The Raid Pyrénéen is a bicycle route that traverses the length of the Pyrenees between Hendaye on the Atlantic and Cerbère on the Mediterranean. It’s probably no exaggeration to describe this as one of the World’s great bike rides. It…
Preparations
My bike for this tour is a vintage 1995 Pinarello Sestriere in pearlescent blue. It’s my winter training bike and has a standard racing bike drivetrain fitted – so for this tour it will need adapting with much lower gears…
Day 1: Bloxham to Winchester
Tuesday June 7, 2011, 144 km (89 miles) – Total so far: 144 km (89 miles) For the first day of the tour, I cycled alone from my house in Oxfordshire down to Jon’s in Winchester, Hampshire. As the crow…
Day 2: Winchester to Hendaye
Wednesday June 8, 2011, 22 km (14 miles) – Total so far: 166 km (103 miles) Today was our transfer day. The bikes were boxed up and a taxi took us to Southampton airport for our flight to Pau where we…
Day 3: Hendaye to Montory
Thursday June 9, 2011, 143 km (89 miles) – Total so far: 309 km (192 miles) A standard French hotel breakfast consists of a croissant, a section of baguette and a selection of jams. I guess this is fine for…
Day 4: Montory to Argelès-Gazost
Friday June 10, 2011, 103 km (64 miles) – Total so far: 412 km (256 miles) As we loaded our bikes we watched one of the local dogs from Montroy chasing cars as they went through the village. He was…
Day 5: Argelès-Gazost to Luchon
Saturday June 11, 2011, 101 km (63 miles) – Total so far: 513 km (319 miles) The weather forecast promised some welcome sunshine today as our route covered the highest point of the trip. The Col du Tourmalet (2115 meters)…
Day 6: Luchon to Saint Girons
Sunday June 12, 2011, 85 km (53 miles) – Total so far: 598 km (372 miles) I’ve got mixed feelings about today, it actually turned out OK in the end, but was very nearly the end of this tour, for…
Day 7: Saint Girons to Col de la Perche
Monday June 13, 2011, 158 km (98 miles) – Total so far: 756 km (470 miles) My rental bike is superb, it absolutely flew up the Col des Caougnous. It’s a full carbon Time VR with a carbon Campagnolo Centaur…
Day 8: Col de la Perche to Cerbère
Tuesday June 14, 2011, 140 km (87 miles) – Total so far: 896 km (557 miles) Last day of the coast-to-coast and pretty much all down-hill to the Med and our destination, the border town of Cerbere. The weather forecast…