In July 2011 i had a memorable 2 weeks on a cycling holiday to the French Pyrenees. I stayed with Rob and Rachel who run their small cycling business (pyreneescycling.com) from a little village called Bareges halfway up the Tourmalet, an iconic location for road cyclists and a great base for exploring the famous climbs and cols of the area by bike – though you are always faced with a big climb back up to Bareges at the end of the day. The timing of my visit was good because during my first week the Tour de France was passing through the Pyrenees and we got to see some of the action from two of the mountain stages. The roads are closed to cars early on race days but thousands of cyclists and hikers are free to make their way up the mountain roads with picnics to find a good vantage point and enjoy the spectacle and atmosphere of the day. The stages we saw were :-

• Stage 12 – Cugnaux to Luz Ardiden (won by Samuel Sanchez). We cycled from Bareges down to Luz St. Saveur and then cycled up the climb of Luz Ardiden which is famous for the incident in the 2003 Tour when Lance Armstrong crashed near the bottom of the climb and then got back on his bike to chase down the leaders and win the stage.
• Stage 13 – Pau to Lourdes  (won by Thor Hushovd). We cycled down to Luz-St-Sauveur to the town of Argeles-Gazost then cycled up to the top of the Col de Soulour and watched the riders coming over from the Col d`Aubisque.

The weather was pretty good in general with only one day lost due to heavy rain (we all went sight-seeing in Lourdes instead). I was also in training for the Helvellyn Triathlon in a few weeks time, so in the second week i had a day off the bike to do a fast hike from our base in Bareges, climbing up to the spectacular Observatory on the Pic du Midi and to running back down, this was a great day out but it was a lot further than it looked and i really felt it in my quads later on that night. Apart from these two days everyday was spent cycling usually taking in a col or two and plenty of coffee stops on the way.

The nearest big town on the west side of the Tourmalet where we were based was called Luz-St-Saveur (Luz). Some of the cols and rides we done were :-

• The Tourmalet Straight out of the door and turn right to the top of the col then dropping down the other side past La Mongie ski complex to Ste. Marie de Campan. Coffee and cakes here then retracing the route back is one option.
• Col d`Aubisque The quickest way from Bareges was to cycle over the Col de Soulor and continue straight on. We done a longer route which took us on an off-road cycle way to Lourdes then headed west to Asson and approach the col via a lovely quiet scenic road.
• Col de Soulor  From Luz head north through the gorge heading for Argeles-Gazost and pick up the Soulor road from here.
• Hautacam From Luz head for Argeles-Gazost through the gorge and eventually a road on the right takes you up to the ski station of Hautacam.
• Luz Ardiden  From Bareges descend to Luz-St-Saveur then take the dead-end road that climbs up to the ski station of Luz Ardiden.
• Pont d`Espagne  From Luz turn right and head for Argeles-Gazost and turn off just before it you get there and climb up to the town of Cauterets and pick up the Pont d`Espagne road from here.
• Col de Tentes.   From Luz turn left to Gavarnie (a World Heritage site area with its famous cirque – this is probably the reason why the Tour de France hasn’t already visited this great climb). Then take the very quiet road sign posted to Col de Tentes . The Port de Bouchero is a few km further on and is the French/Spain border.