La tortue sur Le Tourmalet

Or as spell check wants to correct, La torture! 

In fact, it wasn’t. Admittedly, I was not in the best mindset on the road up to Luz-Saint-Saveur. The road was busy and it felt like there was climbing being done when the real climb hadn’t even started. However, finally, I reached the start sign with 19km to go. That already cheered me up because I’d calculated that it would be more than twenty in my miles to kilometres conversion. But it got better. I wondered if there were going to be signs every kilometre, like yesterday. I thought, probably so, so I ignored my Garmin because that worked for me mentally.

The first kilometre did seem to go on though but I was determined not to check. Imagine my glee when I spotted a sign and did a double take… FOURTEEN to go!

It was all doable from here and tremendously enjoyable. Less cars, less cyclists and a a feeling of tranquility in the towering mountains with just the cowbells ringing quite tunefully round and about.

My legs were happy at my tortoise pace and I just tried to take it all in - along with the phenomenal effort required to race up these hills with a hundred or so miles in your legs. It’s crackers!

The signs also tell you the gradient for the next kilometre and that worked too - especially when they started getting easier not harder as I’d anticipated. The last steep ramp to the top was just a fun evil twist but I’d left plenty in the tank to do that with a grin.

I was down to short sleeves on the way up but, after a few pics, I swapped to two hats and four layers to swoop back down the way I came. I was glad of every layer, staying just about warm enough. It’s ten degrees warmer today than a couple of days ago - I can’t imagine what that would have been like.

Campsite sort out and chill and dinner cooked for two nights. Stretch next. Wondering if my legs have anything left for tomorrow…