Tour de France - and a visit to spain

 Today the weather was not kind, and having an open house it was a little weird.  We took a trip down to Spain – just 10-15 minutes the other side of the border. It took us about 1 hour due to road works. We went to  a lake just past a town called L’Ainsa. It was crystal blue and we swam in it, played ball – there was a sunken city in the lake apparently, probably well evidenced by having the top part of a church protruding from the water – now you would think that the weather being kind was a bad thing, but in Spain it was really uncanny, the weather was hot.

Blue lake in the spanish mountains - note the sunken church.

Over 30 degrees. We got a little burnt, but it was a really good time. The next place we went to was the forgotten city – a town called Jenovas. Was interesting walk – about 20 minutes, but we didn’t know much about why it was abandoned but we climbed the church which gave us a good view of the area. (although we were a little dubious about stepping on the rotted old wood that was holding everything together.) We left – at this point it was about 4.00 and went home, shopping in a mountain French town, and a bought the biggest cupcake you have even seen. BAM!!!   An early night, as an early morning awaited.

Well – the day of the tour de france Before I continue I will briefly talk about the Pyrenees, they are a very nice mountain range – less rugged than the swiss alps, and has a lot more grassed areas. Rolling hills of france turned into mountains kinda. Although I must say that the tourmalet wasn’t as beautiful as the La hourquette d’ancizan, that mountain road/pass was much nicer – more forest like, more accessible, could live there, but not on the tourmalet.    – Stage Cugnaux to Luz Ardiden. Planning for the day – if you are trying to get to the tour and see it properly, get a van with satellite TV and drive up the day before. What did we did is that we got up at 6.30 and tried to make our way to Col du tourmalet, and actually was successful. We made it 4 kms from the summit as the road to the summit was closed, and we walked up about 1 km. Now, the most exciting bit of the tour de france is when the riders attack each other on the steep climbs. We tried to find the steepest part of course, but it all didn’t seem that steep – even though it was a 9% gradient. We walked up carrying an esky, bags, chairs etc, and it was too heavy to carry 4kms to the summit. As we walked upto our place, lots of people from all nationalities stride in stride, there was a sense of camaraderie in the air. Spainish, French, Dutch, English, Norwegian etc were all waving and smiling even though the mist has rolled in and obscured the view of the peaks of the Pyrenees. It is very possible to camp on the mountain – there was multiple tents set up on the road up and there was lots of space to camp - albeit on an angle.  After we had secured our position we sat around for a while, played hacky Sack with a few startled people and then set off to the summit – without our gear (We left it on the side of the road.) The road up was pretty steep – but not steeper than some of the roads that we have in Australia – E.g. Buller, just longer.

At the top of the mountain - note Funky's happy expression

When we got to the top, it was like party atmosphere, and I understood what the tour was all about – really similar to carnival, people just need a reason to get together and party. There were people everywhere, lots of bikers, trying their hand at the climb, lots of spectators, people with dogs, people rugged up with blankets and chairs and lots of campers. We stayed up there for about 20 minutes – talking to about 4-5 groups of Australian people that had gathered up there too. We skipped our way down, meeting some English/Welsh/Australian people and talking about random stuff with them. Cool thing about meeting people on the tour is that there is so much time to burn that you want to meet new people and find out their story. We met some New Zealand people that had settled near us – rugby, cricket, etc became a topic of conversation – not the tour that we were “there” to watch. So waiting in anticipation for the tour –firstly the caravans came – throwing all sorts of junk out the window, but interesting because we got a few hats, and other things, and it gave us something to do – but even though I was quite content sitting in a chair looking at the mountains and the occasional chat with the neighbours. Soon enough  the chop chop chop of the rotors told us that the helicopter was near (and the riders with it) and there was a break away – our plan was to run next to the riders, and our test run with the lone rider was very successful – I think I could have chased him 500m up the hill, such was the speed he was going (understandably he had gone 150kms that day though) So I was keen to take a tilt at cadel and co. Well….. when the group came through, they were all together and there was just no room to do a run with the tour, the riders took up the whole road!… disappointing… very.. And very quickly, even before it began, the riders were gone and we were again alone with the mountains – and 10,000 of our friends. We walked down and caught the end of the tour with a welsh couple that had TV – (with SBS commentary!) very cool – they talk about the Australians a lot more)

The main riders - see cadel evans in the red on the left.

Now – a strange thing happened on our walk down – walked past a few guys and I heard “Hey did you play for Essendon?” A little bit of background – I played hockey for Essendon about 4-5 years ago…) I slowly turned to find a few of my old team mates on the hill also visiting the tour – playing hockey in Germany!.. The tune “it’s a small world after all” rang for a few minutes after the chat that I had with them. So cool… We had dinner at a bar where our car was parked and then took the inevitable drive back down the mountain with everyone else.  Bumper to bumper for 40 kms..

A disappointment was funky not liking the tour as much – I guess each to their own, but it wasn’t about the bike race, I would have been happy going up the mountain seeing people, talking, and then walking back down without seeing anything– people do this,(without the talking to someone from Estonia!) it is called hiking! But as soon as a bike race is involved it is boring!! Ridiculous.

Now some people may ask? Was it worth it? (Many people would say – you drove so far to watch people ride bikes? )  I would say yes “but” Do you see much of the action? Are you entertained for a long time? No. Is I difficult to get up there and fight all the crowds and traffic etc yes. BUT despite this, I had a good day, seeing the mountains, talking to people, experiences I had were worth the effort. – Would I go again? Yes – if I hired a Van with a TV. J

Another strange thing was how quiet the La hourquette d’ancizan was less than 6 hours after the race – not a camper or a barrier or a sign to be seen, if you went over it you would never know that the tour was even there. – Not bad..

We don’t know what we are going to do tomorrow, but we think maybe hiking and staying in a mountain hut for a night, here is to hoping that is a fun time. – fire – mountains and quiet.

Trying to cheer funky up!