75.6km – 9H59’
There are gusts of wind on the Basque Coast and diabolical traffic in Irun and Donostia San Sebastian. The team is put to a hard test before taking the highway in a tunnel. Serge turns around, Joël gets out to accompany him and René turns around further on. It’s Hell! Then all the way across San Sebastian Serge can be proud to have gone faster than the van, which crept along.
Serge meets several athletes who are not complete strangers because in 2007 he was present on the Mizuno stand during the city’s marathon. A cyclist even takes a card out of his shirt and asks Serge to sign it at the Igeldo pass. This steep ascent is the first difficulty of the day. From now on we have to choose between heavily travelled main roads and small, rough mountain roads.
From Orio to Deba the road we have laid out is easy; follow BI 634 which has sumptuous scenery, starting at Zarautz. Its promenade literally hangs onto the mountain because it is carved out of the rock and there is only room for a thin line of asphalt before it falls into the ocean.
We are still in the Spanish Basque Country, which is composed of 4 provinces (equivalent to French departments). Today we have crossed from one end to the other the province of Gipuzkoa. In the afternoon the wind dies down, clouds come over and sprinkle some rain.
I join the troops at Deba, after making a reconnaissance for tomorrow which does not correspond to our original plan. We are not familiar with the territory, which means that we have to adapt each day. This gives me the opportunity to say that there will be no road book until we get back into France, so there is no need to send me e-mails on the subject.
Tomorrow Serge will go through the cities of Ondarroa, Markina Xemein, Munitibar, Gernika Lumo, Morga, Larrabetzu, Lazama, and Sondika. Departure is scheduled at 7:30 which is beginning to be our habit. The GPS/GPRS beacon works abroad so it will be possible to follow Serge by clicking on the link SportTK or directly on the tab in the European Footrace file.
Philippe has left us and before his departure quite a few videos were finalized. See you soon.
Town : Mutriku