Round and round we go

Stage 47
Day Total: 160km
Total Time: 4:56
Avg. Heart Rate: 141bpm
Total Climbing: 1087m

Song of the Day: Iron Maiden – Run for the Hills

A surprise rain storm graced our camp last night. It really should not have been a surprise given our location and the time of year, but rain seemed very unlikely as the sun settled into the horizon so few were fully prepared for its arrival once darkness settled. Fortunately I was sitting in my tent tending to some minor wounds when it hit. Others were not so fortunate and had their bags scattered about the outside of their tent. For 10 minutes it rained exceptionally hard. The tent showed no signs of yielding to the downpour. Lucky? Hopefully my good fortune is due to the correct equipment choice. I think I will find out definitively in the coming weeks.

The body of our cycling experience combined with my increased fitness at this point in the trip allow me to view the prospects of a 100-mile bicycle ride with relative objectivity: it is a longer ride, I have already done this a few times on this trip, on paved roads it will be a ride of approximately 5 hours (give or take). Thus I harbored little apprehension about this morning’s effort and spent the 15 minutes of breakfast thinking of how to ride the day and with whom I should share the experience. I had little interest in riding with the race leader as it would almost certainly I would do a lot of work at the front with nothing in return from him. No thanks. Looking around, most of the other candidates had departed. With some resignation, I approached the gate to the camp to scan my badge, the two Pauls and Adam already waiting. This was the scenario I did not want so a quick decision was made. As I scanned in, race leader Mr. Wolfe executed his usual pause-and-look maneuver to ensure he was the final racer to scan-in (and thus gain seconds advantage). For reasons I cannot explain, seeing that play out set me off and my plan materialized in my head. As I rolled my bike onto the dirt road out of camp, I started pedaling. Very hard. I raced through the traffic to the first turn at 1km and kept the pressure up. Looking back, I was already hidden from them by the traffic.

Like that, I was off on my own. Early on the heat and humidity were intense and coupled with some short, steep hills, I felt I was working quite hard and surprised to see how high my heart rate had risen. Clearly the meat and the rest had given my body one more gear. Taking that as a green light, I kept the effort steady, determined to ride the day completely alone.

What can I say? Today was one of those days where everything felt good, the body responded well, and riding the bike was a very natural, effortless activity. The 80km to lunch felt like nothing (apart from a very rough section of pavement which was more like single-track off-road riding) and after a perfunctory stop to simply refill my water bottles and grab a snack I carried on. It was wonderful – I was alone on the road and saw no other rider for the next 80km. Not once did my body falter, nor was there a single instance of discomfort that often accompanies these longer efforts. Camp arrived and that was that. Dennis and Jorg were already present having started ahead of me. Jorg would be fastest on the day for smartly leaving camp with the two very swift Kenyan riders. Dennis and I rode equally hard and were never more than 5 minutes apart on the road… if only we would have know. In any case, this is one of the most positive rides I’ve had on the trip.

The balance of the afternoon was spent relaxing. This camp featured showers and cold drinks and I was quick to partake of both. A long nap, some reading, and a few good jokes delivered me to dinner time in a very chilled state. Directions were given for the Tanzanian border crossing tomorrow, the race starting after the 3km to the border. Only one more riding day to that magical 3-day rest period…