Pyrenees 2006

Friday - Hot one minute, cold the next!

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Surprisingly, we all managed to get up for breakfast, all we have to do now is pack the bikes and go...

Hung over faces at breakfast.

09:18 After packing we left Tossa by the coast road, the Gi-682. I haven't any pictures, just take it from me, from Tossa to Sant Feliu de Guixols is 12 miles of biking heaven, honest!

From Sant Feliu de Guixols we swung in land on the Gi-660, I didn't really expect much in the way of scenery this morning as we headed back toward the Pyrenees, so wasn't too disappointed.

11:20 First stop was in Banyoles, we saw a sign for a lake, now where there's a lake there's a cafe, and sure enough we found it. Parking was tight, so when a van moved and left a space Gee moved his bike in to it. Unfortunately while moving it he must have dropped one of his gloves, we suspect a kiddy from a school party picked it up and walked off with it, so he had to borrow a spare one of mine, about four sizes too big!

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13:00 Coll de Santigosa, completely shrouded in trees so there's no view :(

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13:15 The next item of interest was coming across the Pont Vell Bridge in Sant Joan de Les Abadesses. It looked Roman to me, but it's actually C12th medieval, or at least the foundations are, it was badly damaged in the Spanish civil war and rebuilt in the 1960s

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Follow that road for Andorra! John at Sant Joan de Les Abadesses.

13:50 Coll de Merolla. Don't worry, Gee's not dead, just flagging a little.

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14:30 We arrived at La Pobla de Lillet, but the road was closed by police, we wanted fuel in the filling station we could see just ahead, and that turn to the right on to the Bv-4031 was the one we wanted for Coll de la Creueta,. Ah well, we'll just have to wait in the baking sun and see what happens...

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Ten minutes later, all became clear, Its a bike race! This is the first of them, but hoards of bikes charged around that corner pursued by team cars, ambulances and police bikes. Quickly they were gone, and we were free to ride on to the filling station.

Obert! (open) that's a relief :)

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This next stretch of road should be pretty good, I'd read somewhere on the 'net' that the Bv-4031 to La Molina was an exceptional piece of road.

Half way up Coll de la Creueta.

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15:36 They were right, it is a super road. Close to the top of the Coll you get views like this, that little ribbon of road on the left is the one we've just came up, and that little village on the right we passed should be La Molina. Its quite cool up here 21C/69F, strange to be doing your jacket up after the intense heat just 18 miles back.

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As usual though, with pictures taken we headed off for Andorra via Col du Puymorens...

17:03 Taken midway between Col du Puymorens and Pas de la Casa on the N22. the road disappearing left is going to Ax, the one disappearing in the middle of the picture is heading back the way we'd come, Col du Puymorens. There's quite a lot of traffic on this road, well it is the only road in to Northern Andorra.

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We arrived in Pas de la Case, Andorra, and passed through customs without problem. It was very cold at 14C and thick clouds were being pushed slowly up the valley enveloping the town - it was a little surreal. The first thing to catch my eye was the Daytona 2000 Bike shop. I'd heard about the cheap bike shops in Andorra and this one looked very promising with its large banners and big names like Arai and Shoei etc. We all parked up and trooped in looking for a bargain. The shop was stuffed with gear, but it all seemed to be cheap clothing and helmets, that weren't really cheap... Disappointed, we all trooped out again, got back on our bikes and went looking for the Pas de la Casa. You have to be careful looking for the right road out of town, or you'll end up going through the tunnel, instead of over the pass.

Daytona 2000 on a sunny day.

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The ride over the Pas de la Casa took us another 1000ft higher, it didn't get much colder (13.4C/56F) but with all that wet cloud it felt it. I was still shivering when we dropped down in to Soldeu, our target for tonight's accommodation.

17:53 This is where we stopped, the Hotel Bruxelles in Soldeu. Our bikes were parked around the back, two levels down.

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A room for two was €29, plus two breakfasts €10, total €39, that's just £13.15 each, Highly recommended!

Award for best evening meal of the whole trip must go the the Hotel Bruxelles, the waiter brought out a large Tureen of French onion soup as a starter, then a large bowl of hot croutons and yet another of Cheese, we all tucked in, it was gorgeous. When the soup was gone, we still had the main course to go at, mine was a huge burger with chips and salad...

To be honest Soldeu was as dead as only a ski resort in May can be. There was one bar open on the main road nearly opposite the Bruxelles called the Avalanche Pub which was just fine, but very quiet.

Today's route in yellow, Tossa to Soldeu, all in all a good day with 174 miles travelled and six passes ridden (even if we didn't notice the first two :)

Today's elevation graph, hover your mouse over the peaks to find their name and height.

What a graph! the first significant temperature drop was over Coll de Sentigosa, it recovered to 30+ by La Pobla de Lillet, then dropped again over Coll de la Creueta with a final massive drop over Col du Puymorens and Pas de la Casa!

Garmin trail and waypoints download for today

Tomorrow we'll do a little shopping in Andorra la Valle, then ride further west to ride a few French Colls 

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