| Riding, Km | 81.9 | Total Km | 89.1 |
| Altitude, m | 864 | Altitude, m | 864 |
| Average, kph | 19.3 | Max, kph | 50.5 |
6:30am, the day of truth. I lay there wondering if I really wanted to do this or not. At 7:00 Patrick and Hugh rattled our door but Paul and I just lay there ignoring them. It worked and they went away. Eventually we got up and started packing finishing at 7:30. We opened the door and I went and looked for Patrick and Hugh. When we came back down stairs we discovered that the bike room door was locked, damn, he he he. Alas the owners came by a few minutes later and unlocked the door.
We loaded the bikes and a short time later rode into Hendaye looking for the nearest patisserie for breakfast and to get our starting stamp (a tampon humide). I bought a half baguette (demi-baguette) and got my stamp. We are now committed, no longer a DNS for not starting we now risk a DNF for not finishing, can’t have that. So feeling some trepidation I started on my baguette and about half way through it I ran out of jam. I was sitting there outside the patisserie with the jar upside down, scraping the last dregs out of the jar when one of the ladies from the shop appeared and gave me a free jar of jam. She smiled wished me a “Bon Journee” and rushed back inside to serve her customers. Wow, what a way start the ride. How could anything go wrong now. As I sat there with my new jam finishing off my baguette a customer came up and asked us (in English) if we were doing the Raid. He then explained that he had done it a few years earlier and had enjoyed it, although it had been hard in places, it was well worth it. This was even more enthusing, now all we had to do was the ride.
Well we’d spent enough time siting around so it was time to set off. We rode to the beach and got almost a kilometre before we decided we had to stop and take a photo. Finally, at 8:50am, we were off. It was overcast and pretty miserable weather but it was good to be off at last. There were a number of rolling hills on the way from Hendaye to Ciboure and we all split up a little as we rode along the coast. Once at Ciboure I remembered from the route notes that there was meant to be a bike store here. So Paul & I stopped at the Tourist Information centre and asked how to find it. Good thing we did. When I was in France for PBP in 1995 I hadn’t found any stores that sold Powerbars or the like, so this store turned out to be an amazing find. I bought 6 Powerbars, 4 Maxim bars and a Turbo bar (a good ) and a replacement gear cable for the one Hugh gave me. Awesome!!!
Feeling really good as we set off!
Index Preparation Day 2