Sidey, his mate Doddy, Dabbers, MB and myself set off on Sideys euro tour with 4 of us getting the ferry to Santander. 2 niners, 2 Gs's and a mk2a 8fiddly were the rides of choice.
The only pre-booked accomodation was the first hotel, the rest of the tour was on the fly with Doddy & Mick sorting out the
route and accomodation generally the night before. Thanks to their knowledge, and time spent planning the days, we
enjoyed some amazing roads with stunning backdrops.
Here's where we stayed....
.
Hotel del Oso, Cosgaya. In the heart of the Picos de Europa, Spain. - 3 Nights
Pic du Midi, La Mongie, Col du Tourmalet, Hautes-Pyrénées. French Pyrenees - 2 Nights
Tautavel. Foothills of the French Pyrenees. - 4 Nights
Menton. 20km from Nice, South coast of France. - 1 Night
Chambre d'hotes la bastide des cedre. Saint Pantaleon, Les Vignes, France. - 1 Night.
Alp Hotel, Voreppe. Somewhere I'd rather forget in the centre of France. - 1 Night
Troyes. City about 60km south-east of Paris. - 1 Night
Le Moulin de Tigny. Converted watermill, classic food and great hospitality. 10km south of Le Touquet. - 1 Night.
Cliff was a late attendee and would make his way to Cosgaya, Spain via Cherbourg. After a brekky meet with Dappers on my way down, I met up with Sidey, Doddy and MB at the ferry terminal where we boarded the ferry. We arrived in Santander feeling ready for a ride after the relaxing, and slightly boring ferry trip whilst Cliff had had a mare of a ride in 48 hours of miserable wet weather. His satnav was playing up and his route map soaked so he called and arranged to meet us off the ferry.
A spirited ride of about 70 miles showed up the shortfalls of fitting longer dog bones to the 9'er. Sparks were flying as I narrowly avoided having an off, it was all too easy to ground out on the twistys. Sooooo, I slowed down after that. Bike was much better on the twistys once the suspension was firmed up. Bit harsh on the goat tracks though, but, thankfully they were relatively scarce.
We all arrived at the Hotel del Oso, Cosgaya in one piece with Cliff staying just down the road at a local B&B type place for 2 nights and the 3rd night staying across the road from out hotel at the Hotel Cosgaya. The del Oso is a lovely 3 star hotel with super-friendly staff and amazing food. The portion sizes are HUGE too, ask Cliff about the bowl of local stew.
View from the hotel room
01.jpg 107.55KB 2 downloads
The Picos is an amazing place for biking, lots of twistys, hairpins and amazing roads an scenery. I could easily spend 2 weeks
there.
Cafe stop at one of Sideys secret locations.
02.jpg.jpg 127.89KB 1 downloads
The 5 amigos. MB, Doddy, Cliff, myself and Sidey. Stopping off for a break and enjoying the 25C sunny weather. 04.jpg 165.57KB 0 downloads
Stunning views wherever you looked.
06.jpg 161.78KB 1 downloads
07.jpg 168KB 2 downloads
Returning to the hotel on the last day, and just starting a twisty mountain descent I began to notice my bike squirreling about, thought at first it was the gusty weather. Got to the bottom of the mountain and discovered I'd got a rear puncture. Bad timing as we had a big ride planned for the following day so all hands on deck to get it sorted. Phoned my breakdown provider who were crap. Ended up with Mick and Doddy asking the hotel staff for somewhere to get it fixed. They managed to find a guy who found I had 2 punctures and got them sorted for about 7pm that evening.
The next day saw us making our way along the Spanish and French Pyrenees heading towards our next stop off up the Col de Tourmalet.
Beautiful vistas on the way there
05.jpg 128.31KB 1 downloads
More to follow.