Читать книгу Tour Climbs: The complete guide to every mountain stage on the Tour de France - Chris Sidwells - Страница 52
ОглавлениеThe Western Pyrenees run from the region around the town of Oloron-Ste-Marie, southeast to the start of the Col du Peyresourde just to the west of Bagnères de Luchon, which if not the geographic absolute middle of the whole range is certainly a convenient place to draw the line.
Like the rest of the range, the Western Pyrenees are far more unpredictable in their gradients and direction than the Alps. The roads, even the scenery, have a less engineered feel to them.
The Pyrenees are generally greener then the Alps. They are lower, they are further south so the tree line is higher – but the main reason for this verdancy is that they see more rain than the Alps. And that is certainly true of the Western Pyrenees, which get the full effect of frontal rain coming in off the Atlantic Ocean.
Oloron-Ste-Marie is ideal for exploring the misty soft folds of countryside and climbs around the far west of this region. Lourdes has the giant Hautacam and the Col d’Aubisque almost on its doorstep. Tarbes or Bagnères-de-Brigorre are perfect for launching yourself at the rugged challenge of the Col du Tourmalet, and Bagnères-de-Luchon is the place for the ski station climbs like Superbagnères or the Peyresourde.
Col d’Aspin
‘PYRENEAN PERFECTION’
3 STARS
Length: 11.9 km
Altitude: 1489 metres
Height gain: 785 metres
Average gradient: 6.6%
Maximum gradient: 5.3%
WHAT TO EXPECT
Mountain view. From the summit you can see some of the highest peaks in the Pyrenees. L’Arbizon (2831 metres) is almost due south and the Pic du Midi de Bigorre (2872 metres) with its observatory on top is to the west. To the left of that is the Col du Tourmalet.
Mountain bikers. There are plenty of tracks for suitable off-road bikes in the Aspin area.
Green scenery. Because of the warm temperatures of the south, the high annual rainfall, and relatively low altitude, the Aspin is a very green and pleasant place. Even its summit is covered in grass.
Not too long, not too high and not too steep. The Aspin is a great place to start mountain climbing in the Pyrenees. It’s no push over and it has a great Tour de France history, but the Aspin is fairly unique in the Pyrenees in that it climbs the mountain on well-engineered roads with plenty of hairpins to break the ascent down into manageable bits.
There’s a little taste of true Pyrenean character just after halfway, where the bends stop and the road is thrown straight at the climb’s steepest part. It is ten percent gradient here, steep and exposed if there is any wind, but this stretch doesn’t last for long before another sweeping hairpin takes you up to the gently rounded summit.
The town of Arreau, which is a key settlement in the Aure valley with a castle and a museum of local life, nestles at the foot of the Aspin. It’s squeezed into a thin ribbon by the mountains that surround it, and its houses are tall and grey, and capped with steeply pitched roofs, an indication of the rain they get in this region.
The rain makes this area good for farming. Not for crops but cattle, which graze freely on the slopes of the Aspin. On the descent there is a herd of big cream-coloured animals, which also tend to graze fairly freely on the road. They don’t look or care what’s coming down the mountain, so be careful when you see them. They will walk out in front of you.
The descent isn’t steep, so once you’ve survived the wandering cattle take time to look for the quarries, from which the green marble was extracted to build the Palace of Versailles, the Opera in Paris and many other monuments all across France. Once at the bottom your are at the foot of the Col du Tourmalet.
WHICH WAY?
Arreau is on the D929 with the towns of Lannemezan to the north and San Lary-Soulan to the south. From the north turn right, and south left, onto the D918 to begin the Aspin.
The Aspin was first used in the Tour de France in 1910, so is one of the longest-serving mountains on the race. First to the top was a Frenchman, Octave Lapize.
In 1947, the first post-war Tour de France, the Breton Jean Robic laid the foundations of his eventual victory on the Col d’Aspin. A brilliant but mercurial rider, Robic dropped his breakaway companion Pierre Brambilla on the Peyresourde and climbed the Aspin alone. He stayed that way for 190 kilometres, eventually winning the stage in Pau by over ten minutes.
The points that Richard Virenque of France won for crossing the Aspin in fourth place during the 2003 Tour sealed his record-equalling sixth win in the King of the Mountains. In 2004 Virenque took the record for himself by winning a seventh mountains title.
