Had a great breakfast and felt pretty rested, I did steal a bun with cheese after much back and forth in my head. Some other boys was already in trouble with the very strict server. I only took one small bun and felt bad for about one minute, and great at halfway point when I had my little treat.
Women under 40 and some older men had start time at 811am. I got my bag down and as I was walking I hear my cleat screw bouncing. It came off at the perfect time, easy fix. Got my bike and road the parking lot in a little bit of rain until the start. Only my self and one other girl showed up, I guess the other decided to go with the masses.
Start felt good, did my own pace and the first hill felt good. Only 132 km left! To short it up the body felt good, hills feel a bit heavier with the 29er, just don't have the spin gear so I'd push them a bit harder but try to pace my self. The weather was on the cooler side with some light to superheavy shower on and off which should suit me better than the 30s and sun! I was a bit concerned about my gps and my phone which both can lead to penalties if not used right. The phone I didn't turn on until I was just started and then it asked for pin, so it was on but I didn't have the pin for this pay as you go Portuguese phone but the rule was to have it on and that it was. Secondly we have to use record the track as we go but I didn't see that happening, so I could have ridden 142 km and got it counted for nothing. But it turns out my color was the same as the track so all good. Both those issues was quickly forgotten around 25 km. 4 big locally bread hurding dogs came running and barking at me, and one of them got my leg pretty good. I road as fast as I could to get away and when they gave up I had a look at the damage. It didn't seem too bad, not much blood. Checked in once in a while and it change a few colors but seemed ok to ride the race. We road through some amazing places, all sorts of terrain, we had all sorts of weather, I had a dead gps at cp1 (fixed with spare batteries), a few meters from lighting strike, roman cobble climbs, nice cafe stop for juice and pee break in one of the many old towns, lubed my chain 3 times, I think we agreed that there was indeed less poop puddles than AB, so all in all a lot of experience for the bucks! I truly enjoyed the day, could have done without the hospital visit and four stitches but that's part of the game sometimes. I will try agIn tomorrow but it'll be hard to top this one, after a quick check in with the race doc.
Craig, Jon and Erik all seemed to have enjoyed today's ride with some good stories to share as well.
Tomorrow:
110 km
2892 m elevation
group start 10am
My start not sure yet, but around 920 they say
Time to get some sleep! Oh Eriks blog... Bikkingbakke.blogspot.com
Happy racing!
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kate aardal
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Sent from my iPad
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