Camp was fine – I woke up in the middle of the night as usual and had my midnight snack – kit kat and cookies (and they are in my tent ready for tonight as well!!) . Also had my protein drink that mum sent out – I think that will help!
However I definitely pitched my tent in the wrong place last night – next to the early birds who are awake for coffee at about 5am. God knows why when the earliest we can leave is at sunrise – about 7am. I guess they are just early risers!! But me – I wanted to sleep more – but finally got moving and put my tent away. Still struggle to eat breakfast early morning but always try to eat something!!
Just before we left Horst, who is in second place overall and a really strong rider, announced he is quitting the race – which was a bit of a shock to most people! He obviously had a good chance of winning the whole thing if he could figure out how to beat Paul!! However I do remember him telling me back on Day 4 or 5 that he didn’t intend to race the whole distance – but I figured he had changed his mind as he was doing so well. So maybe not quite as much of a shock as it was to some. Maybe that’s why yesterday he didn’t follow when I sped up the hill – maybe he was tired and decided to quit as he was going to eventually anyway! Whatever his reasons, they are his reasons and we all respect them. I have already voiced my opinions about the position of the racers!!
So we decided to ride as a group together and headed out! Our group is a lot smaller now – Dennis hasn’t been feeling too well so hasn’t been riding with us – we found out later that he had wanted to today – but we left without him not knowing that at the time – myself, Paul, Scott, Jorg, Adam, Luke and Tori – taking it quite easy! Scott and I felt good again – and had a great ride – there were lots of donkeys and cattle out on the road – in fact we had to stop completely for a few cattle crossings. It was fun to ride along and chat with the others.
I usually have a bit of an “umph” at the beginning of a hill and generally come gliding by everyone for a while – I think its because I’m heavier and the momentum I gain from the previous hill helps me up the first part quickly. Most people know now it is not a serious race attack. Sometimes, like today, I might suddenly speed up to go chat with another rider on the road (saw Lindsay ahead today and went to say ‘hello’). Quite funny when another racer might think this is an ‘attack’!! We all watch each other like this!!
With Horst dropping out of the race it does put me in second place overall at this stage (who knows what is ahead of us?). Part of me would have preferred to have raced him into second place – but it is an overall endurance race so whatever happens counts!
Earlier in the day we had seen big Bram come flying by – so although we wondered what he was doing, as he is no longer in the race we didn’t do anything about it! We had a good lunch and the rest of the guys turned up not long after us. It was a bit chilly so we didn’t hang around. We were treated to another really nice downhill followed by more rolling hills. Scott wanted to try to build a gap on the guys behind to make up some time overall – so we rode hard for a while with Scott and myself doing all the work. In fact Scott did most of the work at the front and so he won the stage for the day!!
I had felt really great all afternoon – little bit sore obviously but we’ve been riding for a month and a half so not surprising – also I get a little bit out of breath up the hills – nothing major – again to be expected!
The bike was great with my 50 ring – good to have that extra gear – the new chain helped as well. I enjoyed the race and I think Scott and Paul did too!
The trucks had only just arrived at camp when we did – second day in a row that has happened. Also for the second time in a row I have arrived at camp feeling as if I have some energy left! I know in Sudan the heat sucked the strength out of you – but there have been plenty of times when I have had to recover for about 4 hours before I could do anything. After a short rest today I was able to get myself organized and we were ready to go into town.
Camp was pretty awful – like a quarry – with a mean wind blowing. So we went to the road and flagged down a tuk tuk. The town was quite interesting. We met up with some other riders who hadn’t made it to camp yet and joined them for a coke stop. Then we found a restaurant – it was nice to sit down and relax with some good food, beer and coffee. We were right next to a rather nice hotel which had a spa and sauna which we did consider for a while – but never did in the end! Instead we took a tuk tuk back to camp!! Although I had missed the rider’s meeting I caught up with the info on tomorrow’s race. Its about 100 km with 5% gravel – so I switched out my tyres – purely because I put a slice in one the other day over gravel and pretty much ruined it – so I didn’t want to chance another one. This means that for 95% of the day the tyres are going to be pretty awkward but good for the 5%. But I think everyone is doing it so we will all be in the same boat – so hopefully it won’t matter! Scott has already done his! While we were in town there was a bit of a sandstorm so my tent is full of sand – took some time to shake everything out!! Now I am looking forward to a good sleep and tomorrow’s race.
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