Thanks Ray. The Basque country side is lower in overall elevation but there are heaps of extremely steep gradients. That's probably why the TDF doesn't go near it. They'd lose half the peloton in there.
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Originally Posted by Dennis
Some good footage there Marc, really capturing the amphitheatre formation. Did you ride up on one of the horses?
The segment with the folks crab walking back down the scree slope was quite telling in terms of how steep the ascent/descent was.
Cheers
Dennis
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Hi Dennis, when I was little they had donkeys and mules which I had fun with but I never rode the horses, no. If you get a horse to the hotel you can only stay 30min tops up there before the ride down or chose to walk.
It gets steeper as you get close to the rock face. So it just keeps going up and harder. By the time you're at the bottom of the fall it is a 45 degree angle down so you want to watch your step or you'll roll down the ebouli. My aunty is the one in the yellow hi-vis jersey. She's 73 and was showing us how to "jog" down hill at one stage.
Before we left the hotel I asked her if she would be ok to go up to the fall. She smiled and said "I don't walk fast but I don't stop either". When we were at the rock face I was 200m behind her and fell like I was missing a lung. I should know better than opening my mouth next time.