Ern at Tourmalet

Our one and only disappointment on reaching the summit of Col du Tourmalet was that the iconic statue of the cyclist was missing. We discovered later that it is taken down before each winter and it had been removed the previous week.

This is the statue




Tourmalet was Ern's 'highlight' climb and he had long held an ambition to climb the Col and have his photo taken in front of the statue so he was particularly disappointed.

However, always the innovator, he risked life and limb (well limb at least) and made his own statue and subsequently produced one of the iconic photos of our tour




Seriously, climbing up for this photo was a challenge, wearing cleats and on a damp and slippery surface carrying his bike. And getting down again was even more difficult.