Pyrenees on a motorcycle

Riding through the Pyrenees offers a mix of winding mountain roads, forest trails and open high passes with views stretching for kilometres. Over eight days and around 2000 kilometres, the two of us rode from the Mediterranean side to the Atlantic and back again. The westward leg followed the ACT Pyrenees, combining smooth tarmac with gravel tracks and remote mountain routes that rewarded every turn of the throttle. The eastward return took us over many classic Tour de France cols, with long climbs, sweeping descents and views that made every bend worth it.

The video below shows a few highlights from the ride. In the sections that follow, you’ll also find the full route, downloadable GPS tracks, and some notes on the roads, accommodation and lessons learnt along the way.

• The routes provided (and Google Maps) differ slightly from the ones in the video. Some roads were closed (especially in France) due to road maintenance.
• All main routes also have POI's included (gas, lunch, etc)
• Most main routes have some parts that can be skipped to shorten the ride.
• For most days, there are optional or additional routes available.
• Naming convention of the route files:
  • [day][sortnumber][a: alternative route, o: optional route] [from]-[to]
  • 10 Saint-Affrique - Roses.gpx: Main route for day 1
  • 11 Offroad Minerve.gpx: Optional offroad loop for day 1
  • 83 Shortcut no-TET (30 min).gpx: Shortcut in case you want to skip the TET part on the route
• If you are using a Garmin XT/XT2, please take a look at my articles or use my POI2PIC tool to create one GPX file per day, including POIs with nice icons.