Pyrenees – crossing the border

Was going to post this on a roadie site but seeing as there are other road route threads…

I’m planning a road tour for next summer in the central Pyrenees – near the Ordesa national park. Anyone here got experience of riding across the French/Spanish border on the A138-D173 or A136-D934? There is a tunnel at the top of the A138-D173 which looks ‘interesting’

Not specifically but my experience of European borders ranges from a few booths you may get stopped at to not even knowing I’d crossed the border. What is your concern?

really just whether these are OK routes for riding without too much traffic / danger from tunnels etc. From the maps I cant see much in the way of civilisation up there. Dont want to drag my 15 year old over somethong too big or dangerous

fair enough but on the last point carry passports for the way back….

actually I dont even know if these climbs have specific names

borders? booths? getting stopped? French/Spanish border is Schengen isn’t it? so it’s about as tricky as crossing between England and Wales or Scotland.
Can go from Spain to Estonia with effectively no border control.
Andorra may be different?
Carry the passport so you can get back in to UK after the trip is over.

Tunnels sound potentially interesting/dodgy though.

Any road between France and Spain is likely to be busy.

The Bielsa tunnel on the A138-D173 is 3km long. I wouldn’t ride a bike through it, I’m not even sure it if is allowed. Google image it, you will see what I mean. I think the climb up to the tunnel from the french side is about 20km.

The A136-D934 goes over the Col du Portalet. Not a particularly tough climb, but the col is at 1,794 m and the climb is almost 30km long from the French side.

Generally no border controls between France and Spain, but you do get the odd Customs road block.

The A136-D934 goes over the Col du Portalet. Not a particularly tough climb, but the col is at 1,794 m and the climb is almost 30km long from the French side.

The Quebrantahuesos sportive goes over there, done it twice now. Lovely ride, that’s a long climb though if you’re not used to it!

There might be a bored looking Guardia Civil or Gendarme at the top, but I doubt it. If you enter Spain you need to be carrying your passport anyway, but it’s very unlikely you’ll be stopped at the border.

Edit: incidentally, the 40km descent from Somport to Escot is superb, particularly the first 10km or so. Very fast, beautiful scenery, and lots of fun. Well worth doing.

I did it on a smaller road in 94, I think there was a booth or something, that’s all.

Small road so little traffic.

Now looking at the above, I think it’s the Col de Portalet!

Try the Col du Portillon – very quiet when we went over in late September

There is a tunnel at the top of the A138-D173 which looks ‘interesting’

I wouldn’t want to ride a road bike through a (long, mountain) tunnel – it’ll be flat, smelly and dull. YMMV.

Nice video from when we rode down it in September to quell the myth that any road is likely to be busy 😀

Col Du Portillon descent into Spain

Brilliant info – thanks guys. So it’s the Portalet – I can get the gen on that. The vid looks great. – you made an impressive thing of passing everything you came across:-). We will have to do some more thinking about the road with the tunnel

Driven the formigal crossing loads. There is one tunnel which isn’t too long but wouldn’t be nice. Maybe that can be bypassed. Other than that it looks stunning. The road from Biescas to Ordessa has been largely superseded by a new road and must be lovely too. Dont know if that is any help at all.

It wasn’t me doing the filming unfortunately, but I was the last person he caught up and I stayed with him once he’d passed 😀

Went through that tunnel on a motor bike and was terrified. Narrow, badly lit, running in water and full of huge lorries which seemed to be on your side of the road. Not a good bike route! The cols around however are great.