Tour de France Cyclotourism — Riding the Col des Ares & Col de Menté

I recently got back from a 10 day cycling trip to the Pyrenees with my wife Christine, my 20-month-old daughter Nora, my downstairs neighbors Julie and Jeremiah, and their 13-month-old daughter Piper. The babysitting logistics were complex, but the scenery was gorgeous, and the riding exceptional. I’ll be posting reports from each day’s ride this week —  so stay tuned!

The first ride, the Col des Ares and Col de Menté loop, was supposed to be a warmup, but turned into a bigger affair. Jeremiah Johnson and I headed out from our gite in Ore and started up a steep pitch out of the village towards Lourde, a tiny village up the hill. We then turned onto the D618 and the Category 2 Col des Ares.  This climb is a perfect prelude to the bigger climbs in the Luchon valley — a steady 3-5% grade, quiet, shaded road, and a stunning view at the top. The descent is even better, with beautiful views of the valley holding the villages of Moncaup and Arguenos:

We were now in idyllic rolling cycling terrain, farm fields interspersed with forest, and villages popping up every 5 or so kilometers. After a fast descent after the village of Juzet d’Izaut, we got to a fork in the road, with each branch leading to a famous climb.

To our left was the Portet d’Aspet, a steep, wooded Cat 2 climb that is most known for its memorial to Fabio Casartelli, who died tragically descending the d’Aspet during the 1995 Tour de France. We were headed up the Col de Menté to the right, a Cat 1 climb heading west, topping out at 1300 meters above the town of St Beat.

Unlike some of the other big climbs we did, this climb is all switchbacks in mostly open terrain. We were basically stepping up a very steep open slope one switchback at a time, with the views getting bigger and bigger as we went up.

The top of the climb is wooded and a bit anticlimactic, but does feature a small bar/restaurant worth a stop. A group of Spanish mountain bikers were finishing up lunch when we arrived — empty wine bottles were on their table and a few were having a smoke outside. Mountain biking, European style!

The descent to St Béat wasn’t quite as scenic as the climb, but was still fun — and like the rest of the ride, basically free of cars. We returned to Ore on the D125 on the valley floor. The D125 and N125 are the main roads going through the Luchon valley, and are a necessary evil for a number of the rides in the area. There is a good bike lane for stretches of the road, and a great bike path along the Garonne in the northern part of the valley, but there are stretches where we were sharing the road with a trucks and high-speed French drivers.

All in all, it was a great first day. The Michelin maps didn’t lie when they marked the entire route with the green “scenic” shading!

Check out the Col des Ares and Col de Menté loop on Strava!

No related posts.