What better way to start the Grande Traversée des Pyrénées than from the summit of one of the Tour de France?s giants. In prologue format, this fairly short first stage allows us to familiarize ourselves with the Pyrenean terrain.
A short 150m climb on the bike, with a bit of pushing at the end, and the route plunges for 1300m of D- in the direction of Laruns in the middle of the summer pastures, alternating technical passages on the beautiful Andreyts ridge, fast crossings on the slopes to finish on the cheerful bacous (ancestral paths) that link the villages of Aas and Assouste to Laruns.