Statues, by their very nature, are stationary; they don’t move; right? Well, unless that statue  is the Giant of the Tourmalet! The giant in question is a massive, steel statue of a cyclist. For some reason, it’s removed from the mountain and put into store over winter; it’s re-erection in early summer is something of a “must be there” event for cyclists all over the south west of France. The col de Tourmalet is one of the toughest climbs that regularly feature in the Tour de France. It’s a gruelling 18.6km climb with an average gradient of 7.4% and some sections up to 10.2% on the side we did on Saturday.

It was an early start; at 5o’clock on Saturday morning, when the alarm went off, I really did question my sanity, but we set off at 6 and headed into the mountains. I dropped Nick off just south of Lourdes so that he could ride the 16km from there on the Voie verte, a tarmacked, disused railway track, to Pierrefitte-Nestalas, the starting point of the statue’s journey. By the time I arrived in Pierrefitte, it was already hot, but the atmosphere was great, with about a thousand cyclists milling around the lorry containing the statue and a Bandas (a popular local type of band that play the most horrendous music!). Because I knew I’d be slow, Nick and I set off , with others, a bit before the official departure time. We rode the first part of the route, the 14km to Luz St. Sauveur, together and separated at the start of the col de Tourmalet itself. Nick rode the remaining 18.6km to the top comfortably, with enough breath left to chat to various people as he overtook them on the way, and arrived before the lorry and statue so he saw its installation. I, on the other hand, got to within 9km of the summit and just couldn’t make the pedals go round any more, so I turned round and went down, very disappointed with my performance, though I suppose a 24km climb isn’t bad really.

When we got home there was time for a quick shower and a bite to eat, before heading out to the Caupenne music festival, at which our friend Adrian’s band, Mister Teatime,  was playing. We tucked into magret and chips hungrily during the evening, as we listened to the various bands, until it started to rain and everyone had to run for cover. Ade, his wife Julie and the  band members were staying at our house for the night and I was most peeved that, having pushed myself too hard on the climb, I had a migraine and had to go straight to bed, instead of sitting up till the wee small hours with the rest of them, playing guitars and singing. But the following evening I spent a few hours learning a few new songs from Adrian, some of which Kieran recorded and if you really want, you can follow the links below to hear the result. The sharp eyed amongst you will notice that the Cawthray kitchen remains as chaotic as ever; the only difference being that now I don’t care what people think! 🙂

Kieran arrived home on Sunday afternoon, just in time for a barbecue, tired but happy, having thoroughly enjoyed his ride down from Harrogate on his shiny new motorbike. He, Nick and Adrian spent a long time admiring and discussing the new steed. The general consensus seemed to be that it’ll do nicely, thank you.