Not the best nights sleep - would wake up hot and then not manage to go back off again! I was very slow getting myself organized this morning - was finally ready and was the second to last person to leave camp. Which I didn't really mind. I knew Paul and Horst had left 7 minutes before me so my goal was to make up that 7 minute a.rode pretty good and soon passed about 10 riders but then I got confused as the route - there were a lot of left/ right turns - we were meant to have seen flagging and hadn't seen any! Went down one track and then realized there were only two tire tracks in the dirt and there should be about 50 riders ahead of me! So I stopped and a couple of riders came up behind me - we discussed it and decided to go back - found a route that looked like it had more tracks so headed down that. I left the other guys behind again. Didn't see anyone else and there were twists and turns all over the place. I was trying to follow the tracks but there were times when it seemed that 10 went one way and 10 the other - all,very confusing! Quite a few locals tried to point me in the right direction. Finally after about 29 km I saw some other riders - turned out to be Tori, Paul, Horst and Adam - we rode together for a while trying to figure out if we were in the right place or not. Then we saw Dennis ahead - and he was the one person who had left camp after me!! He obviously went a different way and sure enough he had indeed seen lots of flagging! He had covered 27 km to my 31!! Bit of a pain.
Anyway I started to speed up and expected Paul and Horst to follow but they didn't. I didn't push myself too much and rode into lunch alone. I had a quick lunch, filled up my water bottles and headed off. I was unsure if I was the first on the road or not but it seemed like it from the lack of tire tracks. There were a lot of people I hadn't seen today - in fact I had only actually passed about 20 - but I guess we had all taken slightly different routes this morning. The afternoon went really well for about 20 km and then I hit the worst road ever - a cracked, bumpy dirt road riding against a headwind - insanely hard! I kept looking behind but couldn't see anyone. I felt quite excited that I was ahead as I had been behind in leaving. So although it was proving a difficult ride I was in extremely good spirits. I was trying to calculate how long it would take at this slow speed and taking into account the extra 4 km we had added earlier. There was a rest stop at about 75 km but as I was well stocked I didnt need anything. However a little further down the road I stopped for an energy bar and saw the truck come by. A little further again I stopped for a wee and then I looked back and saw Paul and Horst coming!! It was so demoralizing - I had been so convinced I was way ahead and I was really going to make some time on them! So I hopped back on my bike and rode quickly but they soon caught me up, rode past me and started picking up the pace. faster than I had been going. It really hurt and my heartbeat was faster than it had been all day. But I carried on pushing hard. Finally they left me just before we got to a village but as we rolled into the village they slowed as if to wait for me. They were being nice and probably could have got back the 7 minutes I had gained. Anyway we rode into the next village together. They suggested a coke stop but neither Paul nor myself had any money - Horst very kindly offered to pay so we found a nice little place to stop. It was so good! And it was quite fun for the three lead racers for the day to take time out for a coke stop. That last 15 km after they caught me up had been so difficult - I had been so disappointed I had simply lost all my energy and power. We rode slowly out of town and then I struggled up a hill behind them but I caught up again and we rolled into camp together. Another win for me but I did feel it was nice of the pair of them to let me have it. Sure I would have chased them if they had continued to race and maybe kept some of the 7 minutes but it would have been pretty painful so I am very grateful I didn't have to. It worked out good!!
At camp I was absolutely exhausted - felt completely destroyed! I had been so excited at the prospect of putting some time on those guys - they are both just so fast! I can't figure out how to beat them! I was hoping I might be stronger than them on dirt but after today it doesnt seem so. At least I have had a couple of wins now and have put some time on the other guys which is good. Hopefully I should be getting closer to third place overall. But we are back to pavement tomorrow.
So I ended up crawling under the truck to get some sleep - I felt really awful, dizzy, nearly fainted, felt sick - just kept drinking as much as possible - tea, juice and electrolytes. Finally felt a lot better after lying down but didn't feel like putting my tent up. I really wasn't moving very fast but I had to change my tires for the next day's pavement but i never did manage to get my tent up! Did have a good spag bol for dinner though. Bastiaan was planning to sleep outside tonight as was Kendra so I just threw my sleeping bag down on the tarpaulin for a night under the stars. One less thing to think about in the morning.
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