Cyling Tour of Pyrennes Day 4

The Climbs to Col de Mente , Col de Buret and Col des Ares

St Beat Start of the ride to Col De Mente

Group Picture before the start

start of climb up Col du Ares

Memorial to Fabio Carsatelli who was killed at this section on the TDF in 1995

On the way up Col de Mente

Today was the start of what we were here for .....cycling the Pyrennes.

The weather Gods were kind to us and the weather has been good and warm and no rain.
from Luchon we drove to St Beat a small village 16kms away and started with a relatively easy climb from the village to Col de Ares a climb of about 350 metres and 7.5km from the start of the climb and about 8km from the village we rode from.

Whilstan easy climb I was still grinding away but not straining just not quick. We were with other cylict and a group from Melbourne , Croydon cycles. So 2 Australian groups were rifding the 3 Cols today.

We started off at about 9.30 and got to the top by 10am or just past .waitied for everyone to regroup and then headed for Col de Buret with a fast descent and then a brief climb to the Col which was a mere 797 m I believe and then another descent to the start of a short climb to the memorial to Fabio_Casartelli .


we then rode up to Col de Mente our final climb for the day .Took mde 1.20 hr to get to the top and I was feeling it in the end.Was relieved to have got to the top .had lunch and a much needed coke before we decended back to St Beat .A round distance of 55km.

Glad the first ride was over and spent the afternoon at the Luchon Thermal baths which was really just a large swim pool with jets and a sauna .Although Luchon have had mineral baths from 62 BC they don't seem to ahve themanymore just nornal water baths.

The end of a memorable day in the Pyrennes.