Andorra (all)

In 2010 my bicycletour went back to the Pyrenées to collect another paved roads going above 2000 m, to have all of them. By its start I cycled up to Mont Ventoux on its four different ascents in the same day to have the Galerien version of the Club des Cinglés du Mont Ventoux.

I saw 3 times the Tour de France: they were great feelings, unforgettable memories. I climbed legendary Tour de France climbs, like Col de Peyresourde, Aspin, Luz Ardiden, Aubisque, Pla d’Adet, Col d’Azet, etc. In Spain I was amazed by the huge rockwalls of the Ordesa canyon and the region of that and found wonderful (and one of the most beautiful roads) the East side of the Coll de Fanlo. In Spain with other ones I visited Cerler, Boi Taüll, a hardly known, but wonderful road to Presa L’lauset, then in Andorra 3 roads: one of them the legendary and nice Arcalis. I visited calm ascents like the idyllic valley of Lac Bouillouses and valley of Puigmal. After climbing Vallter I finished my tour in Barcelona.

The bicycletour was totally 2368 kms + 42996 m heightdifference.

A lonely Hungarian cyclist who has the Summers free and likes to make new advantures on his bike.

Started with his short Croatian tours, but made it always longer, and in 2005 didn't stop before the 2700th kilometer in Greece. In the following year he decided to start the real adventure, to cycle out of Europe.

2007 was the year of cycling across Canada, the headwindy way - of course :) After this 9000km trip now he is in the planning stage of the South-American tour for 2009.

In 2007 I and the tourmate of mine, Peter Riskó planned cycling in the Pyrenees. The tourist version of the RAID PYRENEEN seemed to be ideal for us. It is 790 kms long, has ca. 18000m heightdifference with 28 cols and we had 10 days for it. Before starting the Raid Pyreneen, we spent 4-5 days in the Pyrenees, in Andorra and visited such climbs as Port Cabus (2300 m), Port d'Envalira (2408 m) and enjoyed the Tour de France feeling. We had fantastic memories at Cirque Gavernie and then in the valley of Cirque Troumouse, where we saw waterfals, and small clouds coming up from the bottom of the valley not much before sunset. I enjoyed very much the legendary climbs of the Pyrenees as the hard (11% for 4 kms) Col du Marie Blanque, Col d'Aubisque, Col du Tourmalet... which we waited very much. With a little bit clouds around us the surroundings of the col was so fantastic which made the Col du Tourmalet one of the most memorable col for me through my 15 years bicycling.

The second half of the Raid went through lower mountains, but we had Col de Mente and Portet d'Aspet, Port de Pailheres as legends. It was a good feeling, that we cycled where famous bicycleracers climbed a few decades before us. Our last day was memorable again with the beautiful Col de Garavel, the mediterranean Col du Palomere with the sight for the sea and the last 20kms along the sea through a few tourist village.

My first tour without a firm objective. I knew I wanted to start from my front door and meet up with my family somewhere in the Ardèche. Barcelona seemed like a reasonable intermediate destination, but the rest was pretty much à la carte.

The resulting -less thorough than usual- planning was noticeable, as the route featured more major roads than I would normally prefer, and even turned around and bit me on the day two when I needed a train to complete the second half of the route.

However, there were still plenty of opportunities to bask in the quality of the French road network and many pleasant surprises, as towns I had given scant regard while planning the route turned out to be fantastic places to visit.

It began as a crazy idea whilst on holiday in France back in 2003 and within a couple of weeks had turned into a serious plan. Now after two years preparation and a couple of false starts we're finally off.

The plan is to ride from our home in Chesham to the south coast city of Portsmouth where we can catch a boat to Bilbao on the north coast of Spain. Then we'll cross France to the Black Forest in Germany where we can pick up the famous Danube cycle path which we plan to follow to east to Vienna. After that we want to spend a couple of months in the Alps before heading south for a lap of Italy. The final leg of the tour will see us cross France again to the Pyrenees before we head south to Spain where we plan to follow the coast round to Portugal and back into Northern Spain where we can catch the boat back to England.

The Coast-to-Coast Route covered 1000miles (1600km) beginning in Hendaye on the Atlantic Ocean and finishing in Collioure on the Mediterranean Sea.

Tabular data and altitude profiles of mountain passes all over Europe.