🚴 Twickenham Dads Peloton 🚴 Grand Départ · Arreau · Hautes-Pyrénées

Pyrénées
2027

Eight cols · Three days · Thirteen dads with something to prove

Thu 10 — Mon 14 June 2027
383km (long routes)
10,692m of climbing
2,215m highest point
—days
—hrs
—min
—sec

…until wheels roll. Ample time to build the legs. You'll start Tuesday. You always start Tuesday.

Read this bit at least

The Plan in 30 Seconds

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Maratona 2026 is in the bag and the group chat got cocky. So: the Pyrenees, where the Tour de France goes to sort the contenders from the content. Big house, big BBQ, three genuinely enormous rides. Every route has a shorter option for the sensible, and every col has a café at the bottom for the wise. Nobody is judging. Everybody is judging.

  • Dates: Thursday 10 → Monday 14 June 2027 Confirmed
  • Riders: 11 confirmed + 2 unconfirmed — see the startlist below 11 locked in
  • House: 16-person gîte in Arreau, ~£1,100 total for 4 nights Being booked
  • Travel: fly (Lourdes/Toulouse) or drive/van from the UK TBC — travel group to follow
  • Riding: 3 days, long & short options each day Routes ridden & approved

You're in. Dates locked, startlist closed, no take-backs. The house is being booked, a travel group is coming, and there'll be small deposits to square up. Training remains, as ever, entirely your own problem — but the Tourmalet keeps receipts.

Jerseys allocated · No transfers · No refunds · No mercy

Official Startlist

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  • Sandy F Host · Directeur Sportif · rode all the routes so you don't have to trust Strava
  • Brendon S
  • Gavin P
  • Hugo K
  • James “Gizzy” C
  • Jim P
  • Neil S
  • Pete E
  • Stuart K
  • Will M
  • James L
  • Richard L Unconfirmed
  • Andrew Unconfirmed

Eleven confirmed, two still negotiating with the home office. The gîte has twelve beds — it sleeps sixteen, but only if people double up — so for now we're comfortably squared away. Tip past twelve and the second-chalet conversation starts, unless it turns out everyone's fond of sharing after a hard day's riding. And a hard night's riding.

Village Départ

Base Camp: Arreau

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The House

  • Large chalet gîte — 4 × double rooms + 1 × 8-bed room: twelve actual beds, sixteen people if the doubles get shared. The doubles go to whoever commits first; the snorers will find each other soon enough.
  • Big BBQ area for post-ride debriefs, in which gradients grow roughly 2% per beer
  • ~£1,100 total for 4 nights — split thirteen ways, that's less than the last set of tyres you didn't need
  • Twelve is the magic number — beyond that we look at the second chalet next door. Room allocation: a delicate diplomatic process, conducted entirely on WhatsApp.

→ View the gîte (gitesarreau.fr) Being booked

Food & Fuel

  • Carrefour in town, plus proper French village shops — butcher, patisseries, regional specialities you'll pretend to know about
  • Divvy up cooking across the 4 nights and eat like kings. Whoever takes night one sets the bar; whoever takes night four has to clear it.
  • Lunches are out on the road — a croque monsieur at altitude is half the reason we're going
  • 3 pubs, 2 restaurants. The restaurants are, officially, average. The patisseries are emphatically not. Budget your calories accordingly.

A Brief History of Arreau

Arreau (population 725, peak 1,593 in 1841 — everyone left before Strava) sits exactly where the Aure and Louron valleys meet, the Neste du Louron flowing into the Neste d'Aure in the middle of town. That crossroads position made it the historic capital of the Pays des Quatre Vallées and a proper market town: it grew rich on fairs and wool in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the Thursday market still runs today under the market hall — conveniently, we arrive on a Thursday.

  • Château des Nestes — 17th-century riverside château, once a commandery, now the tourist office and the Musée des Cagots, a museum about a mysteriously persecuted medieval Pyrenean outcast community. Genuinely strange. Worth ten minutes.
  • Maison des Lys — a late-16th-century half-timbered house with its facade carved all over in fleur-de-lys, protected as a historic monument since 1912. The lilies are said to reflect royal favour; nobody can name the king, which feels very French.
  • The town sits on a secondary Way of St James pilgrimage route through the Aure valley — so people have been suffering through these mountains voluntarily for about a thousand years. We're a tradition, not a midlife crisis.
  • The railway arrived on 1 August 1897, bringing spa tourists in search of restorative mountain air. It's long gone. You're the spa tourists now, and you've chosen a considerably stupider way to take the air.
The Transfer Stage

Getting There

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✈️ Flying TBC

  • Toulouse — BA from Heathrow, 1h45 drive. Much better car hire, including commercial vans (the great lesson of Maratona). The 7am LHR flight has us in Arreau early afternoon Thursday; a late Sunday flight home is also possible.
  • Lourdes — Ryanair from Stansted, 1h drive. Closer, but it's Ryanair with a bike box. Happily, Lourdes is world-famous for miracles.
  • Hire cars need to be big enough for bike boxes — book early.

🚗 Driving TBC

  • ~11 hours from Calais. Long, but the bikes travel assembled and nobody has to negotiate with a Ryanair gate agent about a bike box.
  • Option A: rent a big van from London with volunteer drivers.
  • Option B: car-pool road trip — leave Wednesday night after work, motel in northern/middle France, arrive Thursday late afternoon.
  • Return: Sunday night, or Monday/Tuesday for those who can extend the pass from home.

Once numbers are confirmed a separate travel group will be set up to coordinate all of this. Volunteer drivers will be showered with glory and first pick of the double rooms.

The Roadbook

Three Stages

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All three routes have been ridden and vetted by your host, so nobody gets to blame the map. They're long days, but with plenty of regrouping — after every major climb there's a designated lunch or drink stop, and nobody gets left behind. Routes can flex with the weather. The only non-negotiable: rolling by 9:30am. The mountains are indifferent to your hangover, and so is the lunch stop.

Stage 1 · Friday

The Tourmalet — Queen Stage

Arreau → Col d'Aspin → Bagnères-de-Bigorre → Argelès-Gazost → Luz-Saint-Sauveur → Col du Tourmalet → Hourquette d'Ancizan → Arreau

Straight in at the deep end: the most famous climb in Tour de France history, approached the classic way from Luz. Warm up over the Aspin, roll the valleys to Argelès, lunch, then settle in for 19km of legend. Home over the quiet, beautiful Hourquette d'Ancizan. Stage 6 of this year's Tour came through Arreau and straight over the Aspin–Tourmalet combo — Pogačar attacked 43km from the finish and soloed to yellow. We will be attacking the lunch stop instead.

Long 155 km · 3,895 m The full queen stage
Short 90 km · ~2,500 m Turn back at the top of the Tourmalet, home via Argelès-Gazost

📍 Strava route — Arreau → Tourmalet via Argelès

Stage 2 · Saturday

Lac de Cap-de-Long & Col du Portet

Arreau → Lac de Cap-de-Long → Saint-Lary-Soulan (food stop) → Col du Portet → Arreau

Two monsters that share a valley. First the road to the Cap-de-Long dam — a serious, spectacular climb to a glacial lake at 2,160m. If it's hot: lunch and a swim at the top. Then back down to Saint-Lary to refuel before the Col du Portet, the newest and arguably hardest summit finish in the Tour. Shorter day on paper. Only on paper.

Long 106 km · 3,122 m Both climbs, full menu
Short 74 km · ~1,800 m Pick your one monster

📍 Strava route — Arreau → Lac du Long → Col du Portet

Stage 3 · Sunday

Superbagnères & Azet

Arreau → Col de Peyresourde → Luchon → Superbagnères → Col d'Azet → Arreau

Over the Peyresourde to Luchon, then up to the Superbagnères ski station — the amphitheatre where LeMond and Hinault had their famous 1986 showdown. Coffee in Luchon, then home over the Col d'Azet, which is short, steep and entirely unreasonable for a final climb of the trip. That's why it's there.

Long 122 km · 3,675 m The full farewell
Short 101 km · 3,035 m Skip the Azet, retain the dignity

📍 Strava route — Arreau → Superbagnères → Azet → Arreau  ·  Alternative shorter day: swap in the Col de Peyresourde loop

Know Your Enemy

The Climbs

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< 4% 4–7% 7–10% 10–13% > 13%

Col d'Aspin

▲ 1,490 m

Stage 1 · From Arreau · The warm-up. Everything is relative.

335655678777701 m1490 m
12.4 kmlength 6.5%avg gradient 12.4%steepest 100m 802 mascent

🏆 71 Tour appearances since 1910 A first-Pyrenean-stage original. In 1950 spectators pelted the riders with bottles and stones here and the Italian team — Bartali included — quit the race in protest. The bar is low; just keep pedalling.

Starts from the front door, which neatly removes your last excuse. Gentle for 2km, then a steady 5–8% staircase with six hairpins. Worth remembering: this is the easy one.

→ Full climb details on climbfinder

Col du Tourmalet

▲ 2,115 m

Stage 1 · From Luz-Saint-Sauveur · The one you'll dine out on

477788887714 m2115 m
18.3 kmlength 7.7%avg gradient 11.7%steepest 100m 1,401 mascent

🏆 ≈90 crossings — the most of any climb in Tour history First crossed in 1910, when Octave Lapize pushed his bike over the top and called the organisers assassins. In 1913 Eugène Christophe snapped his fork on the descent and forged a new one himself in Sainte-Marie-de-Campan. Pogačar soloed over it to take yellow in this year's Tour.

18km at a metronomic 7–8%, exactly one merciful kilometre at Barèges, then a 9% ramp to finish. No tactics, no clever line, nowhere to hide — just you, your gearing choices, and the consequences of both.

→ Full climb details on climbfinder

Hourquette d'Ancizan

▲ 1,564 m

Stage 1 · From Campan via Payolle · The scenic way home

224434376–6664 m1564 m
22.5 kmlength 4.3%avg gradient 9.6%steepest 100m 966 mascent

🏆 6 Tour appearances — all since 2011 One of the Tour's newest Pyrenean roads: it didn't debut until 2011, mostly because nobody had bothered to surface it properly before. Quiet, beautiful, full of marmots.

14km of false flat during which you'll assure everyone you've recovered from the Tourmalet, then a 6–8% reminder that you have not. Features a cheeky mid-climb descent — a gift or a taunt, depending entirely on how your day has gone.

→ Full climb details on climbfinder

Lac de Cap-de-Long

▲ 2,161 m

Stage 2 · From Saint-Lary-Soulan · The one with the swim

24336877794846 m2161 m
22.2 kmlength 6.0%avg gradient 11.9%steepest 100m 1,318 mascent

🏆 0 Tour appearances — ever The only climb of the weekend the Tour has never touched, for the excellent reason that the road ends at a 100m-high dam holding back the biggest reservoir in the Pyrenees. No through road, no race. We're doing it anyway — it's higher than the Tourmalet, and if it's hot, lunch and a swim at the top.

Seven gentle valley kilometres to lull you into confidence, then a 10km core at 7–9% up to a glacial lake at 2,161m. A brutally serious climb dressed as a nice day out. Bring trunks; earn the swim.

→ Full climb details on climbfinder

Col du Portet

▲ 2,215 m

Stage 2 · From Saint-Lary-Soulan · The hardest thing here

8109108898819 m2215 m
16.1 kmlength 8.7%avg gradient 12.5%steepest 100m 1,395 mascent

🏆 2 Tour appearances — both summit finishes The Tour's newest monster: Quintana won its 2018 debut (the day Froome cracked), Pogačar won there in yellow in 2021. PJAMM rates it the second-hardest road climb in France — harder than the Tourmalet.

Opens at 10% and sees no particular reason to stop. One flat half-kilometre at the Espiaube hairpin — wave at it as it goes past — then relentless to 2,215m, the roof of the trip. Scheduled, with love, for the day after the Tourmalet.

→ Full climb details on climbfinder

Col de Peyresourde

▲ 1,569 m

Stage 3 · From Arreau · The commute to Luchon

321225778707 m1569 m
18.1 kmlength 4.8%avg gradient 10.0%steepest 100m 870 mascent

🏆 ≈70+ crossings since 1910 Part of the very first Pyrenean stage in 1910 — the Luchon–Bayonne 'Circle of Death'. In 2016 Chris Froome attacked over the top and descended into Luchon sitting on his top tube like a lunatic. Please don't.

Ten kilometres of cheerful chatting up the Louron valley, then seven kilometres of conspicuous silence at a sustained 7–8%. There is a crêpe shack at the summit. This is not a rumour, it is the entire plan.

→ Full climb details on climbfinder

Superbagnères

▲ 1,795 m

Stage 3 · From Bagnères-de-Luchon · The amphitheatre

255776869635 m1795 m
17.1 kmlength 6.8%avg gradient 11.2%steepest 100m 1,161 mascent

🏆 7 Tour summit finishes The stage where LeMond beat Hinault in their famous 1986 civil war, and where Robert Millar won in 1989. Back in the Tour in 2025 after 36 years (Arensman won, Pogačar in yellow). The gradient labels on the hotel switchbacks are printed on the road.

Irregular and sneaky — breathers at km 4 and 8 that lure you into spending matches, then an 8% run from km 11 and a 9% finish to the ski station. The views at the top are the second-best reward. The first is stopping.

→ Full climb details on climbfinder

Col d'Azet

▲ 1,580 m

Stage 3 · From Génos · The last word

88108668964 m1580 m
7.4 kmlength 8.3%avg gradient 11.5%steepest 100m 616 mascent

🏆 10 Tour appearances since 1997 Marco Pantani led over it on its 1997 debut. Next door is Val Louron, where Indurain took the first yellow jersey of his five-Tour reign in 1991. Short climb, long list of victims.

7.4km at 8.3%, as the final climb of the final day, with the first 4km all at 8–10%. Yes, it was put there on purpose. Complaints may be submitted to the management in writing, from the top.

→ Full climb details on climbfinder

The Evidence · 10–14 June, 2016–2025

What the Weather Actually Does

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No forecasting, no wishful thinking — here is what those exact five dates actually did for the last ten years running (50 days of data, Open-Meteo historical archive), down in the Arreau valley and up at summit level (~2,100m). Read it and pack like an adult.

🏡 In the Valley (705 m)

21° avg high · 12° avg low

  • Hottest trip-day: 31.7°C (2022)
  • Coldest daytime high: 10.9°C (2019 — grim)
  • Rain ≥1mm fell on 34 of the 50 days — mostly classic Pyrenean afternoon storms, not all-day soakers
  • Wettest single day: 31mm (2018)

⛰️ At the Summits (~2,100 m)

13° avg high · 4° avg low

  • It has been as warm as 22°C up top (2022, 2025)…
  • …and as cold as −9.7°C overnight (2019)
  • It snowed on 11 June 2019. Actual snow. In June.
  • Moral: pack the gilet and arm warmers even if the forecast promises beach. Descending 20km at 5°C in a summer jersey is character-building exactly once.

The Last Ten Editions

Average valley daytime high for 10–14 June each year. Roughly a 50/50 split between glorious and character-building. Feeling lucky?

201618.0°
201726.7°
201816.1°
201915.1°
202016.4°
202124.1°
202227.3°
202320.7°
202417.6°
202527.0°