Col du Tourmalet

When I woke I immediately realized that not making my self eat, before bed had been fool-hardy. I felt fairly rubbish. After tucking into the plentiful supply of food that I had hauled up the mountain with me I felt much improved and eventually felt up to venturing beyond the flap of the tent.

I was greeted by freezing mist. The visibility up on the mountain varied throughout the day, but for most of the time everything was shrouded. It gave the place a rather ethereal look, but wasn't all that pleasant to stand around in.

I completed the last 2Km to the summit at a brisk pace, with all but my tent and sleeping gear still on the bike. I even managed a sprint finish, passing several guys on carbon racing bikes in the final 50meters of the col; eliciting cheers from the crowds.

I parked my bike up and prepared my traditional mess-tin Welsh cakes, during the only spell of sun-shine of the day.

As usual I've met a variety of interesting people of various nationalities, including one confused young lady who was wearing an Australian flag, waving a German flag and when asked identified her self as being "from Belgium". Most of Norway is here; I have seen hundreds of Norwegians out today, which considering there are only 4 million or so to begin with is saying something. There are about Three-million Welsh people, and I've met 3 all day. I had a conversation with a few of them, but mostly just shouted "wooo Norway" as I swooped by on my bike. The presence of quite so many Norwegians is a little puzzling, as whilst I'm sure Norwegians like a nice bike ride as much as the next person, being as their country is frozen over for much of the year, I didn't expect cycling to be a major pass-time. Also, they possibly don't realise that the French are serving "Norwegian sandwiches".

By the time the caravan arrived, the freezing mist and poor visibility had returned. https://youtu.be/kqPOLGKZyzA . You can hear from the sound track of the video how windy it is on the mountain, and that mist really is as cold as it looks.

The tour director and a many times former champion lay flowers at the monument to Jacques Goddet, who directed the Tour from 1936 until 1986.

Up on the Col I shared a bar of chocolate with a Mechanical engineer from Kent, and we watched most of the stage together. I am reliably informed that I was visible on the coverage of today's stage so I hope someone recorded it! (I'm the guy with the green hat, blue jacket and great big Welsh flag at the top of Col-de-Tormalet).Read more