by Dombo » Wed Jun 23, 2010 10:18 am
[quote="huw williams"][quote="Dombo"]Wow! So THAT's what the Pyrenees look like in summer; not the freezing, mist-shrouded hell that Andy, Del and I toiled up in '08.
Don't you believe it - the Tourmalet was closed on saturday for Snow! Opened up on sunday though. And that pic on the Soleur was just before i stopped at the top and put on every item of clothing i was carrying - full arm warmers, rain-coat, an extra gillet and leg-warmers for the decent - and I was still freezing on the way down.
Yes very lonely up there Sylv, only the occasional click of the photographers camera every few k for company - that climb is 13.5k long but there's a good 10-15k of draggy stuff down the bottom before you're even on the climb proper. There were 9 of us on the ride but you just have to go your own pace on the climbs so it was pretty solitary -
not a problem that riders on the day will encounter though 
They may as well be. Apart from gasps of "a gauche" and "putain" we weren't exactly bubbling with conversation. A thousand riders, each enclosed in his own solitary world of pain is how I remember it.