RIDING THE LITTLE YELLOW TRAIN

WORDS AND PHOTOS CHIPPS

I think it’s pretty common to look around at the uplift vehicle you’re in and wonder, suspiciously, how old it is and how many miles it has on the clock. After all, some of those Transits and Land Rovers have done a few journeys.

Today’s uplift system is over 100 years old and, while a little creaky, is still doing an excellent job of ferrying passengers from the lowlands up a rocky Pyrenean valley to 1,500m and beyond, almost to the Spanish border. Mind you, most uplifts take ten minutes or less. This is more like an hour and a half, but the tourists pay just to do it – and the descent is worth it. The views aren’t bad either.

RIDE THE CANARY

We’re on Occitanie’s Little Yellow Train in the Pyrenees-Orientales, a 100+ year-old electric railway system that ferries tourists, skiers and the occasional commuter from near sea level all the way up to the high plateau of the Cerdagne, at around 1,500m.

Although I’ve done this ride several times, my regular companion on every occasion has been Régis Terrieu, my riding buddy here in the mountains. Unlike the excited, camera-toting tourists on the train, he seems unfazed - bored even - by the epic mountain scenery and the truly impressive tunnels and bridges that make this journey (complete with our bikes in the guard’s van) possible. That’s because his day job is to work for France’s SNCF train company, and he’s the chief train controller at Villefranche-de-Conflent at the bottom of the hill and, therefore, often responsible for the ‘Le Train Jaune’ itself. So, in the 20-odd years he’s been working here, he’s done just about every job possible on the train in that time: driving it, taking tickets, and even the great job of knocking icicles off tunnel entrances with a shovel while standing on the front of the first train of a winter’s day.

However, when it comes to the ride ahead, he’s as excited as the tourists. In terms of terrain, it cuts a literal cross-section through the riding in this part of the Pyrenees and always serves as a ‘best of’ the riding here. Starting with the high evergreen forests and anaemic-looking grassy plains that spend most winters under snow, then traversing high open meadows before crossing over to the south-facing bedrock of the region, this ride is a great test of bike handling, traction and endurance over 45km. And even though we’re cheating with an uplift, we’ll still clock up a vertical kilometre of climbing on the way back down.