Base Camp Clayton le Woods here, ... the bike has been readied for flight, the panniers are packed, and the excitement is building. David and I are flying out tomorrow pm and we're looking forward to meeting up with Andy and Al for the 6th episode of bonhomie, banter, and baguettes, ... oh and a bit of cycling ... well, 530 miles of cycling in fact ... ooo errr ... JPS (hacker)

A momentous day leaving Spain and crossing the border at Hendaye. Immediately to get fleeced by the French for a cold drink. We have become used to laid back Basque seaside towns with cheap food and friendly people and I have to say the riding has gone downhill as well. From yesterday's perfect ride we have today blasted along dual carriageways for mile after mile in 37 degree heat with wagons blasting their horns at us constantly. Not a good days cycling but th...

Lomax has taken over the blog responsibility as Bowden has once again not prepared for uploading with his out of date phone. Typical. He has been too busy training as is evidenced by his arse disappearing into the clouds whenever a steep climb appears. The title of the blog is very appropriate today as , if you could describe a perfect day cycling , today would be it. 65 miles of climbing and utter magnificent scenery. Imagine the Italian Job or an Aston Marton...

We are seasoned veterans now, adept at getting on and off aeroplanes with bikes, disassembled, packed, scanned, transported and reassembled. All arrangements worked superbly, suddenly we were at Bilbao airport facing a ride in the sunshine. After five previous trips such as this one I tend to believe Alan if he tells me something. Big mistake! He predicted an easy 20 mile bike ride to our first hotel stop. In the early evening heat, with the thought of a pint of...

Well here we go again........another pensioners outing to France ahead of us and 13 days of intrepid cycling , drinking and cake eating to look forward to. Hopefully the England football fans will have moved on and a bunch of 4 rowdy cyclists will raise hell in western France. ( maybe not ) I have been worried about Andy`s intense training again this year so embarked on a massive weight loss and bulking up regime as you can see from the photo of me on the bike r...