Left my hotel this morning and made my way to the Andorran town of Canillo for a trip to the motorcycle museum there. Website It was a bit hard to find as it is housed withing the building of a gondola/ski lift and not visible from the street. I parked where my sat nav said it was and had to go up a moving staircase to find it. I had to wait about 10 minutes for it to open, which meant I was the only customer there.
I left Andorra and crossed the border into France, this time it was unstaffed and the barriers left open so you could just ride through. I carried on through rather pleasant countryside for a couple of hours, then could see low cloud on the mountain tops and the temperature noticeably dropped. As the road I was on was climbing, I was soon riding through the cloud which turned to heavy rain. It was so heavy and the visibilty so poor that I seriously considered my plans, but carried on and the rain stopped. A bit further on and it started again, but I was too close to my destination to turn back. I climbed through the mountains to the legendary Col du Tourmalet, one of the 'big climbs' of the Tour de France. I had been there before about 20 years ago and rode past a 'closed' barrier and was helped by a council team who were clearing snow from the road. I couldn't continue past the summit due to snow drift and had to return the way I'd come. I'd always planned on returning to complete the crossing.
When I got to the summit there was a lot of work being done on the buildings and road surface, but I managed to get a photo at the famous sculpture (thanks to a Swiss rider who took the photo).
It was a great ride down as the rain had stopped and the road wasn't too wet. I rode on a short distance to the small town of Pierrefitte-Nestalas where I had booked a hotel. My plans for tomorrow aren't certain and will depend of the weather. Currently it's raining outside, I'll see what it's like in the morning.
Thanks for sharing again Norman, you are really having a great holiday!
ReplyDelete