*Links to routes throughout

So far this Summer I’ve been cycling every Sunday with Helen in Hertfordshire. Max elevation is 900m and our max distance this year has been 100km. I’ll do “chat laps” around Regents Park every so often, and jump on Zwift once a week(ish) for something high intensity. Nothing compared to what was ahead of me… 

Nonetheless, the mountains were calling and I couldn’t wait to get out of the city. We packed light, grabbed our bikes and cycled down to the car rental place. The car was smaller than we anticipated but we made it work. We got the bikes in and that was it, we were off. We drove to Dover and took the ferry over to Calais, France. From London to the Pyrenees it’s about 14hrs of driving in total. We split it up and stopped in Tours for a night – had a nice meal and went for a run the next morning to explore the city before continuing South. 

A couple of fender benders later… we got to Bagnères de Bigorre. It’s a perfectly situated town for cycling in the Pyrenees. We stayed at a B&B called Allez Pyrenees. Our hosts Andy & Caroline were incredible. Every morning we’d come down for breakfast and pick their brains on what route to take. There’s a secure workshop onsite where we could leave our bikes and it held shared tools and pumps etc that you don’t want to necessarily travel with. Bagnères de Bigorre itself was a lovely town; lots of good restaurants and bars and like I mentioned, PERFECTLY situated for most of the Pyrenees bucket list rides. 

Day 1 – Tourmalet (East side) & Luz Ardiden

AKA “It’ll make your wife cry” on Dan’s Strava

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