Landorthe to Lourdes

September 28, 2024

I slept really well, and wake up to a view of the Pyrenees.

Pierre is downstairs, and he says he'll make me an English breakfast. He puts a slice of bacon on the pan, and cracks an egg in. It's good!

Laurent helps me superglue the Wahoo port covers that have come off and flap when I'm riding. The family sees me off, and I set through the foothills towards Lourdes. Lourdes is not only a gateway town to the Pyrenees, it's also a religious pilgrimage site. It's sort of by chance I'll land there, since I don't want to go all the way to Pau. These days, the first 11-12km feels like I've barely started my ride. By around 25km, I feel warmed up. A good sign for my fitness. I keep to a comfortable pace (go slow to go far!) and avoid burning up my legs. Yes, it means that sometimes I get passed by other roadies (activates my predator instinct...) and I have to remind myself that I need to ride sustainably to finish the tour. I'm happy because I haven't had any physical issues other than one day of hand discomfort when I was pushing it. My first tour, I had saddle issues and persistent IT band pain, and it was only 9 days! Starting this tour slowly helped, I'm sure.

I notice my hand sliding on my handlebars. When I look, my gloves have split! This is the second pair of Rapha mitts I've gone through. The failure point is always the leather.

I'll look for new mitts when I'm in Lourdes. Maybe I'll switch to full-fingered gloves. It's starting to get cold. More agricultural rolling, more upside-down road signs. I'm getting hungry, so I re-route in Komoot.

Man, Komoot is mostly good, but when it sucks, it really sucks. How is this a road cycling route?

I immediately sink into the mud, so I need to dismount and walk it. I bog up my cleats and pedals. I'll have to clean them anyways, might as well keep going. After making it through, my tires and brake tracks are muddy too. I use my multi-tool to do the best I can to scrape off the mud. My left shoe can no longer clip in. Add new cleats to the Lourdes shopping list. I stop in a boulangerie, and buy up all their pissaladières. I hungrily devour everything, with several cheeky "bon app"s from passing customers. Then I continue on, right foot clipped in, left foot floating.

I'm so close to Lourdes, just two more hours. The houses start to look German. They have coloured shutters but they look very different. There are tons of donkeys and cows. There are some hellish climbs up in the mountains. Some horrific 16% climbs which I end up walking.

A little excitement to break up the day. I hope this means I'll be able to find wild boar on the menu in Lourdes.

I'm also at the point in the tour where I don't like to eat out. The menus start to look the same, and I just want the comfort of eating at 4:30pm, 5pm, whenever I get into town. I like going to the grocery store and buying whatever I want, knowing that most have a local specialties shelf, and whatever I don't eat tonight I can eat for breakfast. Waiting until 7pm for restaurant kitchens to open, then returning back to rest at 8:30pm sounds less and less appealing, especially now that I'm alone and want to start my wind down routine earlier. Lunchtime menus I'll do if the timing works out right. If not, I'm perfectly happy eating savoury pastries or sugary carbs until I get to my destination. Like this.

Even 10km away, I can tell I'm in the right place because it's lush, green, mountainous, and there are tons of cyclists roaming the roads. As three older men pass me, one's bike is making a creaking sound. (Not unlike my own bottom bracket!). "That's the bike, not my knees," he quips as he passes.

Finally, I arrive to Lourdes. There are tons of pilgrims filtering out of tour coach buses. What a contrast, healthy bodies on bikes and those being pushed along in wheelchairs. I check into my hotel, and luckily there's a bike shop next door. I go to the store and buy up a lot of food, then retire to my room (with kitchenette) to eat up.

Today's ride: 84 km (52 miles)
Total: 1,149 km (714 miles)

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