John Trevorrow a former Australian cycling champion, journalist, cycling promotor, lover of a good time and an all round nice bloke gave us passes into the village and more importantly the riders bus compound. We were like kids in a lolly factory.

This is the famous caravan about to start out. It is a group of promotional vehicles and floats that goes out 2 hours ahead of the riders distributing promotional gifts. After a 3 hour drive from Lourdes we got here about 9.45am. Had to park about 2K from the start Village.

This is the top of the climb. Noting Leigh's comment earlier about culture, we were so tired and cold by the time we got here that we put warm tops on, had our posterity photo taken and headed straight back down. We stopped for lunch at Cauterets I was so cold that at lunch I had a glass of red wine to try and warm up. Have never ever previously drunk alcohol whilst on a ride. The waiters were so frazzled because there was a large group of 10 if us that orderin...

A very picturesque waterfall about 3K from the top. From the left it is Mick Gannon, Chris Burgess and Dave Curtain. I had chased these guys up for about 3K and caught them just as they stopped at this point. I realized later that they were all riding on their triple chain rings.

It is Bastille Day and this is entertainment in Cauterets. This is also where we had lunch after completing the climb.