Aubisque Awesome

Our VeloSport crew awaits the publicity caravan on a tight corner in front of our lunch spot on the Aubisque.

Today’s “stage” for the VéloSport Vacations crew started in Lourdes and headed west then south to the base of the hors categorie Col d’Aubisque climb. With an altitude of 1677 meters, this 16.5 kilometer climb has an average grade of 7%. We knew we had our work cut out for us today. And since most of us had done one hors categorie climb the day before, the legs were a little weary at the start.

Blue, sunny skies greeted us at the base of the climb in the village of Laruns. There motor homes, cars and hundreds of cyclists came together in a jumbled mix at a traffic circle in the center of town. Gendarmes were positioned and already directing all non-Tour vehicles off the route. Once again, we were going to be able to tackle this mountain on a road filled with cyclists and slightly groggy fans.

One of the first cyclists I saw was Morris Seymour from Huntsville, Alabama who was sporting his new red VéloSport jersey. Just up the road was John Myrick from Clemmons, North Carolina in his blue VéloSport jersey. It already looked like it was going to be a good day for our team.

I rode with Jonica and Ryan Burke from Portsmouth, Ohio who were all smiles on their first full day on the bike. Air France had misplaced Ryan’s bike for the first two days of the trip and he only got to touch his beautiful ride for the first time on Monday. Though the road was going hard uphill, they were happy to be part of the action.

Erin Hinnov was just up the road and cruising along a wooded section of the climb. As her second Tour in a row with us, Erin has really increased her cycling strength and skill and seemed to be improving every day. I saw her later at the top of the Aubisque and she said that she felt better on this climb than she has so far. She was truly riding into form.

Our most seasoned Tour rider, Jim Williams was hammering away on the climb. Though his first time on the Aubisque, Jim has many, many hors categorie climbs to his name. Over the seven Tours he has done with us, he has climbed the Tourmalet four times – twice from each side, Mont Ventoux once, and Alpe d’Huez a couple of times. He said that though the Aubisque was hard, the Tourmalet was more difficult.

Eddy congratulations Jim on his epic ride up the Aubisque. His seventh Tour with VeloSport, Jim has put up with more years of Chris' bad puns than any other client. And at 76 years old, he is the easily the strongest oldest client we have had master the classic climbs of France.


A little ways up the road I spotted Jim’s buddy Richard Winegarner from Healdsburg, California. He was wearing a yellow jersey and attracting quite a bit of attention from the roadside fans. One vendor stopped in the middle of his sales pitch, to draw the crowd’s attention to the “maillot jaune”. Richard has also traveled with us before and said this climb was deceivingly hard. He said he felt like a lobster in a pot that just kept getting hotter on this climb that started gently and finished with a punch.

For the last few kilometers of the climb, I got to ride with Karen Melliar-Smith and Jim Johnson from Denver, Colorado. Both strong cyclists, I found out that Karen is a professional triathlete. She was enjoying the climbs and feeling stronger every day. As a professional athlete, Karen said she has always respected the Tour cyclists. Having actually tackled some of the mountains the Tour riders fly over, she said her respect has only grown.

Karen and Tim on top of the world on the Aubisque.


We stopped two kilometers from the summit of the Aubisque where the VéloSport Vacations crew had reserved another fabulous lunch at the Auberge des Cretes Blanches. Sophie was set up there with some refreshments for those who wanted to go to the top before turning around and coming back to the auberge for lunch. We topped off our water bottles and grabbed some treats before climbing up into the clouds. At the top, Karen, Jim and I took the time to take in the incredible view from atop this rugged giant.

After descending back down to our reserved space on a nice tight turn to the top, we cleaned up and sat down to an abundant multi-course meal. There I got to meet Judy Trahan from Oakland, California who was happy to add another climb to her list of accomplishments. Judy had actually started riding in 1970 but had to take several years off for tendonitis. Only recently had she really gotten back into the sport thanks to the generous gift of a new bike from her friend Malcom Stuart (also a VéloSport Vacations traveler).

I talked to Tris Dows and Steve Junge from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Steve is a seasoned cyclist and did Paris-Brest-Paris in 1999. For this epic ride, Steve did 750 miles in 68 hours with only two hours of sleep. This trip was his first to the Tour de France and he was impressed by the difficulty of the Pyrenees climbs. He told me that we’re definitely not in Iowa any more!

Fed and well-hydrated, we all moved out to the corner to find our spots for the caravan. Being on a tight corner really paid off for the group. The caravan cars would get backed up and have to actually stop in front of us. There was more schwag to go around than we could handle.

Crazy squirrel loose on the Aubisque.

When it was time for the race to come through, we all realized just how amazing our spot on this mountain was. From the patio of the Cretes Blanches, we could see so far down the mountain that at one point I could see the first cyclists entering our corner and the last cyclist with the voiture balai (or broom wagon) coming on to the climb. There were four helicopters hovering like hawks just level with our viewing spot as they followed the different groups up the mountain.

We spread out on the corner where we could get a close look at the faces of the riders as they looked beyond us up the mountain. The suffering for some was all too evident on this warm, hot day in the Pyrenees.

After the race passed, we packed in to the cozy bar area where the VéloSport crew had set up two televisions. There, we drank and watched the riders battle to the end of this final mountain stage. With the stage over, we got back on our buses to head to Lourdes for one last night. As we loaded up, a small group of older Basque men gathered in the bar we had just emptied to drink and sing round after round of beautifully incomprehensible Basque songs. I looked up the mountain one last time and instead of fans and motor homes, I saw a flock of sheep moving slowly up the hillside. The Tour was almost over.