The tour guide has a difficult job when the weather is uncooperative and the client insists on staying dry. Not only is he responsible to pick nice roads to ride, find nice towns to stay in but has to arrange nice weather as well! Riding in the mountains does not make his job any easier. It can feel like a very stressful job at times.
Today`s weather forecast provided a small window for us to ride to Bagnères-de-Luchon and spend a couple of days in the higher Pyrenees. It was a short ride to Bagnères-de-Luchon and the guide was confident that we could easily arrive by 11am when the rain was forecasted to begin. But it was a restless night for the guide.
We were up early (for us) and had breakfast as soon as the room opened at the hotel. We had arranged to leave our big panniers at the hotel as we plan to return to Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges (SBC) in couple of days. The morning weather was cool, the roads were dry and the skies quite clear. The sun even poked through now and again. Overall, it was really quite nice. The guide was feeling good.
SBC was very quiet as we rode our much lighter bikes out of town on the only exit road, around the hairpin corner and turned right on to highway D825. There was also an old rail line cycleway nearby, but for now we were happy with the relatively car free highway. We were heading upstream in valleys carved by the Garonne and further the Pique rivers. There were no big climbs today, those would be saved for another day IF the guide comes through with the weather!
Looking down from SBC on the houses below and the valley beyond.
This dog was amazing. He spotted us way back and came to greet us and ran the fence line at full speed in front of us all the way. He was so excited to see us. He never made a sound the whole time.
A very fast D125 with a good shoulder and even some blue sky above. This was actually a good road to ride but we did turn off onto a backroad, which are always more fun.
We used a mix of highway and cycleway and finished the last 10 KM to Bagnères-de-Luchon on a country backroad. The skies were threatening now and a drizzle started just past 11 am, just like the weather forecast said it would. We were a within few kilometres and wasted no time reaching Luchon. It was not exactly raining but not dry either. The guide was pleased that we had made it basically dry.
We stopped at a cafe on the on the main strip and took a couple of seats inside. It was really amazing, after finishing our coffees we found our bikes now in the sun. In fact, it did not rain here for the remainder of the day. The forecasts were completely wrong and we had not needed to rush after all!
We are staying at a very nice hotel that is offering a great rate as it seems that there are few tourists in town. We spent the afternoon wandering around town and checking out some of the shops.
Basking in the sun while their owners hide away inside.
View from our room of the gondola going up to the Superbagnères ski hill. It is a brand new 18 person gondola. We were told by a local ski shop guy that the ski season was very poor last winter. Only open from December to March and quite limited skiing. On a good year they can ski that lift line!
Stained glass window at the thermal baths. The baths seemed to be closed when we walked in through the front door. There was no one there except some workers completing a much needed renovation.
We had a hard time figuring Bagnères-de-Luchon. It is another quiet town. An internet source provides that there were slightly more than 2000 inhabitants in 2021 but the overall buildout seems able support a much larger population. There are number of newish ski condo type buildings and a number of beautiful older buildings and hotels that would have supported the thermal bath heyday. It was not over run with cyclists as you would expect from a place that has hosted a stage of the Tour de France for at least 58 times. Today the ski shops are almost all closed for the season and there was not a single bike shop on the main street.
We had a fun and excellent meal at a tapas restaurant before calling it a night. Our guide has promised good weather for tomorrow and we will be tackling the Col de Peryresoude. This pass has been crossed by the Tour de France 69 times since the the first time in 1910. Tomorrow we can dawdle.
Jacquie GaudetThere’s a reason Al let’s me do all the planning. If anything goes awry, it’s not his fault!
I noted in my “Pyrenees Solo” journal that there were at least 4 bike shops in Bagnères-de-Luchon when I passed through. I was looking for one because my pump was failing and I couldn’t get adequate pressure in my tires. Reply to this comment 6 months ago
Scott FenwickThe town seems really quiet. Good thing that we did not need a shop as when I google, ¨bagnères-de-luchon bike shops¨ one shows up and it is for mountain bikes. There may be more but I just thought there would be a few ¨roadie shops¨ right in the thick of things. Reply to this comment 6 months ago
