Stage 2
So we’re done Stage 2, fed and watered and showered. Bikes washed, checked and lubed. I wish I felt as good as my bike looks! The weather was great to ride a 71 km ride. The first half was climbing…again, naturally. We were up at the tree line by the time we were done. Then an insane downhill for almost 30 km! There were some areas that were ridiculous and with the number of riders, there tended to be bottlenecks where there were a bunch of riders, on, off the trail and in the bush…yard sales everywhere. Because Jonny was in the front 20, he missed most of the bunged up issues. The day finished off with logging roads and I had way too many Euros passing me. They’re a breeze to pass on the technical singletrack but they spend way to much time on the road back home. Everybody’s real nice (mostly, with a few primadonnas) and the flow goes good. Jonny did real good again with a 12th place finish. With the UCI accreditation this year, he’s surrounded by racers doing this as part of their point tallies. I’m squarely in 23rd, I think out of a field of 75 in my category left. I felt considerably more beat up today with the stage more than twice as long as yesterday’s. Tomorrow’s another epic day with all the heavy duty climbing near the end, about 40 km into the ride. There’s this thing called the Continental Divide and apparently we’re going to hump over it. Here we go. I hear the weather is epic back home. Makes me think that rain (60% chance for tomorrow) might be better for biking than what you’ve been getting. See ya later.
