July 21 Bagneres-de-Luchon FRANCE to Sort SPAIN 113 K / 70 Miles, Col Du Portillon & Port de la Bonaigua

I just had to do it. Take on the Spanish Pyrenees. I was just going to Climb the Col du Portillon into Spain and 20 kilometers later be right back in France, but I decided to cycle across the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. Wild, spectacular, high desert, wilderness, with very few towns, lots of incredibly challenging climbs and scintilating descents. I started the day climbing Col du Portillon under overcast skies and the climb is mostly in the trees, so it wasn´t a favorite on my list of climbs but it did have a few 10% sections that got my attention. 5K from the top I´m in cloudy mist and once at the top I had to put on my front lights for the descent. And there was not one sign saying you were leaving Fance or entering Spain. What´s that about? The road N-230 & C-28 had good shoulders all the way to Baqueira where they disappearded as the climb up to the Port de la Bonaigua began. What a climb. The first sign I spotted said 12K and 6% to the top. What a beautiful climb. About 2K from the top a carload of folks going slowly past on a hairpin turn broke into applause for me. I just smiled. The descent to Esterri d´Aneu was 20 kilometers of just fantastic and glorious scenery. Even though the Spanish Electric companies have thrown up a gazillion power lines, it just couldn´t ruin the specially carved out mountains. In Esterri I stopped at a Spanish version of a Boulangerie and had "something". It looked like pizza without cheese. It had a bunch of diced up "somethings". And it was topped with a big sausage link. It was good. I had 2 pieces. I made it to the town of Sort where the campground had more French & Dutch vacationers than Spanish.

July 22 Sort SPAIN to Sant Llorenc de Morunys SPAIN 118 K / 74 Miles , Coll del Canto & Coll de Jou

Another perfectly blue sky in the Spanish Pyrenees. In fact I would be blessed with 4 perfect days in a row. Not a cloud. In the afternoons it would get pretty hot. But at the high elevations I was cycling at the air was cool. At the 6 or 7 tunnels I passed through I could stop and the air was coming through the tunnel so it felt like standing in front of an air conditioner. Cool, eh!!! The Spanish campgrounds are not as nice as the French ones. And they are not in or near the center of town. They are placed on the outskirts. I love the way the French system melds so well with cycle-touring. EXCEPT FOR ONE THING. France, as well as Spain, and I guess all of Europe, shun the dryer. You know, as in washer and dryer. Not one campground has had a dryer. And many have no washing machines. They all have plenty of wash basins to do your clothes by hand. Then you hang them to dry. This may work well with car campers who have 2 weeks worth of clothes for a one week vacation. If it rains you just grab some clothes from deep in your car trunk. But a cycle-tourist has 2 cycling shorts, 3 shirts, 1 hiking pants, 2 pair socks....get the point. You gotta clean ém and DRY THEM. But you can´t. So what'ya do? Enough ramblings! Today I had two Cols to climb. I started the day drifting for about a mile through the town of Sort taking in the noises. The Spanish are noisier than the French. Kind of like Americans. Or is it that the French are just quiet. Once I drifted across town I turned left and started a 21K / 13 Mile climb. Good Morning Spain!!! It was at the top of this climb I realized I had entered hardcore wilderness. High desert, very few towns & they had no stores. The descent off Coll de Canto was gorgeous. I stopped in Adrall for water, asked a young lady for the supermarket so I could get water, she says there is no market but "uno momento" and runs into her place and comes out with a 1 1/2 litre bottle for me. Nice people. The next 20K was on more of a main road/C-14, but its´ saving grace was that it had a 3 foot shoulder and was downhill. A super scenic route. A few times the sheer rock faces would encroach on the roadways and the 3 foot shoulder disappeared so I had to be extra diligent not to allow myself to get caught in a blind spot to traffic. Thankfully there was not much traffic. Then I turned onto an especially spectacular road, L-401. It started with a 10K climb to the village of Alinya where I found 8 Russian cycle-tourists shading themselves from the sun & heat of the day. We joked about who I was & who they were. And they invited me to sit with them out of the sun. Most of them spoke with me in English, and very well at that! I took a picture of Dima and Sveta by the village water spout. If you read this Dima, send me an email!!! I pulled out of Alinya about 4:45 and WOW, what a ride. Like the Blue Ridge Parkway with almost no cars for 42 kilometers only I´m in the Spanish Pyrenean wilderness where the road hangs off the sides of mountains and it is straight down for 100.s of feet. Sometimes there are guardrails, other times there are 6 foot long stone walls with 3 foot gaps in between (see photo). I guess they figure a car won´t fit between the stone walls, BUT A BIKE WILL !!!!!!!!! Did I mention I saw an "El Pollo Loco" back in Esterri d´Aneu. Like the ones in Southern California. I´m serious. I wish I had stopped now. I arrived at Sant Llorenc de Murony and my least favorite campground yet. Don´t you just love those gravel tent sites? Church bells do something a little different in Sant Llorenc. They ring 4 times to warn you they are about to ring out the time. And as in France the process is repeated 1 to 2 minutes later. ALL NIGHT LONG!

July 23 Sant Llorence de Murony SPAIN to Olot SPAIN 122 K / 76 Miles Coll de Canes & Coll de Coubet

Beautiful blue skies greeted me again today contrasting with the dark green pines I would be cycling through all day long. I didn´t have the super big mountain passes today just a few 7 & 8 kilometer climbs that were very beautiful. Again it was wilderness with very few towns and very few people all day. I ended the day entering the "Natural de la Zona Volcania" and a simply unbelievable 15 kilometer / 9+ mile downhill into Olot. Upon arrival I stopped an older road cyclist on his beautiful Colnago to ask directions. Good fortune, he spoke English pretty good and helped me on my way. Then he preceeded to head up the mountain I had just rushed down at 8, 9, and 10%. He was probably 65 years old. I see it all the time. Older guys on expensive roadbikes out climbing the mountains.

July 24 Olot SPAIN to Girona SPAIN 62 K / 38 Miles

Today was, you guessed it, another beautiful day. Perfectly blue skies and warm. Today I was rewarded for all my climbing efforts the past 3 days with a mostly downhill run to Girona. I am approaching the Mediterranean Sea from the high mountains so it should be down, right? I´ve planted myself at the International Youth Hostel in the Old Town part of Girona. Tomorrow I´ll be like any other tourist and stroll the famous old streets, and walk the old town wall. It just happens that tomorrow, Friday July 25 (one month since I cycled away from London), is a big holiday in Spain. It is Saint James Day and everything is closed. I hope Bocatto is open. Spains version of Burger King. But I doubt it. Oh, by the way, there has been another sighting of Inspector Couseau. In his search for the slippery Pink Panther, he has disquised his car!!!

July 25 Girona SPAIN Rest Day

Actually I haven´t rested at all yet. I´ve been up until 4:00 A.M. updating this here blog for your viewing and reading pleasure. It is not often I have access to a computer that is friendly to my camera and basically free. The hostel I´m staying at has 2 computers and I´m free to stay up and use one of them. Hey, you all gotta go back as far as July 15th and catch all the photos I´ve added, including the Col du Tourmalet. I think I added about 40 photos. Tomorrow I will update July 14th, the day of the Tour de France on Hautacam. And please, please, email me at cyclingsimmons@gmail.com . I´d love to hear from you. PART 2: I did the walking tour of Girona´s Old Town including the Wall around half the old town : ) , the Jewish Quarter, the Arab Section, and the Cathedral where I think I walked into an ordination service. Very few people were out this morning because of the holiday of St James. Most everything was closed. While blogging I met Catherine and Andrea from Montreal (photo). How nice to have a conversation in English. God really knew what he was doing back at Babel when he wanted to confuse the languages. So it was nice to have a conversation. Don´t get me wrong, I do often speak with people, but it´s hardly a conversation. It´s phrases with sign-language and a little, what do you call that game, you know....

July 26 Girona Spain to St Cyprien-Plage France 126 K

Day No. 32 since I began cycling toward France and I'm heading there again. I will spend a big chunk of my tour on the roads of France and it has proven to be a cyclists dream. But that doesn't mean every part of France is a cyclists dream. I decided to bike to the coast today and see the Mediterranean Sea for the first time ever, which was cool, but cycling the coast meant what all coastlines mean to a biker, tourist traffic. Tons of cars who aren't local and they are just screaming around. I did enjoy seeing the beaches and the coastal hilltop towns. But sand can be a rear derailleurs worst enemy.I had a climb to the French border, the Col de Baynuls. Shortly before that climb I met Ed Duggan, a young English (Brighton area) cyclo-tourist and we had a great time swapping stories.

July 27 St Cyprien- Plage to Narbonne 98 K

The route turned flat for me today, but the route also was filled with coastal traffic on some bigger roads. Thankfully there was usually a bike lane. I met 3 English guys trying to tour on fancy carbon fiber bikes. Shortly after we talked I passed them, ON MY MAVIC 719's, as one of them crumpled a wheel. Oh, it was nearly 100 degrees today, way hot! I also tried a cycle track on spotted on the Michelin map. Oooops, bad idea. It was really rough, but I had to go that way once I was there. Narbonne turned out to be a real nifty town. The TDF frequents Narbonne I believe.

July 28 Narbonne to Laurens 67 K

Today I had a nice 4 hour stopover in Casten???. The reason being it was like 100 degrees and I just sat in the plaza watching the people and writing. The terrain was a real mix of flat, roolers, and a few nice big climbs.

July 29 Laurens to Clermont L Herault 59 K

Today the ol' Volpe, my 8 year old Bianchi bicycle, woke up with an ailment. Turned out the front derailleur broke. I think it may be the original, So it had about 20,000 fully-loaded miles worth of shifting. I was able to ride without shifting the front gears to Bedarieux where I had been told there was a bike shop. Turns out this bike shop is closed on tuesdays AND today it was tuesday. So I made a change in my route plan. Instead of continuing north to visit an Orthodox Monastery near Le Bousquet d'Orb and cycling the Tarn River Gorge and the Ardeche, I headed straight east to Clermont L'Herault and the bike shop there. I hustled and even got there before the bike mechanic closed for his 2 hour lunch. But he said he could only work on it tomorrow. So I settled for a shorter day. I needed some easy days anyway. Oh, in Bedarieux I went against one of my "Cardinal Bike Traveling Rules". Never allow an amateur, no matter how well-intentioned, to work on your bike. A guy in front of the closed bike shop wanted to try to fix my derailleur problem, but you guessed it, only made it worse. My day in Clermont saw me eat an "American Sandwich". Oh brother!!! Cheap burger (I hope) with french fries on top stuffed into a hoagie bun. And the internet cafe was closed on tuesdays as well.

July 30 Clermont L Herault to Boissoron 135 K

Who won the Tour De France? I'm in France and I haven't been able to follow the Tour. Back home I'd be glued to the tube watching the daily highlights and enjoying commentary by Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwin and even Bob Roll!!! My bike repair was complete and I was pulling away from the bike shop by 11:30. Today I had a French road cyclist come up alongside on a big climb and we ended up riding and talking for an hour to St Martin (???) where he continued on and I got me an ice cream bar. It was another extremely hot day. Oh, did I tell you, every day has been blue skies and bright sunshine and hot!!! This part of France reminds me of the Southwest USA. A mix of arid & semi-arid climate, even cactus here and there. Vineyards for days I've been passing. I also stopped for a walking tour of St Gilhem of the Desert, a very old town with a women's monastery. St Gilhem was Charlemagne's cousin, I believe, who walked away from his Nobility to answer the call to be a monk. The town is listed as a UNESCO sight.

July 31 Boissoron to Bedoin 135 K

Today was my "Roquemaure" day, my laundry day. Going through this town I spotted a laundrymat and my clothes needed a laundrymat. Smell the point??? But as I attempted to read the directions I couldn't figure it out so I flagged a young guy down out front and, VOILA, he spoke English really well. So he helped me do the laundry by reading the signs for me and also typed a blog post to let you all know "I was alive and well in Roquemaure". After cycling through France for 5 weeks I will never take a dryer for ??? This afternoon I met a Swiss cyclo-tourist named Nicole who is 2 weeks into her first ever bike tour and loving it. We road together for an hour (photo) until we went different ways. It was nice to have a good conversation in English. But don't these people who speak 4 or 5 laguages fluently tick you off : ) . And too I was buzzed by two fighter jets today. That was shocking, cause you don't hear them coming. They just appear.

july 31 Roquemaure

alive and well and mont Ventoux is in my view . more soon !!

August 1 Mont Ventoux 45 K

WOW! What a day! What a mountain! What a climb! Mont Ventoux is everything you've heard and more. If you are a cyclist, Mont Ventoux is ranked as the most difficult climb in professional cycling. For sure, the most difficult climb in the Tour de France. I chose to climb the infamous, more difficult side from the village of Bedoin. It is 22 kilometers from the centre village. The first 6K are at about 4-7% with a 100 meter flat spot just before the famous hairpin turn to the left and the beginning of the wall. At 15K from the top there is a sign, The Geant Of Provence. 10%, and I think more at times, it goes up, up, up, never an easy kilometer. Truly an incredibly difficult climb. I have respect for all the recreational and club riders who can claim they've climbed Mont Ventoux. And my repect for the pros who race this mountain has gone up a zillion times. I tried to imagine being in the TDF and approaching Bedoin after 120 miles of racing in the heat and facing Mont Ventoux. Awesome. I took some photos at the top and got my just rewards fo climbing, I got to roll down one of the greatest mountains in the world. I was smiling and whistling all the way down. Not a car or a cyclist passed me.

August 2 Bedoin to Die 128 K

Today was a fabulous day of cycling, transitioning from the southern Alps to the northern Alps, from Provence to the High Alps. My first lavender fields were sighted and photographed. And I met a wonderful family from Grenoble that I shared lunchtime with at the top of the Col de Edy. Hello to Thomas and Clare and their two beutiful children. We had a fun conversation, thanks to Thomas speaking very good English. He is a cyclist and we talked about all the famous TDF climbs and much more. I also climbed the Col de ????. It was another scorching hot today so I took an ice cream break in La Motte ??? at an internet cafe I didn't use the internet. Crazy, they want from $7 to $13 an hour for internet in this region. I made it to Die (pronounced Dee) in time for a grocery store stop. The campsite was nearby.

August 3 Die to Bourg D Oisans

Wow, another INCREDIBLE day of cycling. What can I say, I'm blessed to be a cyclist biking through this fabulously beautiful terrain. I decided to bike directly to Le Bourg D'Oisans and the L'Alp D'Huez. Tomorrow, on my rest day, I would climb THE ALP. The Alp made famous most recently by Lance Armstrong when he Time-trialed from the bottom to the top in 39 minutes. That is about 9 miles UP at just under 15 Mph. Simply amazing! I started the day climbing the Col de Menne and finished descending the Col d'Ornon. Two Cols, two beautiful experiences. Climbing Col de Menne was 21K at 5% or easier at times, but the terrain had turned to Pine trees and it was like riding uphill in front of a big air conditioner vent. Spectacular. Later in the day the climb up the Col d'Ornon was especially beautiful with really cool villages. But what made the day special was the astounding descent off the Col d'Ornon. 12K of indescribable cycling glory. Hey, all my cycling friends, plan a group trip to Le Bourg D'Oisans, and I'll show you the sights.

August 4 L Alp D Huez 30 K

August 5 Bourg D Oisans to Le Rozier (8K east & north of Briancon) 76 K, Col du Lauterat

As I was about to pull out of Le Bourg D'Oisans, after my obligatory stop at the boulangerie and supermarket, I met a cyclo-tourist from Caneda. Carlo Roman was his name and we kind of biked together as far as Briancon. Had some good conversation at the top of climbs, and met a family (Mark, Martina, Matthew, Alis, see photo) from near Lyon France who were out on a backpacking trip. The D'Oisan region, famous to cycling fans for the climb up to L' Alpe D'Huez, has 6 valleys and nine major peaks including some glaciers. Truly a magnificent area. A must see, but not in July or August. Today I had more traffic go by me than the last six weeks combined by far. The mountains are so extreme here there are few roads and fewer highways. The only way to go is the main route. The Col du Lauteret is one of the famous TDF climbs which is overshadowed by its' next-door-neighbor, the Col du Galibier. I decided to save Good Ol' Galibier for the next tour so I can climb it from the north ;) The scenic beauty made up for the automobiles whizzing past.

August 6 Le Rozier FRANCE to Torino ITALY 131 K

An exciting day for me, I made it to Italy. You could be here too. Ha! I biked 36 days in France, did alot of climbing, and wouldn't you know it, France had one more climb for me, the Col de L Chelle. A 2.7K climb that was really steep. Or maybe it just felt that way since I've cycled 12 straight days. 20K into the day I spotted the cement post (photos) that divides France and Italy. Then it was all downhill, literally. A very steep descent to my first Italian town, Bardonecchia. And then I just mostly rolled down through Susa, Rivoli (I got excited when I thought they named a town Ravioli), and into Torino. Torino, for being a big city was very easy to get into on a bicycle. In Rivoli I ducked under an awning to avoid a downpour and met two cyclists, Mario & Giorgio, who treated me to a Coca Cola after hearing about my tour. Much fun. Here in Torino I got the "Tour of The City" whether I wanted it or not as I searched for The Tourism Office and this great hostel. I will take a day or two off and blog and relax and plan the next section of my tour.

August 7 Torino ITALY Rest Day

Hopefully I'll get some photos on for all you guys soon. I spent the day walking/relaxing in this amazing city. And I don't say that about cities usually. One young Canadian said he's been all over Italy and Torino is his favorite city. He also said his favorite spot was Cinque Terre which I will be at the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow on Rest Day 2 I will be taking my bike for a train ride down to the Mediterranean Coast to the town of Levanto just north of Cinque Terre. Anyway, you just gotta see Torino someday for yourself. A city full of those European plazas. Really big spaces that are car-free zones, space for people to just mill around and bounce from one museum to the next and one restaurant to the next. And that reminds me. The food seems familiar here, the pizza resembles pizza.

August 8 Rest Day/Travel Day Torino to Levanto by Train, 16K of Cycling

I always wanted to try this bicycle/train thing in Europe. I should have tried it in France. I would have come up from Spain sooner, catch the train in Andorra and take it to Avignon. Anyway, its all good. I sat at the train station eating salame on hard roll sandwiches and chocolate muffins at Mr Panino. Hey, the Olympics began today.