I said to a number of the guys before the camp that if we had good weather this was going to be a spectacular camp. When we woke to steady rain on day one I was fearing the worst. Crap…. Anyway the camp must go on.
We loaded up at 6:30am to head to a lake near Pau for the opening swim. Epic tradition is that we open with a 2km time trial. With no pool access we went for a 2km race in the lake. I was expecting Monica to rip it up but Scott showed the way with Monica 2nd. The old fellas were showing up some of the youngsters with Gary Burgess coming in 5th and Allen McClure in 6th. After a spot of petit dejeurner it was time for the camp proper to begin. The guys were a buzz with guessing what to expect from the mighty Pyrenees – I don’t think anyone really knew what to expect. Thankfully the weather had cleared to a very overcast day but the threat of rain remained.
So the athletes set off and myself John E and Ian (www.pyreneesmultisport.com ) packed up, did a bit of shopping, paid bills etc. The plan was to meet the guys at a town around 45km for the first aid station. Thinking I had plenty of time I tidied up a few other loose ends and set off. By the time I got to the town for drinks I still hadn’t caught the guys (despite having the pedal to the floor and the car steaming with all sorts of smells). As it turned out the guys had made a wrong turn and I caught them shortly after. After drinks it was time to hit the first Col the Col D’Ichere (674m). This was s light route change and it was a nice into with some pitches of +10%. The youngster Colm Cassidy was ripping the legs off everyone along with Mike Montgomery. The Epic Vet’s were sitting back bidding their time as no point were available on this climb. After a hairy decent it was time to hit the Col De Marie Blanc (1035m – Cat 1 climb). When I came through here last Monday there were a few road works and when I approached the climb the road was half blocked and said it was closed. I decided it was time to bring out the innocent tourist act and drove straight through. I figured it was around lunch time and the French stop all work between 12-2pm so I hoped for the best. The Marie Blanc is renowned for being pretty step and with sections of up to 13-14% it didn’t disappoint. Mike Montgomery was again killing everyone and hit our lunch stop on the other side of the Col well in front. Behind was Gordo, Colm, and Scott. By this stage all the guys were gob smacked and wondering what the hell to expect from the rest of this camp. This attitude was amplified by the time they finished the day by climbing the Col D’Abisque (1709m – Hors Cat Climb). At 17km long this was a gut buster. By this time dense fog had settled in and visability was down to about 30-40m. It was a bloody shame really as their views are something to die for. On this climb we had KOM (King of the Mountains points) up for grabs with 13 points for 1st and then dropping by one point each person. Despite giving clear instructions on where to go a number of athletes decided not to follow the signs and tacked on some extra climbing J . 1st Mike M, 2nd Gordo, 3rd Scott M,, 4th Ed McDevit, 5th Michael Peters
The guys are getting out of the pool now (day 2) so I have to stop here. More to come in the following days. We won’t have internet good access until Friday night so please bear with us with updates.
Day 2
It’s raining pretty hard today. The guys have swim 3km (Gordo & Monica = 6km). We then dropped the guys at the bottom of the Col Du Solour and they had to run to the top to our chalet (8km), a number of guys kept going for 2hrs to go for the bonus points. This afternoon we have an easy 80km with 1 Col of 1400m
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