Tour 2012: Port de Bales

Monday and another day with an expanded "Pyractif" group. All those from yesterday plus another 8 Norweigans. A bit of sleep in with the start being at 10:30, these French style slow mornings certainly suit me, they are however considered a necessity as dinner never finished till 10: and its a rush to get to bed before midnight.

It was another busy day of riding and eating this time starting with an undulating roll around the valley leading to morning tea t the base of the climb to Port de Bales, a 19 km and a rise of 1,157m, not too bad bar the latter 11km which ramped up to an average 9% with sections up to 14% . Re gruoped at the top forr photos and admire the view then the 20 km descent to Luchon and lunch. Arrived a bit late, french kitchens close around 1:30 and food becomes a bit of an ask and we were limited o the traditional baguette with Jambon e Fromage.

My legs seem to be well adjusted at this stage and I am finding it all reasonably comfortable, well at least after the descents I can barely remember the pain to get up there and there is no longer any remnant soreness at the end of the day.

We dined out tonight, not sure what it was, Tim tried snails, others had thge frogs legs and entree was some odd part of a duck... gizzards maybe. Whatever it was all very good.

Tomorrow we look forward to another day of.... you guessed it riding up and down hills and eating lots. I may tire of it sometime, but not yet.

Thats it for now, once again I must get going or I shall be chasing ... yet again

Au revoir