My Raid Pyrénéen trip (with pics)
Discussion
For those looking for something a bit more challenging than your typical UK sportive or even the Marmotte or Etape du Tour, I completed the Raid Pyrénéen last month and highly recommend it.
If you're not familiar with it, it's a 720km ride that follows the French / Spanish border from Hendaye on the Atlantic coast to Cerbere on the Mediterranean coast, passing over 18 cols along the route and to qualify for the finishers' medal, you need to complete it in under 100 hours.
It's not an annual event like L'Etape for example, you can enter it on whatever date you like during the summer months when the cols are open and get your brevet card time & date stamped at various control points along the way.
There are two ways to enter, one being as part of an organised tour where you'll usually be collected from / dropped off at the airport and have your bags transported to the next hotel each day and you'll have a support vehicle with extra water and a mechanic and all you need to do is ride your bike each day. The alternative is to do it the "old fashioned way" and carry your own bags on your bike with no support whatsoever, and after having ridden a lightweight road bike in the French mountains a few times already, it was this second option I chose to go for.
I entered with my brother and after catching a ferry to Bilbao our journey went as follows:
Day 0: Bilbao to Irun - 164km (Irun is on the border just across a bridge from Hendaye.)
Day 1: Hendaye to Laruns - 193km, Col St. Ignace, Col Pinodeita, Col d'Osquich
Day 2: Laruns to St. Marie de Campan - 105km, Col d'Aubisque, Col de Soulor, Col du Tourmalet
Day 3: St. Marie de Campan to St. Girons - 141km, Col d'Aspin, Col de Peyresourde, Col des Ares, Col de Portet d'Aspet
Day 4: St. Girons to Prades - 196km, Col des Caougnous, Col de Port, Col de Puymorens, Col de Lious, Col de Riga, Col de la Perche, Mont Louis
Day 5: Prades to Cerbere - 85km, Col St. Pierre, Col Temere
A quick photo stop in front of the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
Our first "proper" col, a massive 500m!
Tour de France bikes at the top of the Col d'Aubisque:
And some views from the top....
....including the cloud we had to ride through to get there.
The third highest point of the Raid.
Second and easiest col of the day:
Looking back down the Tourmalet. We're only about half way at this point:
Taking a quick break. The bike computer was showing a temperature of 37 degrees C.
The views were amazing:
Pic du Midi Observatory:
It's possible to ride here but not when you've got a Raid to finish!
Almost at the top:
We could freewheel all the way to our hotel from here, even though it was still 17km away!
The view from the top of the Tourmalet:
The first col on Day 3. The bloke who took this was having his armpit licked by a cow.
....and the view from the top:
And the second col:
The spot where Fabio Casartelli died in the 1995 Tour:
And his memorial on the way up the Col de Portet d'Aspet:
This was the steepest climb of the lot. A sign at the roadside said 17%:
The fourth and final col of the day:
Our first col on the fourth day:
And the second:
Another fast descent:
The second highest col and by far the longest drag!
The finish!
We celebrated with lunch and a couple of beers in Cerbere then it was the small matter of riding 1000km to Caen over the next 8 days for our ferry back to the UK!
Even if the Raid isn't your thing, I really recommend getting yourself and your bike over to the Pyrenees for the spectacular scenery and long, fast descents. Our final descent from Mont Louis to Prades was 40km!
If you're not familiar with it, it's a 720km ride that follows the French / Spanish border from Hendaye on the Atlantic coast to Cerbere on the Mediterranean coast, passing over 18 cols along the route and to qualify for the finishers' medal, you need to complete it in under 100 hours.
It's not an annual event like L'Etape for example, you can enter it on whatever date you like during the summer months when the cols are open and get your brevet card time & date stamped at various control points along the way.
There are two ways to enter, one being as part of an organised tour where you'll usually be collected from / dropped off at the airport and have your bags transported to the next hotel each day and you'll have a support vehicle with extra water and a mechanic and all you need to do is ride your bike each day. The alternative is to do it the "old fashioned way" and carry your own bags on your bike with no support whatsoever, and after having ridden a lightweight road bike in the French mountains a few times already, it was this second option I chose to go for.
I entered with my brother and after catching a ferry to Bilbao our journey went as follows:
Day 0: Bilbao to Irun - 164km (Irun is on the border just across a bridge from Hendaye.)
Day 1: Hendaye to Laruns - 193km, Col St. Ignace, Col Pinodeita, Col d'Osquich
Day 2: Laruns to St. Marie de Campan - 105km, Col d'Aubisque, Col de Soulor, Col du Tourmalet
Day 3: St. Marie de Campan to St. Girons - 141km, Col d'Aspin, Col de Peyresourde, Col des Ares, Col de Portet d'Aspet
Day 4: St. Girons to Prades - 196km, Col des Caougnous, Col de Port, Col de Puymorens, Col de Lious, Col de Riga, Col de la Perche, Mont Louis
Day 5: Prades to Cerbere - 85km, Col St. Pierre, Col Temere
A quick photo stop in front of the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
Our first "proper" col, a massive 500m!
Tour de France bikes at the top of the Col d'Aubisque:
And some views from the top....
....including the cloud we had to ride through to get there.
The third highest point of the Raid.
Second and easiest col of the day:
Looking back down the Tourmalet. We're only about half way at this point:
Taking a quick break. The bike computer was showing a temperature of 37 degrees C.
The views were amazing:
Pic du Midi Observatory:
It's possible to ride here but not when you've got a Raid to finish!
Almost at the top:
We could freewheel all the way to our hotel from here, even though it was still 17km away!
The view from the top of the Tourmalet:
The first col on Day 3. The bloke who took this was having his armpit licked by a cow.
....and the view from the top:
And the second col:
The spot where Fabio Casartelli died in the 1995 Tour:
And his memorial on the way up the Col de Portet d'Aspet:
This was the steepest climb of the lot. A sign at the roadside said 17%:
The fourth and final col of the day:
Our first col on the fourth day:
And the second:
Another fast descent:
The second highest col and by far the longest drag!
The finish!
We celebrated with lunch and a couple of beers in Cerbere then it was the small matter of riding 1000km to Caen over the next 8 days for our ferry back to the UK!
Even if the Raid isn't your thing, I really recommend getting yourself and your bike over to the Pyrenees for the spectacular scenery and long, fast descents. Our final descent from Mont Louis to Prades was 40km!
outnumbered said:
Looks like you had great weather (maybe a bit too hot?). What bikes did you use, they look quite traditional ?
The weather was great, warm but not unbearably hot and I'd rather be hot & dry than freezing cold & soaking wet like on the Col du Galibier in 2004 when we had horizontal hail. I was chatting with the chef in one of the hotels we stayed at one night and he said they regularly get cyclists staying that are doing the Raid but almost never in July because it's too hot. He also said we were the only ones he'd seen this year carring our own bags instead of taking the easy option of the organised tour. You live & learn.... 
I've got a Condor Heritage and my brother's got a Dawes Super Galaxy. They were both bought brand new towards the end of last year when we came up with the idea of doing the Raid after a few beers one night and although they look quite traditional, they're both very modern with Reynolds 853 / Dedacciai Sat 14.5 frames, Deore / Deore XT components, SPD pedals, STI levers etc. and admittedly the Brooks saddles look a bit old school but at least they're very comfortable when you're doing over 1900km in 12 days.
This was the first tour we'd done, both being used to lightweight road bikes up until this trip so our bike choices were a bit of a shot in the dark but they were both brilliant, extremely comfortable over long distances and neither one missing a beat. The thing I like about mine is that Condor don't have an off the peg model, all their bikes are built to order according to each customer's own specification so everything on my bike is on there because it's something I chose. I'm just looking forward to the next trip now wherever that might be.
Edited to add:
Edited by neilski on Monday 23 August 10:40
Parrot of Doom said:
Well right now I'm a few stones overweight. Gotta shift that first, trouble is I work about 2 days a week on average, that's 5 days where generally I'm either cycling for 2 hours, or doing not a lot.
Well the Raid only takes 100 hours or 4.5 days so that's perfect.... 
Parrot of Doom said:
Beautiful bikes too. The wheels look quite heavyweight however, 36 spokes? That'd slow you down a little. Is that for the extra weight you're carrying on the frame?
Yep. 36 spokes on Mavic A719 rims & Deore XT hubs. The tyres are 32c Contis with a smooth centre ridge and bit of tread on the sides for any rough stuff. They're probably overkill for the amount of weight we were carrying and the fact we were riding on tarmac but were chosen with the long term view that they can be used on dirt tracks and the bikes can be loaded up with camping kit. I've done a bit of dirt track riding and had a short camping trip earlier in the year and they're pretty bombproof.mrandy said:
Great post neilski,I raced with Fabio in a lot of races in 92 ,the year he died they enforced the helmet laws.A real sad loss to cycling he was only a young pro at the time
You cant beat the fresh air up in those mountains you must be quite fit now
A real shame indeed, especially as he hadn't even reached his 25th birthday a month later. You cant beat the fresh air up in those mountains you must be quite fit now
So if you raced against him in the year he was Olympic champion, you must be pretty good yourself. Are you a famous ex-pro then?
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