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Are we all paying attention! |
Well day 1, came too soon! Showered, packed day bag, made water bottles, packed luggage went for breakfast. Obviously I ate as much as possible although full from last night. The vans were packed and we had the daily brief.
Today was a 183km (114 mile) trek from Hendaye to Arudy, with 3 not so big big Cols to tackle, but a long day in the saddle.
We rode out from the hotel and followed the vans to the beach for the ceremonious, toe in the Atlantic Ocean. Pictures were taken to mark the event.
The group rolled out from the beach, after all taking great care to remove every grain of sand from the feet....blisters would have been a killer! All in one group, Me and Al taking the lead with a lot of banter from behind. We rolled over the first couple of cols pretty easily really, it was great weather and cracking views. the pace was steady, everybody was probably thinking of what lay ahead. But all taking turns at the front.
The group got split up on the way to morning tea stop, us in the front group took a couple of wrong turns ending up arriving at Espatel after everyone else. Espatel was a nice town but only had enough time for coffee, carnet stamp and full the face with Carbs.....Carbs...Carbs.
St Jean Pied du Port was the lunch stop after about 80km. I had cheese and ham baguette while others took the lead in the face filling, with a large plate of steak and chips, in hind site so should I (more on that later).
The first reported real climb by the Marmot guys was the Col du Osquich at 495m high, this was where the sizing up would starting, a few guys going out the back early on under the testosterone fuelled battle with Al, Dave and the twins (later nicknamed 'Arenaceous twins') , the first few km were more or less like this, getting near the top we strung out a little. We stopped at the top and got some refreshments from the vans. The weather was brilliant and I tried to stay in the shade a bit.....conserving energy. We had a bit of a break at the lay-by to replenish bottles and more bananas and cake bars.
Heading off in a large group, we separated to smaller groups after a few Km's. At one point Dave had a very luck escape........think we all did, he was at the front! Dave was chatting to someone and got a bit boxed in against the curb, wasn't really paying attention and went up a drop curb and jumped down the curb. Luckily for him it was a drop curb!
As we got towards Arudy we were a small pack I think it was, Me, Al, Dave, Paul, James and Emyr. Going up the last hill I thought the pace was a bit high so me and James got dropped only 5m or so. A couple of cars split us and that was a disaster on the decent! They were going too slow for me to catch the others.
Dilemma now was to work my ass off and catch the front group or back it off and ride with the others which I had no idea how far away they were. I saw them in the distance, I was going hard and not catching. They had decided to try and drop Paul(Audacious twin) no doubt.
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Last Train Home! Soon enough I caught him on his own, a long way from home we decided to work together to catch them.................flat out taking turns Team Time trial style. We were working far too hard for day one, but we were having way too much fun. A couple of times I sat up and said F**k It, we were gaining none, but Paul laughed and took his turn raising the pace again! We got to the junction in the next town with no sign as we passed the junction we saw the others (Al, Em and Dave)........we had caught them. They couldn't believe it, they had been on the back of the Steam Train Emyr, and we had caught them. At the next turning into the forest Paul was wacked and couldn't stay with the group. I felt bad but had worked my ass off to latch on and wasnt going to loose the train home if I could help it! |
The remaining Km's to Arudy continued at a fair pace all taking our turn at the front, it climbed all the way through a poorly surfaced road through a hilly forest. I was glad to see the town! We stopped at Carefour for post training nutrition.....Milk.
We Found the hotel after a few 'D' tours....had a few of them that day........and like Chris Lord said at morning tea its like the squirrel and the........'hedgehog'?I said.......that's the one!( you know the story?)
Got our bikes stowed away up the street and tucked in to some nibbles provided by Marmot Tour guide Alan, Nathan was still out with the others. Within minutes the rest of our group arrived. Rutty bought the first round...........always a big one, cheers Paul. Had time to get showered and changed ready for Dinner at 8pm, starving, tired...loving it.
I had some trouble getting money out of the ATM twice today, being super organised, I had only got 100 Euro exchanged from home.' I'll be OK I'll just get money out from the ATM'! Phoned the bank to try and resolve the issue.........just what you need while everyone else was beneath our bedroom window having beers. Al lent me some money, Thanks Al, I still couldn't get cash out. Lesson Learnt.
Food was good, I felt very rough at dinner time, I struggled to get it down. I knew I needed it, I blame this on the lack of food during the day. Only having a Ham and Cheese baguette and some bananas on the first day of the raid not the best idea, then again going Chain gang stylee with Paul to try and catch Dave, Al and Em up wasn't either!
Plenty of banter and Early to bed, well 10pm. Too full and tingly legs, oh and The chiming town clock tower was not a great recipe for sleep.
