Bagnères-de-Bigorre
Our base camp for the Tour de France 2023 will be in the “Baths of Bigorre”.
As interesting as the history of the city might be, I’ll just provide you with a link to Wikipedia to read about it 😎
Of particular interest for me is the section “Climate” which is very encouraging:
It is however intensely exposed to north by north-west disturbances that collide with the terrain. This barrier effect is felt up to the foothills so that springs, autumns, and winters are cool and rainy while summers are often hot and particularly stormy.
We’ll see how that plays out…
Furthermore, as stated in an earlier post, I have a score of “da bomb” climbs in the area 1.
The Col du Tourmalet 2 is the literal highlight of those and maybe my entire Tour de France 2023.
It has been included in full in Tour stages no less than 85 times and it will be climbed again in stage 6 of this year’s Tour too.
I’m mainly concentrating on the lesser known climbs in this post, most of which are between 1,000 and 1,500 meters high.
The Col d’Aspin is almost as famous as the Tourmalet and it was included in a stage 55 times, lastly during last year’s stage 17.
And, it will be included in stage 6 of this year’s Tour as well…
The Hourquette d’Ancizan might / should ring a bell among the Tour de France followers, as it has been part of a stage on 5 occasions, including stage 17 of last year’s Tour.
Another climb, “between” the Tourmalet and the Hourquette, is the Sarrat de Gaye.
Col des Palomières has no less than four alternatives from – or close from – our base camp.
And the Col de la Couret has three, but one of those is only accessible via the Col de Saoucède.
Two dead ends also start near our base camp: the Col de la Croix Blanche and Le Chiroulet.
And so, once again, looking at the profiles, I already have more than I can swallow, before I “tackle” the other areas nearby…
1 I’m linking to “our” end of these climbs, but I’ll obviously try to climb as many alternatives as possible.
2 More on the Tourmalet here – actually, it’s neither the highest pass, nor the highest paved road in the Pyrenees.
Good luck with the climbs. Hope the weather doesn’t get stormy :)