Mike and Mark arrived slightly late on the Friday, having been delayed on their Paris stopover, which at least gave me time for a stunning cup of coffee, whilst I was waiting.
A quick al-fresco meal in the sunshine, and we all departed by bike for the 4.5km ride to the start village. The gite really was in a perfect location for the start, even if I can't take full credit for it's location having booked on a 'best guess of where the start will be' basis.
The Etape village was already buzzing in the afternoon sunshine, and registration achieved quickly, accompanied by a splendid (and unexpected) goodie bag, in the form of an Etape/Mondovelo backpack including an event T-shirt, many of which were in evidence over the next few days.
After a quick tour round the stands and the associated bike-porn, we decided a small ride, on a small roundabout-route ride back to the Gite for well deserved rest. I will profess to disappointment at this point. The personnel on the Trek stand were friendly and well knowledgeable, but refused what I thought was a perfectly reasonable request to test drive the top-of-the-range SSL road bike round the Etape course on the Sunday. Never mind. You can't win 'em all.
The 20 mile ride back to the gite revealed 2 things:
Firstly, the clock/thermometer on the local JCB dealership was showing 43 degrees centigrade! If that persisted on the Sunday, we'd be in trouble. We discussed the preferability of rain (be careful what you wish for)
Secondly, Pau is surrounded by 100-150 metre climbs that are not marked on maps.
Further proof that I 'don't do heat' was evidenced by having to visit the Intermarche for water on the way back. I had drunk more water in 20km, than I had in the first 50 miles of the Circuit of the Cotswolds. Rain was definitely preferable (be VERY careful what you wish for)
An early night, with limited beer/wine was had by all. Tomorrow was the Recce.
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