Bagneres de Bigorre Ride 1 - Easy Loop

Bagneres de Bigorre area. 49km, 1019m


"We just go up a Col and then roll back down!", complained Liz. "Can we ride a nice loop somewhere?"

Prompted by that request we drove from Luz Saint Sauveur to Bagneres de Bigorre, where I'd spotted on the Michelin road atlas some nice looking roads to the east of the town.  

It also happens to be a good place from which to ride the Col d'Aspin but that, of course, is entirely incidental.

We found a good campsite in Camping Le Monloo which was walking distance from the town.  Saturday is market day in Bagneres de Bigorree, and if you're here with a good bike, don't ride to town. 
The place is heaving with people, stalls spill out onto the street and you'd hardly be able to wheel a bike through the crowds.  You certainly wouldn't want to leave it locked anywhere either.

But take a couple of rucksacks to carry back all the excellent fresh produce.

Do you think he uses that toilet roll?
So it was around 2:30 we went out for a nice, "gentle" recovery ride in the Pyrenean foothills. 

I'd bought a €3 cycling route booklet at the Tourist Office (20 Circuits Velo) and, sure enough, the roads I'd spotted on the map were indeed recommended cycling routes.  

However, there were few clues as to the gradients on the roads or the length of the climbs.

Where we went isn't important and frankly I doubt if I could retrace the route, although the GPS track is below. 

We made decisions at cross roads as we came to them. But it was a little tricky staying on track with only a photocopy page from the road atlas to navigate by (there are no topos in the Tourist Office booklet). 

While we covered less than 50km, we climbed more than on some of our days riding cols! 


What's this about? We took our campervan down the Pyrenees this summer, riding classic cols and hiking great walks. Now I'm sharing the info about best campsites for the best rides.