Ride Day 14—24 Sept 2005—09800 Saint-Lary to 09000 Col des Marrous – Le Bosc – Foix

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Today’s ride, which had plenty of solid climbing, was entirely within the Parc Naturel Régional des Pyrénées Ariégeoises.</span> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"><span> </span>Starting from Saint Lary at 692 M, we descended to St Girons at about 400 M.<span> </span>From there we climbed through various cols to 1465 M and then descended to our stopping point for the evening at 990 M.<span> </span>Along the way, we passed through the following cols:</span>

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Col de Crouzette at 1241 M</span>

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Col du Portel at 1465 M</span>

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Col de Péguère at 1375 M</span>

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Col de Jouels at 1247 M</span>

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Col de Marrous at 990 M</span>

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Going from west to east gave us some very steep climbing up to the first col.<span> </span>Four years previously in 2001, we did this same climb but east to west…and the slopes for the bulk of the climb along D17 from Foix were a lot gentler.</span>

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">D18 was a very narrow road with the steepest climbing and fortunately only six cars passed by while we were struggling up…and that was six cars too many.<span> </span>Lower down the climb when we’d been on D3 before we got near Rivèrenet on D33, there had been a steady stream of cars that had us a bit worried.</span>

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">During the climb and especially between the first three cols, the views were spectacular.<span> </span>It felt like being on top of the world.<span> </span>I recall that four years ago when we arrived at the Col de Péguère and the orientation table that’s there, it was foggy and we couldn’t see any of the view.</span>

Background:<br /><br /><br />My wife and I have been doing self-supported tours in Western Europe (a majority in France) since 1993.  This series of rides covers our 2005 2 month route through parts of France.  Our beginning and ending point is near Chaduri (south of Angoulême) where our friends have a farm with Gites and Chambres d'Hotes.<br /><br /><br />We rode our Dawes touring bicycles purchased in 1993 heavily loaded with 700Cx32 tires.  All of our riding was on paved roads, mostly with very little traffic.<br /><br /><br />If any questions, feel free to email me at jeffkadet@netdiving.com<br /><br /><br />Jeff