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fiddlehead
07-12-2009, 09:22
I'm watching the Tour de France live and right now they are climbing and going over the summit and the HRP of the Pyrenees hike which i did 10 years ago exactly.
This brings back lots of memories and if you watch today's race, you can see the beauty of this awesome trail.

The trail basically follows the border of Spain and France and is very steep and a tough hike.
I had used the Long Trail to get in shape for the hike 10 years ago and found the Pyrenees to be much tougher/steeper.

Tune in if you get the chance and see for yourself.

High Life
07-12-2009, 10:11
Go Lance!Go Lance!Go Lance!Go Lance!

yaduck9
07-12-2009, 11:28
Go Lance!Go Lance!Go Lance!Go Lance!


Lance has come back after a 4 yr layoff. He's 37, well past the prime of a competitive cyclist. The Tour is performing "random" dope tests on him two sometimes three times a day ( no one else on the tour is being tested anywhere near as much ) and he is only 40 seconds off from the lead, with 14 stages left to ride.

Amazing.:sun

yaduck9
07-12-2009, 11:33
You can watch the tour on "racetracker". Go to Versus.com , select the tour de france. click on the rectangle that says "racetracker" .

You can watch the live feed for free. The video is degraded a hair but the audio commentary is fantastic. Or, you can pay 2 dollars and upgrade the video and supposedly watch re runs for the next 24 hours.

modiyooch
07-12-2009, 16:46
watching it daily, as we do every year. We have already decided that our trip next July is to Spain and France . It's beautiful.

World-Wide
07-13-2009, 05:51
I'm watching the Tour de France live and right now they are climbing and going over the summit and the HRP of the Pyrenees hike which i did 10 years ago exactly.
This brings back lots of memories and if you watch today's race, you can see the beauty of this awesome trail.

The trail basically follows the border of Spain and France and is very steep and a tough hike.
I had used the Long Trail to get in shape for the hike 10 years ago and found the Pyrenees to be much tougher/steeper.

Tune in if you get the chance and see for yourself.

I too watch it everyday here in Okinawa! The only thing that sucks is I'm only able to watch the "Tour" 12 hours after the stage has been completed. (Armed Forces Network taped) I don't listen to the radio for fear of hearing the results and my co-workers realize there's a penalty of death if they even speak of the "Tour!" :) Go Lance!! W-W

Pedaling Fool
07-13-2009, 08:25
...The trail basically follows the border of Spain and France and is very steep and a tough hike.
I had used the Long Trail to get in shape for the hike 10 years ago and found the Pyrenees to be much tougher/steeper...
Why is it tougher/steeper? Do they use switchbacks? I've always heard that much of the southern AT was tougher in the earlier years because switchbacks were not used, however, due to erosion, the maintainers started using SBs. Was erosion a problem where you hiked in the Pyrenees?

fiddlehead
07-13-2009, 08:56
No, erosion isn't the problem.
The mountains along the AT tend to go in the direction of the trail with ridges.
In the pyrenees, it is as if those mountains were turned sideways and chopped up and place one after the other.
So, on any given day, you might have 3 or 4 or even 5 one to two thousand foot climbs in a row with practically no flat sections up on top. Just another descent and another ascent at the bottom.

I'm not saying it is steeper although i had the steepest descent of my hiking career in the Pyrenees.

I'm certainly not trying to talk anyone out of hiking this great trail. ON the contrary, my whole point of this thread is to see the beauty while you can watching the "Tour de France" while it is in the Pyrenees.

I wrote up a story of our hike that has much more detail and pictures on my blog that can be found here. (http://fiddlehead.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/pyrenees-high-route-our-journey-across-the-frontier/)

We also did a slide show (a real old fashioned one) that i have been working on to digitize it so it can be put on youtube. I'll try to get it done soon.
We even wrote music to fit the slide show for the beginning of the trip which included the running of the bulls festival. Anyway.............Check out this great hike. It's not for everybody but is full of beauty and the best part of France IMO.

Pedaling Fool
07-13-2009, 09:25
No, erosion isn't the problem.
The mountains along the AT tend to go in the direction of the trail with ridges.
In the pyrenees, it is as if those mountains were turned sideways and chopped up and place one after the other.
So, on any given day, you might have 3 or 4 or even 5 one to two thousand foot climbs in a row with practically no flat sections up on top. Just another descent and another ascent at the bottom...
Interesting discription.

Marta
07-13-2009, 16:20
You can watch the tour on "racetracker". Go to Versus.com , select the tour de france. click on the rectangle that says "racetracker" .

You can watch the live feed for free. The video is degraded a hair but the audio commentary is fantastic. Or, you can pay 2 dollars and upgrade the video and supposedly watch re runs for the next 24 hours.

Thanks for the info!

Mags
07-13-2009, 16:44
The Pyrenees is a range that really speaks to me in Europe (more so than the Alps). From what I have been told, it is relatively remote for Europe.

The other reason I want to do it is that I am a chow hound. French and Spanish food? Wine? Cheese? Basque culture ???

I have a feeling that grabbing some homemade goat cheese from a remote mountain village is not exactly the worse hiking memory. :D