This doesnt even begin to describe what today was like... but it gives you a little idea if you just imagine the look on our faces and the noises we were making... Day 5 – Lac Du Mondon – Brive Ussac – An Elevation of Blood, Sweat and Tears Liebs started the day falling off his bike… while stationary. A couple of cuts to his knee and me wondering how on earth I had also ended up on the floor as well, we realised everyone had a few cuts or scraps somewhere on their legs. We knew the day would be long (106 miles), so we got out early (without breakfast) and headed off into the cold, which very quickly became clear skies and hot. The sweat began to drip. The problem of not having an exact route, was that we didn’t know exactly how many hills we’d have to face. Turns out, quite a lot! In previous days, we’d been ascending about 3000ft (altitude) across the day on the hills… We did that in the first 25miles (after which we stopped for breakfast). Last year, we struggled with Cornwall because it was a constant uphill/downhill battle. We had a similar experience today, except the hills were 3 or 4 times the length. This went on for the ENTIRE DAY. It made for relatively slow progress - as 5 days of cycling was taking its toll on all our legs - we were at lunch looking a little shell shocked (and thus emotionally strained somewhat, hence the tears). All in all, we climbed about 8100ft over the day. To give you some perspective, that’s more than some of the Tour De France stages (and over a shorter distance): or cycling from sea level, to the same altitude as the peak of Breithorn (for those who know their Swiss Alps, it overlooks Zermatt). Today was tough I’ll admit. I had a go at navigating (and other than a brief wrong turn and nearly hitting a wall) it went well. Everyone held it together despite the blood, sweat, tears and seemingly never ending hills; Guy gets the demi-god award for quite literally helping to push people physically up the hills. Over half the miles done, we enter the second half of the trip feeling strong, if a little saddle sore.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 20:40:48 +0000
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