Day 2: Arudy to St Marie de Campan

The giant of the Pyrenees:The Col du Tourmalet

I didn't sleep well last night, my mind was racing with thoughts of mountains that had budgets and targets to meet before allowing cyclists to pass.

Bob bought me coffee in bed, not that we are close like that, he's just kind.

Later, we rolled away from Arudy towards the Col d'Aubisque. A flat road allowed us to spin away yesterday's aches and pains. There is a giant billboard at the bottom of the climb that leaves you in no doubt as to what you're taking on. It details the gradient and distance, helpfully colour coding them, too, Red means it's going to hurt: there was quite a bit of red.

Three riders from Trek tours, the cycling holiday company associated with the bike manufacturer, stopped for a chat. How is it that, wherever you are in the world, all Americans meet someone who went to their school, knows their best friend or lives next door.

Going up, anyone?: On the road to the Col d'Aubisque

The Trek riders set off ahead of us as we stalled our ascent with a stop for food and photos. In the end, the inevitable could be put off no longer, so we rode towards the summit. It's around 16km and rises up to 1709m. The gradient trickles you through the woods at a steady 5 per cent,it winds and curls and floats along. Numerous waterfalls plunge through the trees and so many wild flowers dance on the roadside that it makes for a joyous climb. We soon caught and passed the Trek group.

As the road nears the top it kicks up and flicks about a bit but this climb, when treated with respect, is totally wonderful. The closer we got to the summit the more the clouds rolled in, totally obliterating the view. The damp was clinging to our clothes and forming dew drops on our arms. My whole body was steaming, even my feet!

We came over the summit, took pictures and quickly downed hot chocolate before getting our cards stamped and making ready to head off. The owner of the cafe handed me a copy of a newspaper. "For the descent, monsieur" he said, smiling. Never have I been so proud to stuff a paper down my jersey. I felt totally pro! How sad am, I but it's the small things in life that make us smile, inside and out.

We made our exit and ran straight into the closed gates on our route. A sign in huge letters read Ferme - closed! We knew the road was closed to cars as Nick had had to do a 2 hour detour to where he planned to meet us. But bikes?!?! God, if we had to go back the way we came.....

At that moment a small car, complete with flashing orange lights, appeared. The man in overalls lifted the gate. "Ferme pour velo?" I asked. "Non," he said. Was that "no" it's open or "no" bikes can't go. I looked over my shoulder at Bob and rolled through the gate.

The road fell away through the thick fog of cloud, my bike seemed to catch flight and simply melted into the mist. All I could hear was the soft sound of cow bells ringing in the whiteout. I couldn't see Bob, I just put my head down and flew, the exhilaration bringing a smile to my face even though my body was chilled by the wind ripping through it.

The bends linked together and then through the fog the cow bells became loud, very loud. Out of the gloom a huge cow appeared, standing in the road. Brake, skid, steer, missed him .. then another. It was cow dodgems. I came to halt laughing at what might have been and waited for Bob to emerge from the clouds. We rode on together through the road works ahead of the Tour de France, an 18 inch strip of road open for cyclists, the rest a steaming mass of molten tar.

The d'Aubisque merges into the Col du Soulor after about 4kms then there was a short climb to the other gate barring the route. Nick was at the gate. I've never seen a man look more relieved to see his charges. Other cyclists gathered at the gate and after checking with us headed through the "route ferme" barrier.

A quick picnic lunch and we headed for the giant of the Pyrenees, the Col du Tourmalet.

We rode steadily through the lower slopes until we hit the main drag. Straightaway I knew this was going to be a different ride. With the sun beating down we made steady but slow progress. The section through the village of Bareges hit 13 per cent in places, with Bob and I exchanging the role leading our small group. There is one easy section on the climb, about two thirds of the way up, but the rest is a battle at 7, 8, 9 and 10 per cent. Nick providing a constant flow of water to keep us going.

The kilometre markers have been removed while the work to improve the surface goes on ahead of the Tour next month. The Tourmalet and the Pyrenees celebrate the 100th anniversary of their introduction to the greatest cycling race on earth and no expense has been spared making the road surface absolutely perfect. But nothing can hide the deserted ski lifts that litter the mountain. The ski stations, ugly and ghost-like in the summer, barely hint at their winter party clothes.

The clouds gathered as we neared the top and having shown the mountain respect, creeping up it, some how it let us pass by. It was hard, yes, very hard in places, but not unrideable. The fog was thick at the summit. Pictures, another stamp on our cards followed by coffee and we grabbed newspapers, donned arm warmers and rain jackets for the18km descent to the hotel.

I started shivering almost straight away, my teeth chattering as I tried to keep warm by pedalling hard. The first 5km of the descent was done in 7 minutes, the next in 5, the next in just under 5 and suddenly there was the hotel. I stopped, dismounted and waited over 15 minutes for Nick to arrive in the car. Five minutes later Bob arrived, quite blue with cold but relieved to have found the hotel.

Conquerers: The first rider up and over Col du Tourmalet (the guy at the top) and the latest (me) on the foggy summit. Some handy free papers for cyclists.

DAY 2 STATISTICS

Total time 6hr 8 mins

Distance 116 km

Col d'Aubisque climb 1 hour 30 mins

Col du Tourmalet 2 hour 15

Total climb 3184

Calories 2839