Another day at the office...Today's stage was easy by TR standards. Although it was long, there were minimal hike-a-bikes and the singletrack sections were pretty fast. There was a lot of fireroad riding that was on good, fast roads. Two big climbs, but nearly all rideable. We did have to ford a few creeks and rivers, one which was deep and swift enough that if Carey wasn't standing upstream of me, I think I may have been knocked over and my bike washed away over some waterfall downstream. I lost a full gel flask but found another one later on down the trail, which I picked up and ate the last shot of gel out of – yes, I was desperate! The last 30K was generally downhill with some rollers – mostly big ring stuff, but there was a brutal headwind. Carey was riding strong and was able to pull that whole last section, which was a good thing for me, since I managed to completely bonk about 2K from the finish. It came so suddenly too...my arms turned to jello and I've never had to work so hard to go downhill! Once we crossed the finish line, I proceeded to eat 3 peaches, a pack of clif bloks, and a clif bar – I was in a serious calorie deficit. Once our RV showed up, I tried to eat everything in it... Carey is the most efficient machine I've ever seen, as she can keep motoring along on the crumbs that I drop from all the food I have to eat. I wish we had drop bags so I could put a burrito and double cheese burger in there..maybe a pizza or two.
We gained another 28 minutes today on second place, so our lead is up to around 1:20. Three more days to go, so now we just need to ride smart and not have any crashes or mechanicals. We're hoping for a tougher, nastier stage tomorrow, as we tend to put more time on our challengers when there is more singletrack, climbing, and hike-a-bike. I'm sure we can probably find some of that..
I have a feeling we're going to be really strong (after we're done being tired) when this whole thing is over!
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