As title, just wondering if anyone fancies cycling across the pyrenees next summer. No fixed plans as yet but it’ll be sometime July/August. Vague plan at the moment is go on the spanish side. Start in Catalunya and finish in Hondaribbia. I live about an hour from Hondaribbia.

Any suggestions are welcome too.

Road or Mountain?

It’s something I want to do one day, but by road…..

Mountain.

How techy is it?

Are we talking full on touring or just taking a change of clothes and a credit card?

No idea about techiness yet. I know the GR route is too techy to be worth riding all the way. My plan was to use the refuges, so, clothes and credit card. Just starting the research now, plenty of people have done it, so I’m sure I can steal a route from somwehere.

Ah, I’d love to do it, but I’d be another ‘road’ rather than ‘offroad’ rider …

Bilbao to Barcelona via the Pyrennes … two amazing places for art and architecture linked by some fantastic mountain cycling 🙂 Definately on my wish-list to do soon.

Sounds like a great idea.
How long do you think it would take?

to the OP – do you look like this? these things are important……

After enough beer, yes.

Thinking about 2 weeks for the trip.

. I know the GR route is too techy to be worth riding all the way

Are you sure, did some of it with Switchbacks in southern Spain and if it continues on the same kinda level it’d be mint!

Put me down as a maybe either way, I’d prefer to winch my Pitch to the top and do some amazing decents rather than ride XC the whole way though. I did actualy ponder at some point doing a kind of DIY uplift/all-moauntain holliday. Get taxi/train/whatever to the top of the valley via the shortest/steepest route then ride allong/down into the next one, ride up the other side, down the next one, stop for the night, repeat on the next day, etc.

I’ve done some of that GR route in southern spain and yes it’s decent riding but my internet research so far says taking a bike on the Pyrenees GR route is just making it a more difficult walk.

Sounds very interesting, you don’t fancy the Transpyr “race” then? 1st week of July. Done a fair amount of riding in the mid-eastern Pyrenees around Vielha, Val d’Aran, Andorra and Sierra de Cadi. If we can’t make it, I can certainly give you some route info although most can be found on Wikiloc. It would have to be end of July- early Aug for us as wife is a teacher. E mail in profile if you want to progress, I think you gave me some Alfine gen earlier in the year.

We’re doing the Transpyr first week of July.

http://www.transpyr.com/2012/en/02.html

Roses on the Med to San Sebastian in 8 days. First 4 stages are going to be brutal (about 3000m of climbing and 115km a day) but looks easier in the second half (when we will be knackered).

Have a look on their Twitter feed and Facebook page, lots of photos and good videos.