  Not a good sight as you can imagine, when you are leaning your body forward over the handle bars, gravity grabs onto everything, your grinding away working hard just to get up the hill, you carn't really suck in the stomach, boobs out, control your breathing and look like its not hard at all!!  Well not in your 60's anyway.

I pass the 1km to summit marker, ooh next km is 9.4%, piece of cake I think.  I pass a bear warning sign, think geez, what would I do if I met a bear? As I grind the last km, I think of all the things I would do in that situation.  There was lots of options but the one that kept coming back to me as the best, 'turn around and fly down the hill'



At the top is the border with Spain.  I wait for Dave and we head on down the other side after a quick bite, noticing the roads are so much smoother, the views are to die for.  We pass a Tour de France monument as we descend down to the little town of Bososst for a coffee stop.  'Hola' again, so nice to be back in Spain, we do love it their friendly, relaxed nature.


After coffee, we were on a major road for a few km's downhill, but all the traffic seemed to be going in the opposite direction.  Interestingly the wind coming up the valley was quite strong but wasn't too much of an issue.

At the town of Bausen, signs for cyclists took us of this road and onto tiny lanes through gorgeous villages like Fos and Saint Beat. 

Water flowing everywhere, including under a row of house's lining  the channel. Don't know how they would deal with damp !

Houses were backed right up against the cliff rock face, including this little church we came across, built right into the rock.  Padlocked, otherwise I would have went inside.


We eventually turn into another valley and head towards our home town of Luchon, with a tail wind, by this time I need to get Dave home and relaxing. Great day, loved the loop, views were spectacular, gorgeous video's on strata. I have my fingers crossed Dave hasn't shared anything







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