Round and round we go

Stage: 50
Day Total: 94.5km
Total Time: 4:19
Avg. Speed: 21.9km/h
Avg. Heart Rate: 138bpm
Total Climbing: 1418m

Song of the Day: Citizen Cope – If There’s Love

This was it. The ride I had been envisioning for the duration of the trip. It arrived.

Cloudy skies greeted us as we once again rolled onto the pristine tarmac. It only lasted 27km and just like that we were on an improvised dirt road. Heavy traffic in the area meant the first kilometer was well groomed but as the road turned upward and the simple houses and mud huts thinned, the road became more of a wide dirt track whose red dirt surface had been very visibly carved by heavy, repeated rainfalls.

Jorg, Adam, Steve, and myself hit this section together but the first steep climb quickly separated us into two groups with Jorg and I riding ahead. Onward and upward the road bent as it cut through fields of grasses and sunflowers that expanded to the horizon. Oh, and there was a good bit of mud here and there too.

We rode with intensity, both of us caught up in the moment presented by the race and the accompanying scenery. Before long we sighted race leader Paul Wolfe and local sectional rider Mike up ahead and midway down a long, rough descent we overtook them. Mike responded by accelerating and soon the three of us had a sizable gap over Paul Wolfe. Content with the pace, the three of us pressed on only to quickly halt as we came upon a large, deep pool of mud spanning the entire road. Adding to the chaos of our rapid deceleration was the approaching passenger bus that dared not slow lest it get stuck. Jorg and Mike narrowly passed by it and found the bypass through the fields that allowed them to circumvent the mud. I saw it too, but the window of opportunity was closed and I was forced to a stop for the passing of the bus. Those are the breaks. In this case it meant that they had a 15 second gap on me.

I rocketed down the next descent, taking chances I knew the leaders would be unwilling to take – the benefits of a front suspension fork –
and closed in on them once again. At that moment however one of my water bottles ejected itself from its cage and hit the road. I quickly stopped – I needed the fluids for the remainder of the ride and water bottles are impossible to find. As I ran back uphill to the bottle, a local farmer picked it up and disappeared into the cornfields. Argh man! I jumped back onto the bike and powered away to close the gap to Jorg and Mike. With only 3km to lunch, I expected to be close to them.

I arrived at lunch just minutes after them and noticing their quick departure jumped back on the bike after refilling my single bottle. I pressed hard after them, closing quickly but ultimately stymied by another bus that forced me onto a very unfavorable line through the dirt. I got by the bus unscathed but lost momentum as they pulled away once again. This was the pattern for the day, and after three more incidents I decided I would simply ride out the day at a steady pace, preferring a consistent effort in lieu of repeated surges. After all, there are still 6 days of dirt ahead.

Paul Wolfe caught up to me on one of the longer climbs with 20km remaining. Happy for some company I rode behind him as we continued upward and downwards over the muddy track. To the west, rain was approaching and would ultimately unleash its fury on the middle of the pack. For now we only felt a whisper of the pending storm and with heads down powered through the remaining kilometers. We would not catch Jorg and Mike, but were not too far behind as we rolled into camp and the rains started falling.

I spent the balance of the day sitting under a small thatch-roofed shelter eating chicken, omelets, and chips. It was raining after all, so there was little else to do. Knowing my father would have no interest in setting his tent in a downpour, I booked a room for him. The room and bed too small – and thus far too warm and stuffy – I opted to sleep in the sitting room adjacent to the actual hotel rooms. A healthy slathering of deet should ensure the mozzies keep their distance and like that I am set for bed.

Today was an incredible ride, but if I’m honest, it was less enjoyable because so much of it was spent redlining my heart rate in pursuit. I suppose that a race of this distance presents competitors with lulls in motivation and drive so for now I will persevere and see where that takes me.