FDOB #2 - Welcome to the Pyrenees

Carcassonne to Bolquère
(130km and 2,010m of climbing over 6 hrs 20 mins of riding)

Sitting after dinner reflecting on the day, I am wondering whether to tell you all about the monster climbing we did, the great views and riding or the educational chat amongst the Fat Dads about pi and globe artichokes.

The riding today was a tale of two halves. We started a little later than planned this morning after some amazing croissants and the riding out of Carcassonne was pretty easy and uneventful, except for me forgetting to remind our support team that my bike box was in the baggagerie at the hotel. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

We were quick along the flat and slight uphill through some typical half-finished but ancient French villages, working as a chain gang through Couiza and Quillan. Very picturesque scenery – deep, rocky ravines. LeeAnne and Ary found a perfect lunch spot just outside Axat and we fuelled up for the long climb ahead.

After lunch the climbing started properly. Steady to start with, it was pretty relentless through wooded valleys and some recumbent folds – a geological term that one of the other Fat Dad’s insist that I throw in. From 500m to almost 1000m at our next rest and refuelling stop at Escouloubre Les Bains.

After our stop the hill got steeper and we cycled all the way up the ski resort at Formigueres at 1500m, which is a beautiful spot on a plateau with a wide bowl of surrounding mountains and pistes. We arrived into the little square being raced by youngsters on BMXs and the gentle sounds of ACDC over a café’s sound system. It was only after I had sat there for a minute enjoying the sun and sounds that I realised that I had sat in almost exactly the same spot with my better half and some friends about 5 years ago. No wonder the route was so familiar. Only last time it was in a car…

After coffee we zipped across the plateau, before climbing again past Pic Bastard (never was a hill more aptly named) to the high point for today (that is high in terms of altitude, not high in terms of energy – it was a slog) of Col de la Llose at 1715m. Then it was mainly downhill (except for a sneaky steep bit just before we stopped) to our hotel in a very lovely Bolquere. Cold baths (complete with plenty of cursing – the mountain landscape leads to very cold cold water), showers and a dinner of Veal stew and grilled Dauphinoise potatoes, washed down with a petite verre de vin rouge and then an early night for the Fat Dads.