short notice pico's and pyrenees spare place

Day 4 Video continued

Part of the route to the hotel

Day 5

the trip to Tautavel another massive milage run approx 380 (on these roads thats a lot in one day)

Begins with a look at the maps as with half of the col du tourmalet closed we have to re route to get to la Mongie for the cablecar up the Pic Du Midi (more on this later)

this is the route we chose and boy did it turn out to be something special.



first up was a detour round to La Mongie and the climb up one of the highest passes (1/2 closed by half a metre of snow)



Arrive at the Pic Du Midi



its getting a tad misty



so i wander into the tourist information to have a look on the TV of pictures at the top (ie is it worth the 20 odd euro's ) after a little broken english / french with the young lady i find out it is indeed closed today as the workers are on strike about trying to increase their retirement age from 55 to 60,

Now i don't mind admitting at this point i was totally gutted (this was to be one of the highlights of my tour, but ces't la vie now i have a reason to return (as if i really needed one).



whilst there we noticed some really strict health and safety practices



dont look to bad until you zoom out



So slightly deflated we went back down the tourmalet to a mid point for a coffee



here we perused over the maps again and finalised a route (wow did it turn out great) so the col du tourmalet was first in a sequence of four col's on the trot.

next up my favourite the col du aspin the road up and the road down were fantastic and stunning if you find it on a map and zoom in you will see this.



and its a peachy surface and zero traffic up and down, heres some views from the top.




and part of the road down





next up was the col du mente where Stuart, mick, me and gordon did just that went mental. this culminated in rather hot and bothered no stopping power back brake's. (don't forget this is our third pass in quick succession and we were not hanging about)




so it was decided to take a break with a local artisan at the bottom of the mente




turns out the guy in yellow was a retired gendarme bike cop , so the fluent french speakers had a good old chat about politics and the state of france, while i just sat there.

on we travelled over another col (cannot remember its name but we took it a bit more sensibly, like about 2mph slower lol) then we were in need of food



spotted this modified fireblade single swinger and homemade underseat exhaust



it was a pretty place by the river



anyway on we travel covering lots and lots of miles on more and more fantastic roads.

another pitstop for a view down to quillan (you will guess how the road twists and turns down to there)





not many miles to go from there to tautavel (mick's place) where we spend the next 5 days ( A really BIG THANK YOU TO Mick at this point )



then we had a lovely meal in tautavel watching the local wildlife doing the same



and of course there was CAKE



off to bed again for more ZZZZ's Day's 6 to 10 to come yet

Another 2 video's from day 4

Looks fab,some great roads, did you have any incidents, or was it all plane sailing?, i hope to venture over the water next year, can't wait.

only one incident, nothing serious it will be explained on day 9.

[STRAMASHER]

Great story and photies.

Shame about Pic Du Midi. We got lucky. But when we got back down off the cable car at the bottom the fog rolled up the hill and had the speed of a Hollywood horror special effect. Anyway it just means you need to go back and bag The 3 Cols again! Poor you.

Day 6

Day begins looking a bit dark and gloomy, but what the hell we are not fair weather bikers !

Mick our Tour guide has us all primed up for a run round some great roads this one i have managed to delete off my sat nav log so no route picture today, suffice to say it was around 250 miles on tight twisty roads.

Start is quite local at a recently built dam / lake visit






some random shots of countryside




then we attack a pass that Mick assures us is Great And guess what (HE IS NOT WRONG) unfortunately there are no pictures of the way up or the top as it was rather wet and VERY misty for the last half mile or so, that misty in bits for visor up and 15 -20 mph, but soon we were out of the clouds (5000 feet) and back into damp but clear.

so we stop in the hope of a bite to eat here



the locals seemed to be dis - intrested as they were eating their own lunch, so we ended up having crisps and drinks only.

views wern't bad though




After this stop we head off down some more Crazy fantastic roads heading for the four solaire (europe's biggest test solar furnace)







and we arrive at the four solaire





this heats up these various boilers




Stuart Gordon and Mick giving their bikes some Love



The obligatory Lunge Shot



A Random Lunge



onward we go via a nice lunch stop (no pics) and then we are treated to the Tet Valley run. Whoa boy, misty and damp but hell what a road.





as it dries out near the bottom we his a very smooth section of A road Dual and as we are pootling along at ahem 90 to 100 erm erm (km if you want) this guy appears on his ZZR1400 T shirt shorts and Bird on the back dressed the same , passes us at say 120 the two guys at the front Me and Mick both must be thinking the same (why waste the petrol) but not Stuart and Gordon ohh no.

I look in my mirrors and see the headlights lift and woosh here we go two missiles locked on target ZOOM.

so me and mick carry on our merry way and make our turn off (some 1 mile down the road) someone didn't though LOL.

then i am treated to a section of tarmac that should just be classed as SUBLIME not a massive length but some really challenging twists and turns with pure black tarmac cambered to suit your every need, THIS IS HEAVEN , NO TRAFFIC, NO POLICE , just perfect road



too busy riding it to take anymore pictures

anyway to come yet is an epic pass climb, 3 countries in 1 day , some very windy moments, some sun sea and seafood, so stay tuned for more tales.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by amarko5

I look in my mirrors and see the headlights lift and woosh here we go two missiles locked on target ZOOM.

.

I was 2 short of the magic speedo figure
I blame Gordon - he made me do it

A video of the "racetrack"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_UxiJqGJys

Originally Posted by Stu

I blame Gordon - he made me do it

I think you needed "NO" Prompting