Gay Cycling Touring Group

 

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Spanish Pyrenees Coast to Coast.

The three of us, Gavin,Tim and Peter have just returned after completing a route of over 1000km from Biarritz on the Atlantic Coast to the St Cyprien Plage on the Mediterranean coast near Perpignan. Using the European Bike Express the start and end points were in France. The first day's cycling was in France, a well needed night was spent near St Jean Pied de Port before crossing the mountains to Spain on the pilgrim's route. We followed the mountain range using the highest made roads on the wilder and less developed Spanish side only crossing back into France for the final decent to the Mediterranean. The tour had 15 cycling days ranging from one day only just short of 100km with three big climbs to a short day of only 40km. The route took in ten named mountain passes and twice as many without names. Named or not most passes were over 1000m and some were over a mile high. We took a well deserved rest day in the historic city of La Seu d'Urgell and ended the tour with a couple of rest days by the pool at the rather pleasant gay run guesthouse Mas d'En Coste near Perpignan.

While at the end of the longer days nothing more was wanted than to lock up the bikes and have a restful evening, on the short days excursions into side valleys were rode. The mountain streams and lakes offered a change for a bit of skinny-dipping to cool off from the hot sunny weather.

This was an unsupported tour with each of us carrying our own luggage on the bike. (Cyclists have a great skill in packing light and those quick wash and dry cycling lycras are a great blessing.) Hotel accommodation had been pre-booked all the way along the route so whatever the day's cycling had been a shower, a clean bed and a big dinner awaited us each evening.

This was a tour for tourists on bikes who wanted to enjoy the towns, villages and countryside that they passed through. While it was no competitive "Rand" it was certainly not for the novice or leisure cyclists, all of us had tour cycled in the past and were as ready as possible for 15 days of mountains.

For further details about our tour please email: gaycycling@wfour.co.uk

 

 

Cycling Tour in Essex and Suffolk
September 9th-10th

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