Today’s stage is billed as a ‘recovery’ stage. It is only 110km long and is flat and fast. Its weird to say that….when does 110k get to be a ‘short’ MTB ride? It’s a late start for me at 1032am and I take my time over breakfast. As hotel breakfasts go this one is pretty good. The later start also give me time to wake up to get an appetite going.
I wend my way to the bike park and get the beast ready for the day, select the GPS race route, check the bike over and fix the route sticker to the top tube to give me an idea of the course profile and where the water stops are.
Then off to the start and of course it is business as usual with the racing snakes and I let them charge off into the distance. With a big stage tomorrow(146k and 200M climbing) which caught me out last year, I am determined to go easy and save my strength. It’s a warm day with a tailwind so its not hard to keep a good tempo without working too hard. I am on my own for most of the day again except for a spell with ‘Big John’ from SA who is quite difficult for me to ride with as he doesn’t keep an even pace. Racing down the hills to get a run at the next uphill and then slowing down. He eventually gets lost in a town and I confess I am OK with that as I can concentrate on my own thing.
At 77K I catch up with one of the racing snakes who has blown. We know each other and I invite him to take a tow till he recovers. We stop in a town for a restorative coke and to fill up with water and who should appear but Al on the back of a train. I quickly load my backpack and chase after them and try to get a free ride home. It’s only 25k to go so if someone else is going to do the work, I’ll take a freebie :-).
I suck on my newly filled drinks system after a kilometre but disaster…. nothing doing….not a drop coming through :-( No point in riding on in this heat with a pack full of water but no way to get it out so I drop off the train and fix it. By the time I do so, they are a long way down the road and there is no way to catch up without absolutely flogging myself so I continue at solo pace. It’s an easy fast ride through olive groves and vineyards on ochre clay.
I cruise into the finish having saved as much energy as I could hope for. Al places 26th and I get 28th which is a big surprise to me. I’m not racing for a place but just to finish strong on the last stage. That’s what I keep telling myself anyhow :-)
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