Stage 14

6 categorized climbs: 1x cat 3, 2x cat 2, 2x cat 1, 1x HC.  The day started early, 5am wake up.  We left Lourdes and drove about an hour  to Saint-Goudens.  Hilly straight out of the gate enroute to the cat 2 Col d'Aspet.  This one was steep!  it was only 4.3km, but had sections as steep as 16% and averaged 9.7%.  The 7 and 8% sections actually started feeling flat!  In the end though it wasn't too bad and kind of fun.  The descent was fast, but seeing the Casartelli memorial on the way up made me keep things a little slower.  Not hard to believe that someone would have a fatal crash going down what I'd just gone up.

Next up was a cat 1 that didn't really cause me much strain, followed by a relatively easy 2 and another 1.  This last cat 1 was a little harder than the first, but still not too much and it was followed by a short cat 3.  Then we had a long descent towards the finishing climb up to Plateau de Beille.  This last climb was pretty tough, at about 16km and 7.9% average, but I found a good rhythm and worked through it.  It was even more crowed than Luz-Ardiden, probably because it was the weekend.  So many campers and cars on the way up.  BBQs everywhere!  All the beer drinking and smells from the grills were what really made it a tough!  Obviously it's not the same as on TV... people just go at their own pace the whole way.  No time cut offs or attacks to follow, no need to try and keep up. 

The crowds were kind of a pain in the ass on the way down.  Kids and dogs running all over the place meant staying on the brakes most of the time and ruining a perfectly good descent.  183.31km in 9:20:41 for an avg speed of 19.7km/h.