We bathed in a stone trough of cold mountain water...

What a day, what a b****y tough day, just when we thought it couldn't get more challenging in the Pyrenees  

Start of the climb... 

it did just that, a warm up on the Cat 2 climb of the Col de Portet d'Aspet followed by 4 Cat 1 climbs ending with hail, torrential storms and strong winds at the top of the Col de Val Louron-Azet.

Stage 9 started early from Saint-Girons, the ride over the Col de Portet was a tough climb in the morning sun and quite touching when passing the

Fabio Casartelli memorial.

memorial  to Fabio Casartelli, a young Italian rider who died on the descent in the 1985 Tour.

The Cat 1 Col de Mente was a 7k climb, with so many big climbs following on it was difficult to remember the detail, other than, yes, the heat and slight tree cover at the top, it was tough.
 

Col de Mente

Onto the Peyresourde, a regular in the Tour and a climb involved in many Tour battles, it didn't fail to live up to expectations, a long steady climb out of Bagneres du Luchon before reaching the exposed slopes, odd cafes closed for the afternoon. I rode with a French rider who
 knew the area well, just before the last junction he headed for a stone trough fed by mountain water, not just for a drink he sat half submerged, shoes and bib shorts, the works. I followed suit albeit head and shoulders, and re-filled  water bottles. The remaining climb was tough, still scorched by the sun with no let up until the top, open cafe and a gathering point from a growing number of riders on the mountain.

Summit of the Peyresourde

On we rode and drove, the support team mirroring every inch of the rider, to the Col de Val Louron-Azet, not such a tough climb as the Peyresourde (we thought!) until half way, dark skies, in fact very dark skies appeared before a torrrential storm, hail and temperatures down to 15c, 38c in the morning, the  photo's show the scene, roads turned into rivers, blue skies into black, the scenery lost to mist and rain. The descent was so dangerous, we drove down before drier conditions on the final climb of the day, the La Hourquette d'Ancizan, by which time opinions on weather conditions and tougness of climb had disappeared, it was now down to pure determination to reach Bagneres de Bigorre for the end of Stage 9 and our overnight stopover before heading North for Stages 10 & 11 on Thursday.

Louron-Azet, roads into rivers!

Wednesday is a rest (actually, driving) day. Rider and crew exhausted, in need of cooler conditions but really sorry to leave the Pyrenees, this is a truly beautiful region and incredible cycling country, on another day and with more time the Aspin and Tourmalet are a stone's throw away (don't tell Mrs A!).

On the lighter side, and to lighten our load, not that we wanted this, the sudden change in weather and horrific conditions saw off two of our Ride 21 magnetic car panels, lost to the mountains for ever!

Ride 21 rider and crew, still on the road, still fighting and still aiming to support Action Medical Research, thanks for following us.

Ride21, this is why!

www.action.org.uk/tourdefrance

Twitter @chrisarmishaw

'in cycling suffering is temporary, read about conditions of babies and chidren on the Action Medical Research web site...'

www.action.org.uk