I woke up after a shitty itchy nights sleep with puffy eyes and sore legs. I left my tent to a heavy dew wondering if it had been raining. I put my shades on to hide my tired eyes, and went to breakfast with the others, to much mockery about my rockstar pretentious look. One look at my sleepy eyes said it all!
Breakfast - Weetabix & bran flakes (lesson learnt) french toast and waffles.... good job we're cycling a fair way today eh!?
I was worried my legs would be sore, but I felt totally fine, again - good job! Todays route was undulating to say the least. with 76km and 2300m climbing, it was going to hurt. No doubt. I'd looked at the profile map a few times and was shitting myself about the first descent.
We set off with a quick word from the local Mayor, and as promised the first climb would be a push. 2km in and we had a 15 minute push up all that can be described as a verticle climb, followed by an equally steep descent. I'd looked at this several times and it wasnt getting any less scary looking!
After throwing our bikes over a style (thanks to whoever helped with mine) we were into some woods and back on board. A quick descent and I thought "phew, it wasnt that bad at all!" until I got round the corner, and all I could see was the ground disappear into an abyss. The surface was a loose rocky mixture of topsoil, I was immediately glad I'd changed my front tyre, as my back one started skidding around behind me.
I heard Rafe's voice in my head as I strangled the brakes, "Bum back, feather the brakes" which was all well and good when as soon as you let go of the buggers, you shot forward and down at frightening speed.
Wrestling my bike down the descent, correcting wayward skidding and fighting the urge to hang on the brakes, I finally saw the bottom of the hill, a right turn onto the road and there waiting to catch me was a paramedic. I made the mistake of looking at my front wheel, braked way too hard, and went hurtling right handed into a bush with my front wheel locked out in a rut.
I picked myself out of the bush with other riders whistling past, checked I was in one piece - a few minor scrapes, twigs in my hair, saddle twisted. Recomposed myself and got to the bottom with a bit of shame. Good start to the day!
After 20km of climbing, (what is it with Wales and hills eh!?)
Today's special stage was billed as a descending stage. I'm notoriously shit at going down (you'll be surprised to hear!) and I wasn't looking forward to it. I arrived at the special stage and was told it was in 3 phases - the "downhill run", a less steep section then a fireroad/rocky climb back up to the finish.
The moment someone said "Downhill run" i shit my pants a bit (not literally - I am a lady) but you get the drift. I saw some people in front drop into the course and i warned the people behind to give me a bit of extra room as I'm real slow. People were coming back from their run totally wired and full of excitement... I went into it hardly breathing.
I set off intot he loop and the course was a really nice piece of dry dusty singletrack, steep and "pumpy" it was really twisty but realy rideable, big twisty berms, and I caught up with the guy in front of me, who was walking down the berms. I was really loving it, I find the less I know, the less I worry. Which was just as welll as I got round the corner and there was a 10ft drop off, I left my stomach behind me somewhere, looked ahead, dropped off the back of the seat and somehow landed in one piece.
More twits and turns and some big rooty sections, through the trees, Popped out the end and powered back up the road, which was harder than I expected. I was overtaken by Natasha - Miss lightening, and an Elite racer, I couldnt find the extra gear to push on, so I rolled up the hill and over the line. The day was still young and I didnt want to burn out so soon in the week.
After this, we had a big fire road descent to the first aid station, then back out and up once more. It was like this for most of the day, we hit an incredible black run down hill course (which again when I saw the sign, gave me the heebie jeebies) but when I overtook people walking through the technical descents I felt better about my ability. If nothing else, this week should give me some confidence on my descending.
We passed through some incredible scenery, past a large mansion with a lake and people punting on it. Furhter climbing/descending, a bit of road work and we were back home and dry, tents were already up, (not mine of course) todays camp was a little town called Clun - which of course soon became known as Clunge.
So, as the routine soon became bike wash, shower, tent up, beer run, dinner, presentation (4th again) and this time a trip to the first aid tent to get something for my sore legs - some antihystamine cream and piriton. The medics were quite possibly the friendliest bunch I'd ever come across. I also changed my rear tire to full nobbly too as tomorrow was forecast to rain.
I had a pretty early night tonight after such a shitty nights sleep the night before, still unable to wear my compression tights I started to worry that my legs wouldn't make the week - still I didnt manage to have a stretch yet.... my only regret of today was not manning up on the descent. But another fantastic day in the saddle and out of it, my new friends were making it a lot of entertainment.
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