Le Loop 2023: Stage 3 Amorebieta-Etxano – Bayonne

Cycling summary

Breakfast: 05:30

Transfer: 45 minutes

Start time: 08:04

Distance: 187.4 km (we rode 195km to hotel)

Terrain: Flat, if 2,465 metres climbing is flat!

Climbs: 3 Cat 3, 1 Cat 4

Finish: 18:30

Time in saddle: 8 hours 37

Temp: cool 19-22 degrees

Drinks: 4 ish litres? Plus Grimbergen

Suffer score: 6

Local lowdown

Transition today from the Spanish Basque region to the French Basque region. They share a language which is unlike any other – certainly different to the Latin languages spoken in the regions that surround them. Around here, rather than someone carrying a baguette under the arm it’s more likely to be a surfboard. Surfboards 2, baguettes 0.

Tale from the Tour

While I’d rather be hot than cold as I said yesterday, today was cool which was probably ideal! With some light showers this morning and a shower after some brief sunshine it was properly British weather with decent Spanish and French roads. What’s not to to like!

A word on riding in Spain. Vehicles are required to give 1.5 metres clearance when passing cyclists. This is the same rule as in the UK with the difference that in Spain vehicles must now cross the centre line to make sure cyclists have that space (when it is safe to do so, of course). I don’t think that would work in the UK because our roads are so much more congested. I’ve observed that motorists actually do observe that rule. The quid pro quo is that the police watch cycling groups very carefully to make sure that we are riding responsibly, which I would say we have been doing as far as I know. But we are in France now, so we are free of the close supervision that we have experienced over these last three days.

After a long transfer west from San Sebastián, we rode to the coast and then back east towards – San Sebastián. For much of the morning we followed the coast.

A word on the categorisation of climbs. Legend has it that it is based on what gear a Citroen 2CV has to be in so as to be able to get up it. So if it can get up in fourth gear it’s a Cat 4 etc. For those climbs that are so hard that they are beyond categorisation (HC), presumably the car would blow up!

San Sebastián was indeed a very attractive town, even if some of the rest of what we saw further on in the ride was a bit industrial.

Finally made it into France, crossing from Irun in Spain to Hendaye in France.

We had a long ride between feedstops 3 and 4 – just over 50km. I was famished by the time I arrived – my energy levels were really depleted. But it’s amazing how stuffing my face with Pringles and cream cheese on bread and getting a Coke down me can change things. We still had 24km to go and since that is often my average speed I though it would take me an hour to complete. But I was flying now, and averaged 30km to the end in Bayonne. Gave me plenty of time to deal with all the essentials before a beer and an excellent dinner of steak and potatoes.

After dinner we had a presentation from Star Scheme, one of the charities supported by the William Wates Memorial Trust for which we ride on Le Loop. It’s a rugby charity based in Bristol and one of the leaders has come out with one of the young people that benefits from this. They will be riding with us tomorrow and we will be sure to give them as much support as they need.

A word on the opening three days. I’ve ridden four “Grand Departs” now and this has been by far the toughest. Normandy had long but flat stages (2016), Düsseldorf started with a 14km prologue and then a flattish stage (2017), meanwhile Brussels had a full stage followed by a time trial (2019) which is basically a relaxed ride where we can stop for coffee. I don’t even want to go back and got up all the climbing that we’ve done so far! Hopefully after a flatter day tomorrow this will give us good legs for the mountains on stages 5 and 6.

Suffer score the same as yesterday – some of the short climbs of 5% average gradient had cheeky sections of over 10% and I rode further than I did yesterday (the whole route this time!).