French Pyrenees
Road Biking in the Hautes Pyrenees
Cycling in the Hautes Pyrenees is all about climbing and is as good as it gets anywhere in France. It really is awesome. The routes are as scenic, and the climbs are as challenging as any you’ll find in the Alps, but without the crowds or the traffic! The Col du Tourmalet, Col d’Aubisque, Col du Soulor, Hautacam, Luz Ardiden, Col d'Aspin and the Col des Tentes. All these world class rides are easily accessible from Luz St. Saveur, plus many other fantastic mountain rides, such as the climbs to Pont d’Espagne or Gavarnie.
Mountain Biking in the Hautes Pyrenees
In and around Luz St. Saveur and Argeles-Gazost there are 73 VTT-FFC marked routes covering over 1,150km of mountain bike trails. These are cross country trails and its best to use a semi rigid XC mountain bike as there's almost always a lot of climbing! The trails are classified green, blue, red or black and vary in difficulty from flat trails running alongside the Gave de Pau to technical high mountain trails 50 km long with up to 1900m of climbing. Recreational Biking in the Hautes Pyrenees
It doesn’t have to be all climbing or hair raising descents. La "Voie Verte" or Greenway that runs from Lourdes to Pierrefitte is 18km long and is a smooth, flat cycling path that runs by most of the big campsites in Argeles Gazost. It follows the route of the old railway line from Lourdes to Soulom last used in 1992 and for a lot of the way runs alongside the Gave de Pau. The route is reserved for bikes, rollers and pedestrians. In May 2010, signs in Braille were added to all the information panels, and audio terminals in three languages giving information about the forested mountains, glaciers and the peaks of the Pyrenees that border the wide U-shaped Vallee d’Argeles-Gazost.