We do like to be beside the sea side

Day 5 - Thursday 09/09/2010 - Biscarrosse to Biarritz - 81 Miles

Said goodbye to Wino's, left after most of the others with Tim F, Guy Raff, Barnaby and Andy Brown, we had a nice steady ride, sharing the pace and were then joined by Andy H, Jamie, Scott, Neil, Rob and Andrew G.

Ad hoc service break (:O)

The ride was again through the pine forests, again lots of long straight roads into a headwind, riding one behind the other, we picked up the pace and were averaging around 20 miles an hour, which proved a bit too much for Barnaby, who dropped off the back, with Tim F and Guy Raff slowing down to keep with him.

A few miles later we got to the first stop, to find the van had yet to arrive. While we were waiting, we found out at least part of Barnaby's problem, it seemed he had everything including the kitchen sink in his pannier !!

Barnaby with the knife, fork and spoon he's just taken from his pannier

The van did arrive, along with the rest of the group, where we found out there had been an accident, Steven Pipes had fallen cutting himself quite badly and even worse getting dirt all over his Inspired Living shirt. To compound things, as Steve was falling, Pam got entangled while taking avoiding action and ended up on the floor as well, although fortunately getting no injuries. This is the third time Pam's fallen and as one of the most experienced cyclists among us, she's getting a little embarrassed.

After the break, the same group set off, minus Barnaby but plus Tim S, the roads were still pretty flat, but slightly damp and then quite wet from recent rain, even though it was not actually raining we soon got soaked as we were picking up spray from cars and also off the back wheel of the guy in front, which generally goes straight into your face, not very nice.

We continued as a group, keeping a strong pace, until Neil took the lead, for the past few days he had been riding towards the back with his daughter Lizzie, now was the chance to stretch his legs and boy did he take it, we were soon averaging over 25 mph against a headwind, some of the group dropped off the back and I was just managing to hold on when Neil finally decided to let someone else take over and were dropped to a more reasonable pace.

Finally we were out of the pine forest and getting roads with bends as we worked towards the coast, although we did encounter a number of drivers who thought we should have been on the cycle paths (covered with gravel and leaves) instead on blocking "their" roads, we gave them a friendly wave in recognition of their honking as they passed by (:O).

The lunch stop was on the coast at Hossegor, we arrived just before the van, David and Hannah had more to do now Ian had left, but soon we were eating and then a number of the group decided it was time for a swim in the ocean, so off went Neil, Rob, Guy, Hannah, Andy H, Rob and Tim F, who had more than a bit of fun in some rather large waves - if they are big enough to know over Neil and Andy you know they are large!!

With the swim, lunch took quite a long time, even more so when a number of us decided we needed an ice cream before the final 18 miles to the hotel - choosing from countless choices also takes time - so it was not until around 4pm that we left, taking it reasonably easy until we got to Biarritz, where we had a few tricky moments weaving in and out of the traffic, but worked our way through and got to the hotel all in one piece.

We can now see the Pyrennes and the look big, tomorrow morning will be flat, but the we hit the hills, or rather mountains - we will climb from sea level to over 880 meters - a big step into the unknown for me and many of the others, but we are all enjoying ourselves immensely.