Biarritz to St Jean Pied de Port (87kms)......
DAY ONE.
A cold start on a quiet September morning. Lots of early risers heading for breakfast (a few sore heads who braved a last magnum at Pascal's bar). Glorious sunshine so the factor 50 sunblock is on along with padded shorts and pink cycling top (our team colours, pink just to please the rugby boys!) - the group look amazing posing by the hotel pool for pre-stage 1 team photos. It's hard to recognise our lovely cyclists in helmets and shades - they look fantastic. Everyone's excited, chatting, swapping tips - mainly "Don't fall off". There's a few too tight shorts and lots of breathing in plus 5 missing toothbrushes, toothpaste, showing gel and hangover cure - you can tell there's a lot of testosterone on this trip.
10am, a short warm-up around the surf coast of Biarritz, brilliant blue sky. Amazing to see a big group of cyclists flying past in a pink pelaton. Lawrence was chivalrous and stayed with the girls and the group were all bravado on this early stage. The sea-view warm-up was non-eventful and the first stage proper got underway at 1pm with a send-off from the mayor of Biarritz representative and rugby stars from the Biarritz team. The French journalists also came to see what the fuss was all about. Rob crossed the start line with a puncture, Sam shortly after but both were rescued and sent on their way.
The team arrived in St Jean for a sprint finish and a local Basque band to welcome them to the town at dinner. French Fred awarded King of the Mountain shirt to Graeme, yellow tour leader shirt to Mark Angela, the white shirt to Rob Powell for "pumper of the day" as a result of his second puncture and the green jersey "gardening award" to Ana who couldn't stop and went straight into the forest.
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