The first day was an early start, meeting at 7am for breakfast, i turned up slightly late having dipped myself under a cold shower as i had already been feeling the hotter nights than anything we ever get in ireland.
The bikes has been prepared the night before, a thanks to the Greek who spotted that my steering was bit losse, something id not have noticed myself. The sunday evening we struggled to find food, the town appeared bit quiet, and the french way of living was evident. Me and 3 others took a trip over the bridge into Spain, their was alot more going on their and was likely the place we should have gone.
Departed around 8.30, we made a detour to the local lidl for supplies before making for the coast and some photos before the official departe. The group rode for a while before breaking up after first stamping point, from here the pace went up as i rode with John Mc and Alan till we stopped for lunch and meet the two lads who had been up the road from us. Their has been some minor climbs before lunch but the fantastic road surface made them much easier than a similar climb in Ireland. After lunch all 5 of us worked together before we hit the days major climb the Col D'osquitch, the heat as we would become accustomed to after lunch was at its peak, i paced myself and ended up in mddle of the 5 man group, but good pacing found me up with the man up road, we stopped at the red road work lights before continuing making up the climb 2nd althou feeling the heat by the end of the climb.
After the climb the discussion on whether to do the nightmare Maire Blanc commenced, 12% at the top for near on 4km, and the day taking longer than we thought most of the 5 man group didnt fancy it, Laurence decided to opt in the best climber amongst us and the most determined and excellent at riding solo efforts. Fair deuce to him going and doing the climb he arrived 20mins or so after us, i worked with the group myself till just outside the town we would stop in for night and rolled in too cool down in final few km.
Having the french i sorted out our rooms, a strange setup for the hostel, a lovely location at the base of the next days climb, but the bunk beds side by side and the other room being size of prison cell didnt help the teams morale. That and having no plugs in the room relying on a plug downstairs. Plenty garmins and phones to be charged for the next day.
I got a path on the back as i broke 200km for first time on the run in to the final town. I had not been near 200km in a ride, but i had focused on back to back riding, and the 160km solo was probably as hard on the body.
The body that evening was average considering the calories we had expended, the lunch was better althou i dislike chicken on the bone having had it twice in a day i just had to put up and shut up. Sat up and chatted with the lads, chief amongst our discussions was what looked like one hell of a Wednesday ride.
Garmin Stats read:
203.1km covered
2,439m of climbing
4,603 calories burned
23km p/h moving speed
Avg Heart rate 128 max HR 166
The Atlantic not to be seen till we get back to ireland
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