Camping L'Oree des Monts

Unlike previous Tour de France missions, the need to stop and pack my tent after the race meant I got caught in the considerable traffic coming off the mountain. Descending over a vertical Km caused my rims to heat considerably, and great quantities of steam were produced when I sprayed them with water to cool them.

Some video from my descent of la Tormalet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kDzB7Z22h8

After two days of seriously cold conditions on the mountain I felt the need to get into a camp site where I could be reasonably warm for a while so I stopped at a camp site along the Col-de-Aspin (which preceded the Tormalet in today's stage).

I had prepared for wet weather, but not continuous wet weather (I've had only one day of sun-shine since I arrived on the continent) and so am running out of dry/warm clothing. I was thinking that this can't really be helped, because I've received exceptionally bad weather for this time of the year.

This line of reasoning got me thinking about Captain Scott's expedition to the Antarctic; modern research has shown that everything went against him, and that the weather that caused the disastrous end to his exploration was highly exceptional, which does not change in anyway the fact that the weather got them. Fortunately I'm in Southern France and things can't really get that bad, but my point is SOME SUN, PLEASE!!!!Read more