Day 0 : Hendaye

First job today was to re-construct the bikes: tense moment as we opened the bike boxes and checked for damage. Fortunately all looked ok, and a quick ride round the Campanile car park was enough to confirm ...apart from my back wheel, which had gone slightly out of true. Probably not enough to be worried about, but one other guy (John) had already mentioned calling in at a bike shop on our test ride, so I decided to get this sorted out there too. Then I discovered that when I'd had my bike serviced recently back home, they'd replaced my cassette with a 12-25 instead of the 12-27 I had on it before ...depriving me of my granny gear ...which being a big bloke I need, especially on this trip! Cue grovelling to nice man in bike shop to true a wheel and whip the 12-27 cassette off a display bike as it was the last one in the shop! So here's a free plug for Cycles Goka in Irun!
We set off as a group of 6 for an afternoon spin to loosen up the legs after all the travelling, north along the coast road then heading inland and up some surprisingly steep little hills before a pleasant climb up the (relatively diddy) Col d'Ibardin (314 m). Refuelling then ensued at a cafe ...and then the rain started. Very wet & slippery descent, but once back on the coast road you got used to the warm spray of water from the wheel in front. Judging by the meteo, this is how it's going to be for the next few days. No danger of sunstroke, at least! Not sure how my cold will hold me up ...definitely felt less than 100% today although I was taking it deliberately easy.
A superb briefing by tour guide James in the hotel was followed by a veritable feast, stocking up on calories for the 160 km tomorrow. Then, attaching of official raid pyrenean event numbers onto bikes and dividing kit into van bag (for use during the day) and hotel bag for the evening.
I just want to get going now...