So we got up at 5.30 as planned and enjoyed a really good buffet breakfast. There were about 20 of us staying in the hotel so we all packed in to the group taxi to return to the campsite. We quickly packed our stuff in the lockers and got our bikes ready. Normally we find out about the day’s ride the night before but as we hadn’t been in camp we had no clue so had to find out what was ahead of us. Sounded like a fairly easy day – 105 km with a 15km convoy out of Addis to begin. It was nice riding along with various people – Dennis, Scott, kari and Kendra and all sorts of people – having a chat. It was a good warm up.
That reminds me - I forgot to say – I had a massage yesterday – painful but good!
After 15 km the race started – because of the convoy it meant all the racers started at the same time for a change – about 12 of us. I was hoping for a fairly slow day – didn’t really want to do any pulling – and I think most people felt the same – except for Jorg who wanted to go fast (he is after a stage win but you have to be careful riding fast at the front – you can wear yourself out!)
I felt really comfortable – there was a good climb just before lunch and I could see from my speedo that lunch would be at the top of the hill. We’d been yo – yoing back and forth in the group – nobody pushing too hard – a fairly easy pace. I felt great as did Scott. Horst was hanging out at the back – but he often does this and then can move to the front and be super quick. But he seemed a little different today – wasn’t sure if he was feeling 100%. Anyway I thought I would see what happened. I took off up the hill and Paul came with me – nobody else. The group was split. About half way up I looked behind and decided to slow up despite Paul W wanting me to keep up the speed – but why? I didn’t need to.. So we slowed and rode into lunch – Horst did speed up a little – it was just interesting to see what happened. We had quite a long lunch sitting on the seats watching each other for signs of movement – it was quite funny! Me, Paul and Horst watching to see who stood up first!! In the end we took our time and had a good lunch and then all set off together for the afternoon ride. We set a decent pace – not too fast – but did start to lose people. I felt really good and so did Scott. He took the front for about 5km and really wound the pace up for a while, leaving us a group of 6. I was just trying to get as much shelter from the wind as possible! The roads all day had been super bumpy – pavement but with bumps, ripples and holes all over – almost off road conditions. An interesting ride. Almost felt like a massage through your seat on the downhills and then on the flats really painful on your seat as you were sitting on it so hard!!
There were some pretty fast downhills and didn’t push the climbing too much! Arrived at camp thinking what a great day it had been and how lucky we were!
Camp is a farmer’s field again. We arrived with the trucks so watched them set up. I didn’t feel tired like normal so set up my tent and then sorted a few thing on my bike – changed the chain and put the bigger cassette on as well as putting new cleats on my new shoes! I also reorganized both bags. Had a good dinner of chicken and pasta and am now ready for bed. Have had a really good day and am looking forward to tomorrow – hopefully will get a good night’s sleep – looking forward to using my new pillow from ‘Sea to Summit’.
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