The phoney war

No, we haven't declared war on anyone, but setting off today for a very short ride and no major hills felt wrong after all the build-up. In fact the Raid Pyrennean officially starts in Hendaye on the Spanish border, only about 30 miles from Bayonne, so today was just getting us to the start. In fact three of the group have joined here, as it was easier for them to cycle to here than to Bayonne , while for anyone coming by train or plane Bayonne was the obvious starting point. We now have our full complement of 16 riders, 2 leaders and a couple who are jointly taking on the role of driver (normally a one man job). There wasn't any point setting off early so it was after 10.00am before the circus rolled out of town. The thing we found difficult today was not the distance, nor the traffic, not even the humidity - but riding with a group of complete strangers, whose speed and riding style was an unknown quantity. Luckily today was the only day we ride as a group, from now on we go at our own pace and meet up at a couple of points a day to check that nobody has got lost. It was pretty sedate as Lynn, the leader, guided us out of Bayonne at St Jean de Luz for lunch and then on to Hendaye for a swim in the Atlantic before turning left to ride to the Med for the second swim. Not having carried the appropriate gear we settled for paddling, pictures below. There would have been a picture of both of us except that the chap who offered to take it has taken a rather strange shot of shallow water, with nothing else in view! Don't think we'll ask him to take a shot of the two of us on top of the Tourmalet.......

We got to the hotel mid afternoon and looking along the outdoor corridor, where most of the rooms for the cyclists are located, all you can see is bike gear hanging off the wooden railing after being washed out with shower gel. Nobody seems to be taking things too seriously, which is reassuring, although there are some pretty fancy bikes in evidence. I would guess that we are about average age and possibly the only people who have never been on a CTC holiday before. There are three women doing the trip, plus the leader and the wife of the driver who came along to keep him company. One of these women was on the trip last year (she has flown in from Canada) and broke her pelvis in a fall on day 2. Apparently three people came off that day, which wasn't in the high mountains, so we will be taking extra care.

Hope you like the picture below of an advert in the LCL bank (they must sponsor the Tour de France as all the yellow jerseys have LCL on them) - perhaps I'll suggest it to the new Governor of the Bank of England when we get back. I think t he others are self explanatory. We are about 100 yards from the Spanish border here tonight and we were half tempted to ride down and cross over. However the road is dual carriageway and extremely busy so we decided to wait until we hit the border at a quieter point over the next few days.