Last Minute Preparations

For the Etape we (The Guildford Peloton) had arranged to stay at a gitte belonging to a member of the Guildford Peloton. This had been arranged for some time. It turns out that there might have been a bit of misunderstanding and that the family that owned the gitte would be staying at the gitte at the same time. As there was to be seven of us and we would be arriving and leaving at odd hours we decided that we needed to arrange alternative accommodation. I got in touch with Benoit at the Hotel Colombet in Nyons which we had used for the reccie and he came back to me immediately confirming that he could accommodate us. A real stroke of luck as Nyons is ideally located 40 Km from the start and 45 Km from the finish (and on the day it proved very handy for the rider with stomach cramps who dived into the hotel for emergency relief before continuing the ride). Also, we had really enjoyed our stay at the Colombet in May, the food is exceptionally good, the hotel clean, and the staff very pleasant and accommodating.

Two of the lads were travelling down with me in my car. They dropped off their bikes at my house on the Thursday night so they could be packed before the early start we had planned on Saturday morning. One of the lads got a £50 parking ticket for having his wheels parked on the pavement whilst dropping off his bike.