Venga

Our trip starts by exploring the climbs that are within the vicinity of our hotel. It is no wonder that this is a popular stop over the the Tour de France and the Vuelta. It is often an entry point to the Pyrenees, before a sequence of mountain stages. We will discover this over the next week.

This morning we set off down the valley before we head briefly into Spain and we return over Col du Portillon. A good climb to start us off in the Pyrenees and by itself, one of the easiest climb we’ll do this trip. The 60 km loop will return us back to where we started, with 1,000m of climbing.

Coming through town it will be tempting to call it a day. But we’re here to ride our bike, so we’ll head out of town and climb to Superbagnères. It was included in several tours between 1962 and 1989, Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault have won stages to its summit. It starts with some gentle grade before the screws tighten for the final 6km. After reaching the summit, we’ll return back to Luchon for the afternoon. More than 2,000m of vertical ascent and about 100km for the day.

We’ll be back in time to see the sprint finish in Toulouse and enjoy the afternoon socialising. Tonight you have a free night in Luchon.