Ride to Hautacam

Today I cycled to the Tour de France stage finish for the 27th time this year. It was a cool morning so I waited for the day to warmup. By the time I went out at 15:00 it was very hot and humid, exactly the weather I hate most. It made it very challenging, up to 3km from the finish when it cooled down. It’s still great fun riding Hautacam at the moment as it is very busy, lots of cyclist doing the climb this year. This weekend is a public holiday in France so there are many people about for the long weekend. It will get very quiet for a few weeks now before June and the summer season. I met my friend Roxanna at the start of Hautacam, it’s always good to have some company.

At the finish

Only a few tiny patches of snow now remain above the ski station.

Route map

Roxana Islas-Garcia, happy to be up in the cool air.

The road on the right climbs on for 1.5km to Col de Tramassel at 1640m.

Ski Station car park.

This rider was from Bilbao in the Basque Country.