Cyclist´s Remarks 7/6/8

"Tell me you´re not going over the Tourmalet with all that". It´s music to our ears. Spoken to us by a fellow cyclist at the top of the Col d'Aspin. He had overtaken us on the way up on his lightweight racer but his elation at having reached the top and the prospect of attempting the Tourmalet, knowing we were following the same route, rather dimmed his sense of achievement while inflating ours by a similar amount.

Having been unsuccessful in keeping dry in the increasingly wet conditions I enquired of a German tourer if his 'breathable' over-trousers kept out the rain. "Yes" he said proudly, before adding "but I'm swimming inside". Nice!

On our last full day´s ride before Bilbao we headed for Gernika (Guernica) across the rolling Basque Country. After 12 hours, having ridden 135km over a succession of 2000ft passes we became lost in the hills on a narrow concrete track. Luckily a mountain biker appeared and said we were going in the right direction but queried why we came by such an arduous road. He assured us that the route to Gernika was straightforward but just before we depart says "...but the mountain is very easy". What bloody mountain we wonder to each other. We have 15km to go, are at the top of a hill 400m and have envisaged an easy freewheel down into town. Luckily for our tired bodies we managed to avoid "the mountain" but it has become a much repeated phrase.