10km run pre brekky with a "guess your time" competition ( John's fave....)105km ride from Bagneres de Luchon to Sort, 2100m asc of Portillon and Port de Baguieera.
I'll apologise now as my brain is likely a little fried from the 40 degree temperatures outside.
I had a great sleep last night, leggies elevated on 2 pillows to aid recovery and get rid of my heat cankles :-) Woke about 5.30 am then dozed until the alarm went off at 5.45 so up, into run gear, stretch and a snack etc.
We met at 6.30 to start our loop 10 km course with a guess your time. I forgot that the surrounding land is not flat, so estimated 53:30 but took 54:58 in the end. As anticipated I felt bloody terrible for the first 4 km ( tho a marked improvement on yesterday's monolithic state ) but started to come right and pushed the pace a bit more.
Quick shower, brekky then set off just after 9 and straight into the Col du Portillon which is around 9km with the French- Spanish border right at the top of the Col. I have done enough of these camps to know that each day you feel horrendous for the first hour as well as a little sick from riding uphill too soon after breakfast and I made the cardinal sin of eating too much for brekky this morning. Dam French bread.
I set off solo with some tunes in my ears and tootled up the Portillon , no km markers on these climbs ( probably a good thing ) ... started to come right about 50 mins in, turned the corner after a steepish section and lo and behold, at the top !!
Obligatory photo by the sign ( in my polka dot jersey of course!) then a pleasant descent to Bossost and another 14km along the valley to Vielha. Made it through Vielha, no sign of Ian to point to start of climb so kept on rolling, was getting hot and I needed a pit stop so found a service station with nice clean loos and a cold fridge so bought a cold diet coke, checked the route card and saw was supposed to have started KOM in Vielha, oops. Pressed the button from the servo then hoofed my way along the road, saw a sign saying Baquiera 4km ...hmm was that the top? can't remember. Put in a solid effort then saw Ian and support crew who told me it was 8km to the top in Port de Banaguia. Shit!! Hope I hadn't blown my self up.
What a glorious climb and glorious scenery, I was feeling pretty good in the leg department and also had the threat of losing my polka dot jersey looming over me which spurred me on altho somewhat dismayed as I hadn't realised I was technically on the Kon from Vielha and probably had been faffing around a bit....
A tasty lunch was waiting for us at the top, thank you Julie.... stellar job !! Then 51 km to Sort, net downhill... a few switchbacks then the road opened out to glorious smooth, long 60km+/ hr descending. I could feel the mercury rising the further down I got, have a hot spot on my right butt cheek just where the edge of the saddle was so once I was down in the valley things were getting a little uncomfortable. I stopped for some shade and to relieve the pressure on my arse for 5 mins ( sorry Mum if you are reading this!!!) My Garmin said it was 40 degrees.
Anyway, I just had to keep it rolling and it didn't take too long, despite a bit of hot headwind in the gorge and soon arrived at Sort, same time as Thierry and Philinator who had tacked on to get to 120km. We all headed straight to the bar for some limon Fanta with ice. yes, yes I know that stuff is bad for your teeth but
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