I finally got to cycle the Pyrenees during my Tour de France 2023.
Okay, that should probably read “in the Pyrenees” for I cycled in the central part of the French Hautes-Pyrénées range.
It would have been nice to cycle the “Raid Pyrenees” that is (also) available as a Tacx series of RLV’s.
This is covering many Pyrenees climbs, from East to West, and I’ve done that indoors.
There’s also an official (timed) Raid Pyrenees, crossing the range in max 100 hours (Randoneur) or 10 days (Touring) that can be cycled in either direction.
While tempting – I love “officially stamped” certificates 1 – I didn’t do that as it requires another location every day…
Instead, we stayed in just one place: Bagnères-de-Bigorre.
Bagnères-de-Bigorre is historically and culturally part of the province of Haut-Adour, formerly included in the former county of Bigorre.
Exposed to a mountain climate, part of the Pyrenees National Park, the commune has a remarkable natural heritage: four Natura 2000 sites (the “Néouvielle”, the “Lac Bleu Léviste”, the “Adour valley” and “Liset de Hount Blanque”), a protected area (the “Adour and tributaries”) and seventeen natural areas of ecological, faunal and floristic interest.
The Central Pyrenees extend eastward from the Somport pass to the Aran Valley, and they include the highest summits of the Pyrenees range.
These are:
- Pico de Aneto 3,404 metres (11,168 ft)
- Pico Posets 3,375 metres (11,073 ft)
- Monte Perdido 3,355 metres (11,007 ft)
The region where we resided is the most interesting from a cyclist’s point of view.
That is, if you like blowing yourself to bits, like I do 😂
The highest (paved) road pass in the area, is the Col du Tourmalet (2,115m) but that was not the highest altitude I reached during my Tour de France 2023 2.
Even so, looking at the Top 10, ranked by difficulty, I had the feeling beforehand that this Tour might not be any less challenging than previous Tours:
| Name | Length | Gradient |
| Col du Portet from Saint Lary Soulan | 16.1km | 8.7% |
| Col du Tourmalet | 18.3km | 7.7% |
| Col du Tourmalet from Luz Saint Sauveur via Super Barèges | 18.9km | 7.4% |
| Plateau de Beille | 16km | 7.7% |
| Col de Pailhères | 18.6km | 6.7% |
| Col du Tourmalet from Sainte-Marie de Campan | 16.9km | 7.5% |
| Lac d’Aumar / Lac d’Aubert from Saint Lary Soulan | 25.2km | 5.5% |
| Col de Tentes from Luz Saint Sauveur via Cirque de Gavarnie | 30.1km | 5.1% |
| Col de Mantet | 21.1km | 6.2% |
| Col de Pailhères from Usson-les-Bains | 15.5km | 7.7% |
The Tourmalet is in there no less than three times, although two are near identical and I couldn’t find the “entrance” for the alternative.
I did not climb the Pailhères, the Mantet or Plateau the Beille, as they were nowhere near our base camp.
Other “must do” climbs outside of the top 10 that I climbed: the Hautacam, the Col d’Aubisque, the Col de Spandelles and the Hourquette d’Ancizan.
Luz-Saint-Sauveur is, besides at the base of the Tourmalet, also the starting point for the Col de Tentes and Cirque de Troumouse, the latter being outside of the top 10 too.
But like the Port de Balès, that one is a very hard nut to crack, especially if you go all the way and do not stop at the parking / restaurant.
And I only started in Gèdre after descending from the preceding Col de Tentes…
Closest to our base camp Bagnères-de-Bigorre, were the climbs up the Tourmalet from Sainte-Marie de-Campan and the Col d’Aspin.
The other ends – and some other climbs – required a car transfer, but most of those transfers where no longer than 30-40 minutes.
From the cols in the Raid Pyrenees and the concluding Hautacam climb in the Tacx “Gers” collection, I remember having to almost throw up doing that, but in reality, it was tough, but not all that bad.
The weather higher up was shitty, though…
You know I often mention that while mathematically sound, these overall average grades mean jack shit and I encountered climbs that looked “okay-ish” on paper, but had my Edge showing double digit grades way too often.
In the end, I got almost every climb between Port de Balès and Col d’Aubisque on the “Been there, Done that” list, with limited car transfers where needed.
That meant 26 cols, but only a handful of passes were tackled from both ends: Tourmalet, Port de Balès, Peyresourde, Aspin and Hourquette d’Ancizan.
Riding these top-rated climbs was the main objective for this trip, but I found out that cycling the roads between them and the ones less traveled, was where the real magic happened.
1 I have two of those from France: the “Cinglé du Mont Ventoux” and the “Brevet de 7 Cols d’Ubaye” 😎
2 You can get higher – without drugs – if you take the gravel road dead-end fork off the Tourmalet called “Col des Laquets“, and the Col du Portet and Col de Tentes are higher too.