Finally! The first day of riding. But first, we needed to drive 340 km from Toulouse to Hendaye. We wake up to find the bikes still on top of the van. I also had to install the chain, but that took all of 10 minutes.
Dave, Robin, and Terry drive to airport to register Robin and Terry as drivers for the van. Dick and I walk to Carrefour for day’s supplies. We tried to find an inexpensive cooler to use for food on the road, but no luck. I guess coolers are not readily available in September in France. Oh, well.
On the road, finally…. It starts to rain and we drive in rain most of way to Hendaye on the Atlantic coast. We all hope the rain doesn’t continue for much of the trip. Fortunately, once we near the coast, sky clears up. It turns out to be sunny and very warm for rest of day.
At a rest stop on the way we find a rather interesting bit of ‘art’ honoring the Tour de France:
At Hendaye beach, we eat lunch, mount up and we’re off at 2:45, finally. It is customary on trips that start and end near water or beaches to ‘dip the bike wheels’ in the water. The rear wheel is dipped into the water at the start and the front wheel is dipped into the water at the end. I don’t know the etimology of this custom and a quick search on Google didn’t reveal anything.
Unfortunately, the water of the Atlantic is about a kilometer away from the beach boardwalk at Hendaye. In the essence of time (it was getting to be about 2:30 and we needed to cycle 80 km that first day, yet) we decided to just hold our bikes on the boardwalk wall and take pictures of those poses in lieu of the traditional wheel dipping.
That’s me (Russ), Dick, Terry, Robin, and Dave. Robin sagged the first half of the day.
And we’re off! The traffic was horrible for 3/4 of the route that first day. The hills were also relatively tame. Just some little climbs and great descents.
I forgot how fun descending was. Yeah!
Sure enough, we get just a bit lost…. But hey, it’s France; there are worse things in life than getting lost in the French countryside. Actually Dave took a wrong turn leading the pack. We weren’t really lost, we just took a side trip….
After a mostly uneventful day on the road, we finally roll into St Jean-Pied de Port at 6:30. The hotel was actually inside the old walled city which made for interesting logistics getting the van unpacked and the bikes into the garage. The route through the old city to the hotel had to be on cobbles, of course. I think that is my first time cycling on cobbles.
Our hotel is up the cobbles and on the right. I think Dave actually got the van through this entryway and unloaded the van at the hotel door.
At dinner we enjoyed the company of a small group from England — they were (motor-)cycling through France and had just a couple of days left in the jouney. We shared a Scotch (or two) and talked about our respective endeavors.
End of day 1. Statistics:
- Start: Hendaye
- End: St Jean-Pied de Port
- Distance: 83.5 km
- Climbs: Col de St. Ignace, Col de Pinodiéta
- Total gain: 414 m