Those who know anything about my cycling in recent years will know that I usually do most of my riding with my son. Tom is now 18 and informed me earlier this year that his summer cycling plan was to do a 4000 km route called the 100 Cols and that he was going to do it on his own. I had mixed feelings about this. I was proud that he felt able to do such a thing. I also thought what am I going to do on my own?
When Tom was younger we rode the route of the 1955 Tour De France. I decided that this year I’d ride the route of he 1965 TdF. The route started in Cologne, Germany before heading west across France to Brest, then south and through the Pyrenees, Ventoux, the Alps and of course, finishing in Paris. I booked a month of which if all went to plan would be long enough to complete the route.
Ryan Air took me and my bike from Manchester to Cologne. I arrived early afternoon and the sun was shining. I assembled my bike and headed towards the Cathedral where the Grand Depart was back in 1965. I took pictures then headed in the vague direction of Liege. When planning this and the 1955 routes, I didn’t aim to follow the exact route that the races took. Instead I just aimed for the stage town starts and finishes and the iconic climbs. My route on the first day took me into Holland where I spent the night in some woods.
I’ve several shelters, but decided on the Lunar Solo for this trip, and it was a great choice. Oh and for this trip I built up a Sonder Colibri as my ride.
Routing was provided by a website and app called cycle.travel. Routing choices are “gravel” “paved” or “any”. I’d opted for gravel when planning. I soon realised that whilst that routing was the most scenic, gravel often involved slogging round or through fields. The going was slower than I’d hoped for. Often as the day progressed I went into the app and rerouted via the paved option to make faster progress.
It became clear early on that if I was going for scenic routing rather than follow fast roads, I was going to have to do some very long days. I decided quickly though that I couldn’t be bothered with that. The 1965 route provided a rough direction of travel, and I was happy to adapt that to suit.
After Holland I rode through Belgium and into France. By day three I was making the route up as I went. I decided to divert North to visit the Normandy landing beaches. I was most definitely not alone. I tolerated near 3 days of crowds before heading South.
My next goal was the Pyrenees. I've ridden the Atlantic coast before so I took a different route this time a bit further inland. It took 10ish days to get to Lourdes where I met a friend for lunch. After lunch came one of the biggies.
I’ve ridden up the Tourmalet a few times including on our 1955 Tour de France trip, so I thought I knew what was coming. My laden bike had a low gear of 34:34 and as soon as I started the climb it became clear that this was not low enough for the occasion. I had to stop several times to eat and have a bit of a rest. I toyed with the idea of binning the climb, but instead I persevered making the summit just before dark in the swirling mist. I had given it my all to get there.
As I started the descent it started raining. The only time on this trip where I was freezing cold.
The actual Tour de France was passing this way in a couple of days, so most of the roadside camping spots had already been claimed by race fans. I eventually put my tent up by one of the avalanche shelters a bit after La Mongie. It took a while to warm up that evening.
My intended route had a good few more pyrenean climbs coming up, but after one of them the following day I decided that those climbs could wait until I had a bike with lower gearing.
I've mentioned how cold I was on the Tourmalet descent, but the weather for the most part was hot and getting hotter. On several days the pharmacy thermometers were showing temperatures above 40 degrees. Riding in those temperatures is a fine balance of hydration and exertion. I was drinking 5-6 litres a day and was extremely careful not to overdo it.
As I was nearing Carcassonne into a crazy headwind I decided I needed a rest. I booked a room for 2 nights just outside the fortress walls. Bliss, a comfy bed, air conditioning and a bath. I thoroughly enjoyed a bit of proper tourisiting and not riding my bike for those two days.
My next big goal was Mont Ventoux. On the way there I had tyre troubles. I was running a tubeless setup. I’d punctured before the Tourmalet. A piece of glass had put a big hole in my rear GP5000 which I had plugged. The plug came out and try as I might I couldn’t get it to reseal. I spent a good hour trying to find a solution. It turned out that the solution was to ride the tyre flat to a town 5 miles away and go to a local bike shop the following morning. A new tyre and tube was fitted and I was once again on the road.
It took a couple of days to get to Bedoin where late afternoon I stocked up on calories before starting the other big climb of my trip, Mont Ventoux.
I had bikepacked up here with Tom, so I knew this was a tough climb. Some 7 years older than when I last rode up and humbled by the Tourmalet earlier in this trip, I was worried.
I passed Kilometre 0 just before 5pm and the road was quiet. I zigzagged across the road as I made my way up to Chalet Reynard. There were a few people descending but I only saw 3 other cyclists heading up. One of whom was pushing his bike.
I was having to give it my all to get up the hill, but that was enough. I stopped at the top in the clouds to take pictures before heading back down in the fading light to pitch my tent at a spot I’d eyeballed on the way up.
The route from here would have headed for the Alps, but I’d no longer got the time to ride there and get back in time for work. So instead a couple of days riding to Valence before getting the train and ferry back to the UK. 1700 miles would have to do.
Before I set out I didn’t know if I’d enjoy a big ride on my own, but I did. It was great making up things as I went along. I missed Tom’s company, but did speak to him most days.
A month later Tom set off on his 100 cols challenge. 20 days into the ride he had a blow out on his rear tyre whist descending one of the alpine cols. Nothing broken but lots of road rash he decided to save the rest of the ride for another time.
