Climbs near Pau??

[Tangled Tango]

I am returning to the Pau-Lourdes area for the Tour 2010. Anyone know of any good climbs in the immediate vicinity of Pau, not including the Col d´Aubisque. I´ll be in Lourdes until the Pau stage, so I´ve got the Lourdes area covered. I usually like to get 30 or 40 KM before a big climb. I suppose heading in towards the Col d´Aubisque I´ll hit something, but if anyone has any helpful thoughts, I´d appreciate them.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Anonymous]

There's a few down in the Parc National des Pyrenees region. The ones listed on iCols are:

Col de Marie Blanque (9.4k, 7.5% average)
Col de Couraduque (16.6k, 5.1%)
Col du Soulor (2.6k, 4.4%) (a 2.6k "Col"? Pah!)
Col de Spandelles (15.5k, 6%)

 

[Big Ring]

I think you will find all the info you need here.

http://www.velopeloton.com/cycling/

 

[Big Ring]

Col du Soulor (2.6k, 4.4%) (a 2.6k "Col"? Pah!)

Yea but it is 21km from the east or 12 from the north, great climb. From Lourdes ride up the valley to Argeles and then over the Spandelles and the Soulor, the combination of these two is a real killer, you will have 2000m of climbing in less than 40km, then over the borderers or Le Tech or Lac d'Estaing and then up Hautacam and you will wish never to see another mountain as long as you live!

 

[Tangled Tango]

There's a few down in the Parc National des Pyrenees region. The ones listed on iCols are:

Col de Marie Blanque (9.4k, 7.5% average)
Col de Couraduque (16.6k, 5.1%)
Col du Soulor (2.6k, 4.4%) (a 2.6k "Col"? Pah!)
Col de Spandelles (15.5k, 6%)

Unfortunately none of these are closer than around 45 km form Pau. I checked http://www.velopeloton.com/cycling/ and they didn´t list anything closer, which leads me to believe there may not be any decent hills within the immediate proximity of Pau. Thanks for the list.

 

[Big Ring]

There aren't any climbs closer than 30km to Pau. You will really need to do a 100km to 150km trip to get at the big ones.

Distance from Pau to start of climbs.
Col de Marie Blanque 50km
Col du Portalet & Aubisque 38km
Lac de Bious Artigues 52km
Somport 60km
Pierre Saint Martin 57km
Soulor & Spandelles 42km

There are lots of climbs to the west of Pau in the Basque country but I am not familiar with these but they are minimum of 150km round trip.
This is what the Pyrenees look like from Pau.

 

[jamesx]

I show the tougher, western side of the Marie-Blanque to be about 43km. The easier, eastern side is only about 30km. The 7.5% average of the western side doesn't sound bad but the first 4km are rather easy. The last part is tough.

From the north, the Soulor starts about 29km from Pau but it is very easy for 10km. The actual climbing starts at about 39km. That is also, roughly, where the Col de Spandelles starts.

Like Big Ring mentioned, a Spandelles/Soulor loop would be good. You could also ride the Spandelles into Argeles-Gazost, the climb the Col de Borderes. The Borderes sort of parallels the first of the Soulor but the profile looks a little tougher. Then, the Borderes rejoins the Soulor when it starts to get steeper in Arrens.

There is also the Col de Castet. Starting in Louvie-Juzon, it is only about 26km from Pau. It is not a particularly big climb and does not go anywhere so it is just and up-and-down climb. It goes up 452m in 7.7km but the first 3km are very easy. The last 3.5km though are 9.3%, 10.5%, 12% before easing off to 5% for the final half km.