After the transfer to our first hotel from the Toulouse Airport area, it’s bike assembly time. Our staff will provide any needed assistance with bike assembly and tune-up.  Those who arrive early enough can catch the live television coverage of the Tour.

CYCLING – We should have time before our welcome dinner for a “shake-down” ride, for which we’ll provide a map/itinerary covering some of the nearby country roads.

Here is what we did

Because most of us assembled out bikes yesterday, we kicked back and waited until the "shakedown ride" was to start.

The "shakedown ride" was a short ride with some nice steep climbs and some nice flats. The bike does well as expected and for all but the steepest bits we stay up with the others. We stopped for one break and we had a bit of time getting started because I left the drag brake on. That put us behind the group but we managed to reel in the tail of the group on the way back to the main highway we had crossed on our way out.

Various pics of the day...

Here we are checking in with the Velo Sport Vacations folks

Bikes being assembled outside

This is the bus we will be traveling in and the inside of the trailer the bikes will travel in

In this picture we are waiting for the last few folks to arrive before we depart to Carcason. While we wait the team busses and vans arrive!

But these guys aren't waiting... They got to prepare the time trial bikes for tomorrow!

I'm in heaven... There must be $100,000 in bikes in this van alone!!! Note the stack of gear clusters on the two rods to the right. The stack goes behind the board all the way to the floor of the trailer!