Yesterday was beautiful in Portland - a sunny 60 degree day, bracketed on both sides of the calendar by days of cold and wind. Today things are back to normal, with March storming in like a lion on 30 mph winds bringing rain and cold to the gorge. Yesterday was a perfect riding day though, whetting our appetite for our fast-approaching tour of the Pyrenees.

Planning the next tour is about my favorite off-season time-waster, and this route has been on the books for quite some time. We've purchased our flight tickets, mapped all the routes, booked all our stays; nothing to do but impatiently watch the calendar and get ourselves into shape. Mid-May will be here before we know it, and we've got a lot of training rides to get in if we're going to enjoy ourselves on our way up Aubisque, Peyresourde, Ancizan, and the umpteen other passes in store for us.

The Pyrenees have been on our radar for two decades but somehow have never made the final planning cut. Now, half-retired and age 67, I'm realizing that I'd better be getting in the mountain rides on my wish list while I've still got the legs to enjoy them. Hopefully we haven't waited too long on this one!

The plan, in a nutshell: fly in to Barcelona, and catch the bus to Girona; unpack our Bike Fridays and ship the suitcases forward to Bilbao; spend about a week in Spanish Catalonia seeing a bit of the coast and the Garrotxa; cross to the French side over Col de Ares; follow the French side to the Atlantic, hitting the shore at Saint Jean de Luz; Finally, wrap it up bouncing along the Basque Coast to Bilbao.

Not too scary: one month, 1,100 miles, 75,000' of climbing. Perfect.