Thursday, September 22, 2016 | Claudia Wenhart / Manuel Marabese / Laurens Corijn | Europe
Already the last day ... no one what's to think about that. We took a great group picture in Mollo and started again in two group back to Barcelona. Olot, Sanat Pau, Madremanya and the great coastal road GI 682 from Sant Feliu to Lloret de Mar was on our schedule for today.
Today we left Carcassonne after a great breakfast in direction to Lagrasse and the beautifull Gorges de Galamus. That gorges is a system of bizarrely shaped canyons. That day turned out a little bit different as anyone expected. Our final destination today was Mollo in France again, which we reached after Col d'Ares a great pass with awesome sweepers.
What a great and wonderfull day, perfect weather, cool in the morning and sunshine. Today was the day with 8 perfect passes. We startet with Col de Tourmalet which was invented to Tour de France in 1910.
We left San Sebastian at the Atlantic Ocean directly into the mountains and crossed the border to France. St. Jean Pied de Port - a small little town - well known by the pilgrams, because at that point the hardest section over the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela is starting here. Col de Aubisque in the afternoon was our highlight, but unfortenately in the rain.
Restday in San Sebastián - everybody took a rest today and visited the old little town of San Sebastian with it's two beautifull city beaches, Monte Igeldo and Isla de St. Clara. San Sebastián is also called Rio de Janero of the Atlantic coast because of it's Christus statue. By chance we all met in one of the famous Pintxos Bars where we had a delicious lunch.
We started our day with riding back the small Valle de Pineta in direction to Ainsa. We went right into Valle de Vio a very narrow and tiny road in an amazing gorge - not a really good idea to take the van there, but it's one way.... so it was easy
Another beautiful great cool morning..... Benasque National Park was on our day today. We started already with the first pass 20 km after the hotel - Coll de Nargó. Nearly no traffic and perfect road condition makes riding in the Pyrenees a dream of every fast rider. We had a lot of fun and endless never ending curves. Coll de Espina was in the afternoon and our final destination was the Parador of Bielsa at the dead end of Valle de Pineta and submontane of Monte Perdido.
What a great morning, after a thunderstrom during the night, the weather was perfect to start our Pyrenees extreme tour. Good it was Sunday morning and nearly no traffic in Barcelona to get out of the city easily. We took the "diagonal" directly into the mountains to get the first curves on our trip to Molins de Rei. Our first stop was the Abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat - Catalonia's holiest location. Monks form the Benedictine order still live there and it's famous for their black Madonna. Nice curvy roads with great asphalt guided us over Coll de Jou, Coll de Nargó and Coll de Boixols to Peramola.
What a great start in our hotel Front Maritim directly at the ocean front in Barcelona. Our group from Monterrey just arrived when we were unloading our two trailers, which we travelled from Mieming/Austria to Barcelona.