#tourmalet

[velovelo]

[wouteke]

trick or treat 🐱🐱🐱

1X Small cat for you ^___^

[postcard-from-the-past]

Refuge on the Col du Tourmalet pass, Pyrenees, Béarn region of southern France

French vintage postcard

[aestheticallypleasinganimeboys]

Tourmalet - Monster Strike

[stuyfssportverhalen]

Geheimen

De paden waar Fausto Coppi over koerste zijn plat getreden. Van de voormalige Campionissimo is dan ook een boekenkast vol geschreven. Deze blog waagt zich daar ook niet aan of het moet deze krabbel in de kantlijn van het wielrennen zijn. Om z’n levenswijze én z’n palmares is de man een cultheld geworden.  Ook voor deze blogger die een aantal jaar geleden tijdens een roadtrip door Noord-Italië…

[leslie-o-crieff]

Révélation du Tour de France Femmes 2023 : Ricarda BAUERNFEIND. Superbe victoire d'étape, top 10 au Tourmalet, top 10 au général.

[fidjiefidjie]

"Le Tour de France, une crise annuelle de bonne humeur qui fait oublier les amertumes du moment et nous évite de nous prendre trop au sérieux" 🚲

Régis Debray

Gif Gifer

[boraababy]

sometimes I think of when astronauts come back to earth and because they’re not poets they don’t have the words to describe what they just experienced and to me it’s like when cyclists are asked how their day was and they just say ‘yeah good legs’

[pinkpogiclub]

if you're up for it i would LOVE to hear a full account of your day yesterday, your videos were so great !!

Hi!! <3

I’m always really happy to yap about cycling so this isn’t a hardship at all! I hope you don’t mind me using your ask as a way to do just that! Thank you @tourmalet ❤️‍🩹🫶🏻

First of all! Let me preface this by saying that im really really lucky because my family has always been very into cycling (my grandpa used to cycle back in the forties and the fifties when Coppi and Bartali were racing and he passed his passion onto my dad, his son): they’re the literal best and the reason why im the way I am right now.

That being said, we never managed to be spectators for the Tour because it wasn’t as easy to reach as the Giro, always too far away: which is why we decided to go as soon as we learnt that the first stage of the tour would be starting here, it really was a no-brainer.

So we made a plan and yesterday morning we packed our backpacks and took my uncle’s car to one the final climbs of the stage, operating on stress levels that could have powered a jet engine. Anyways. Now, I’ve been to numerous Giros, but BOY was the atmosphere different yesterday: SO SO many people from different countries (a couple near us came all the way from the Czech Republic just to cheer on Jan Hirt, which he probably needed after what happened yesterday) and generally you could just tell something big was happening. We also spoke a bit with Alfio Vandi (now 69 years old) who was, back in 1976, the first rider to ever wear the white jersey during the Giro d’Italia: definitely trippy to think about him riding alongside Merckx, I’ll admit I was kind of starstruck lmao!

We then hiked a bit (like a couple of km’s, nothing major luckily) to get to the spot my father had in mind, the same one he always passes by whenever he rides that climb like every Sunday (love u dad). We waited there from 11am to 4:30pm-ish and, while the company was great (group of 70 year olds watching motogp and formula one on their phones, very loudly bitching and moaning about ferrari) the weather was just shit from start to finish. SO humid it felt like breathing in mist and also very very warm: just this fact alone made me genuinely wonder how the HELL the riders could bear it for more than 100 kms while I was almost dying just staying still and laying around 😭

And THEN. When riders started coming it was as if everyone there suddenly reverted back to their kids selves: people cheering and clapping and laughing, literal seventy year olds jumping up and down at the sight of jonas and tadej passing by them!!!!!! SO CUTE!!!!!!! I had promised myself not to be TOO biased but I started screaming WOUT!!!! as soon as I saw him (he kind of made a face at me? I think? Idk im choosing to believe he did) which also means I didn’t even see G, Remco, Egan and basically every other GC contender until I watched my videos back. Lmao, talk about tunnel vision. This also goes for Mathieu, who probably saw me cheering like a little kid, waving and all. Sorry pal💀

Jasper arrived later, almost alone, and I was the only one cheering for him for some reason? Beloved war criminal in criminal team ❤️ And how was I repaid for my love and affection? This bitch spat on my backpack!!!! DISMANTLE ALPECIN RN!!!!!!!!

While we were waiting for Mark (Cavendish) to get there the silence was SURREAL; there weren’t that many people there and so the only noises you could really hear were the bikes and some of the scattered riders talking amongst themselves. It was kind of insane, in the sense that I’ve always associated the tour with loud cheering and large crowds, but right then it was a very tangible and human experience, I don’t even know how to explain it. Very real, very raw.

Eventually Mark (and Fabio!) arrived and you could tell they were both exhausted beyond reason but were still, somehow, pushing on through. Mark used to be my absolute fave when I was a child so BET I cheered him on like there was no tomorrow. FORZA MARK FOREVER!!!!!!! (he also has a really cool bike and I was kind of giggling at him sporting a big ass 300k sponsor watch while clawing his way up that climb. Suffering in style I guess, slay)

Overall, the day was extremely tiring but SO worth it: I would do it again another hundred times and I genuinely think everyone should experience the tour at least once in their lifetime. I feel like it’s one of the very few instances where you can actually realise how INSANELY talented the pros are compared to “regular” people (just to put it into perspective: my father is by no means a pro cyclist, but they rode the same climb as him in a THIRD of the time. CRAZY). They withstand scorching heat, gruelling climbs and every sort of injury for three weeks straight, experiencing a level of fatigue i don’t think I could even imagine lmao (the way jonas and pogi were climbing was actually scary: literally riding like they were on a Sunday outing with their friends. Managed to shock my dad. 10/10).

So yeah, all of this to say: I had a lot of fun and I absolutely love this sport to bits. I really wish all of y’all moots could have been there with me, truly😮‍💨❤️‍🩹

NOW. I’m wrapping all of this up with a few bonuses:

- a guy from total energies, whose name I can’t figure out for the life of me, giving me his bottle for no apparent reason other than the fact that I was yelling at him to push cause the hardest part was done (love you king)

- gifted polka dot jersey tee thrown by sponsor bus

- a sunburn from hell I will probably feel for a week

- American woman sporting a GC Kuss shirt: QUEEN

- a beer and food truck near the summit: you wouldn’t believe the amount of people day-drinking themselves silly in 30+ degrees heat

- VAI PACEJ (which I guess is a combination of Pogačar and Tadej?)

- BINI!!!!!!!

- the view from where I was <3

Thank you all for listening, if you managed to stay up until here im giving you a big kiss on the forehead🫶🏻

[radioclashh]

i need him tbh

[velovelo]

[inrng]

Photo: ASO/Thomas Maheux

[sportsallover]

FINALLY David Gaudu in the breakaway and doing something (taking KOM points)

[alpinelogy]

Well time to catch up with what happened with the acoustic motorsport over the weekend I guess

[domistique]

what the hell is cav doing 😭

[postcard-from-the-past]

Mountain cabin in the Tourmalet Pass, Gascony region of France

French vintage postcard