Day 5

Sorry for the delay. The hotel in St. Lary-Soulan offered WiFi for lots of Euros.

Here's Tom's take on the day.....

We left Argels-Gozost at about 9:ooa enroute to the famous Col Du Tourmalet (2114 meters)which was about 25 K from our hotel. The climb was 18k from Bareges with 8-10% and the last K much steeper. Long climb but went quick, about 1 hr 5-10 minutes. Broke out of clouds at about 3k to go which exposed great views as photos will show. Lots of people and riders at top. Scottie was driving the van and met us at top. We decended down the other side after buying a few souvenirs and quickly hit a thick layer of clouds. We were in a world of pain for the next 8-10k as the conditions were herrendous and we froze our asses off. Dandy Dan had no gloves and did not complain. I don't think Dan feels pain like a normal person.


Eventually we broke thru the layer of pain and hit the sun again. We pedaled real hard down below to warm back up. Next we rode rollers to the Col De Aspin which was about 5k at 8-10%. We got seperated from Dan here and went different routes. The Aspin downhill was long and very fast, our favorite to date. We hit 75k per hour and passed 7 cars, 5 at one time; WOW! We finished the ride at St. Lary Soulan, the site of our hotel and a large ski area. The Pla d' Adet starts here also where Hincape won a stage 2 years ago. Our ride time was 4:20 hrs with 9000 feet vertical.
Oh and by the way, Jackie---check out the picture of Dan at the top of the Touremelet to see what happened to your jersey !