We rose to a light mist and low cloud cover, and one by one we shuffled into the hotel dining room for the pre-race petit dejeuner (breakfast). There was a lot of mumbling about lack of sleep. Few of us sleep well the night before Race Day--that's how you know you're ready to suffer. And those damned St. Lary church bells--if you are asleep, they will wake you, but worst of all you get to count the rings and figure out what time it is: 4 AM, 5 AM, 6 AM, 7 AM and you might as well get out of bed. Rick noted the conundrum of the 1 AM gong. Since the bells ring once on the half-hour, 12:30 AM, 1 AM and 1:30 AM all are a single gong. You don't know the time for sure until you hear the 2 AM bell. But you can spend 90 minutes half awake trying to figure it out!
We climbed Col d'Aspin at a comfortable pace, gradually getting into the clouds, then over the top and down a misty descent into St. Marie-de-Campan, the little hamlet where Christophe welded his forks in 1923. That's the starting point of our race up Tourmalet, climbing it from the west.
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| Facts of the road--every km on signature climbs |
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The cows were waiting to wish us a speedy ascent up Tourmalet.
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| On the descent, I saw my first trailer park in France. Hmmn, Disneyland, McDonald's and trailer parks? |
We rose to a light mist and low cloud cover, and one by one we shuffled into the hotel dining room for the pre-race petit dejeuner (breakfast). There was a lot of mumbling about lack of sleep. Few of us sleep well the night before Race Day--that's how you know you're ready to suffer. And those damned St. Lary church bells--if you are asleep, they will wake you, but worst of all you get to count the rings and figure out what time it is: 4 AM, 5 AM, 6 AM, 7 AM and you might as well get out of bed. Rick noted the conundrum of the 1 AM gong. Since the bells ring once on the half-hour, 12:30 AM, 1 AM and 1:30 AM all are a single gong. You don't know the time for sure until you hear the 2 AM bell. But you can spend 90 minutes half awake trying to figure it out! 
At 9 AM, we mounted our bikes and headed down the road to the turn off for Col d'Aspin. This was the first Race Day where we didn't head immediately for the race climb, but climbed another mountain first. For whom would this be an advantage? Younger riders? Those with more endurance? 10 clicks out of town, we turned right up the Col d'Aspin. Except that Todd went straight. From 400 yds. up the climb, we could look over the edge and see him riding down the valley below. After a moment's deliberation, Rick turned around and went back to chase him, finally catching him a couple miles down the road. They made it back to the missed turn and followed, at some distance, the rest of us up the Col. (Note: this may be a clue as to who did not get to the top of Tourmalet first)
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