Actually slept really good last night. Woke up to some dogs barking but Len had given me some ear plugs - so I put them in and fell back to sleep. When people started to wake and move around in the morning I decided to get up too rather than lie there and listen to them as I sometimes do. So I got all my stuff packed up pretty quickly – had some breakfast – and was ready to go pretty early. Had plenty of time, wasn’t rushing at all, even did a little bit of stretching. And so a group of us clocked out together at the same time – Paul, Horst, Dennis, Adam and myself. I took a couple of bananas with me to eat while riding – I felt pretty good. Same terrain as before – busy roads and lots of kids shouting the usual “You, you, you …” along with “Where are you go?” Wasn’t really in the mood to chat to the kids too much today! We arrived at a hill that was a little steeper and longer than the previous ones and as I felt really good I decided to go up it pretty fast – I did and managed to drop Dennis ( he’s the person just ahead of me in the overall standings so I really wanted to try to gain some time on him). Down the other side and then another good climb – now there were 4 of us. I ended up at the front pulling for about 15 km to make sure the gap was pretty good. Then there was a pretty tough hill on the way to lunch so I backed off and Horst took the front – he went full speed up the hill – that hurt after all the pulling I had done!! But it was good to get to lunch and have a break. We all sat around for quite a while – enough time to actually eat our sandwiches ( I just had to keep an eye on them that they didn’t leave without me) – filled up my water bottles and then we left, before Dennis had arrived. We all rotated at the front about 5km or so each. Then Paul approached me and told me that he and Horst were having a day off – basically this meant they didn’t want to use up their energy pulling – it was up to us to do so. I didn’t really care about a stage win but I knew Adam did so the to of us agreed we would work together – Adam would have the win and I would gain some time on Dennis. So we worked together pretty well for a while. The rolling hills continued and the going was quite difficult but I was able to encourage Adam along. There was a good down section to about 110km followed by an unpaved section. Paul and Horst were out front but we had kind of agreed that it was Adam’s win – so I continued to try to egg him on – it was hard work and possibly the three of us could have sped up alone. I just wanted to finish at this stage. Anyway we got over the dirt and then there was a pretty tough climb when the end flag came into sight. There was a right turn with a little bit of off road and Adam was able to sprint to the finish! Well done Adam – Stage winner!!
It was a really nice camp in a forest with plenty of shade. I actually felt really good so set up my tent. I had been really hungry for the last 15 km of the ride today – just hadn’t eaten enough over the last few days with being sick. Now I am hungry and my legs are pretty dam sore – but I guess everyone’s legs must be feeling sore! Outside of my calves in particular! Got my tent up and then set about trying to eat as much as possible – Pringles, chocolate bars, soup – as much food and drink in me as possible! Then I had a lie down in my tent for a couple of hours while riders continued to arrive at camp. I rested till about 4 pm (we’d arrived at camp at about 12pm), then went to yoga which was followed by the rider’s meeting where we were told all about tomorrow’s time trial. 20 km all uphill – its going to be interesting. We had a really good meal of chicken and pasta (not quite as good as last time as the chicken pieces were smaller – but I got seconds so that worked out OK)
Earlier Bastiaan had turned up at my tent with a bench he had acquired, sat on it and managed to pull it apart – it was interlaced bamboo – so I spent some time helping him to put it back together again! After the meal we were all horsing around and he decided he wanted to burn it – however he disappeared so I have gone to my tent – I need to charge my ipod for tomorrow. The time trial is in reverse order – so Dennis, Horst and Paul will be the only ones behind me. So I should be able to catch up with some people ahead of me and hope that Dennis doesn’t manage to catch up with me – Paul and Horst might – in fact probably will!! It will be nice to have my music in and get a good rhythm, a good speed going. I tried to look today at what I thought that would be – I think if I can keep my heart rate to about 160 that should be good.
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