Col des Ares - a category 2 climb - Six weeks in Europe

June 2, 2023

Col des Ares - a category 2 climb

PToday was the day to start riding. It was a beautiful sunny day with a perfect temperature to try my hand a one of the Tour de France cols albeit not the toughest one in the area. Our host recommended this as a first step to see if I wanted to tackle something more challenging. I was out by myself because Derek and Linda went off hiking, and they truly had their own adventure not getting back until 4:30 whereas I was back just after 1pm. I had the gpx track on my Garmin and was already familiar with the area so I was not all fussed. Basically it was an out and back turning around at the top. There is a way to go around but that would have been over 100km and with lots more riding ahead I decided to pass. The return route took me through a few small villages so it wasn’t a repeat of the way out. I had a little WAA time because of detour due to construction but it was no big deal. I managed the climb without even using all of my gears so I am still thinking about trying to tackle the famous Col de Peyresourde which is longer and steeper than today. We will see.

The profile of the climb. I rode 23km to reach the base of the climb.

I was detoured onto a local bike path because of construction. It is right beside the raging Garrone river.

Part way down I took this photo of the glacier in the distance. It was much clearer on the way up but I didn’t want to stop.

This was the village of Antichan that I passed through on the way up and down.

This was my view riding back to Bagnère de Luchon.

Once in town I stopped at this bakery for a lovely sandwich.

My baguette had seeds on that kept falling off so I had these guys a lunch mates.

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 2,040 km (1,267 miles)

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Gail JohnsonWell done Margaret!
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10 months ago