Then it was a fireroad climb that went on and on, I was anaerobic for the whole thing and I wondered if I'd make it before I blew and luckily I did. I was passing people and they were cheering as I was making some funny wheezy heavy breathing noise all the way! At the end it went to single track and came steep right at the top. I crossed the timing mat and literally fell off my bike into the heather and lied there for some time before I could get up. I don't think I've ever been quite that bad before! But I thought if we had any chance of getting the stage and keeping the jersey, it had to be done.
Unfortunately, just before the special stage I flung my bike forward onto a bridge and missed, so the whole weight of the bike crashed down on to the rear disk brake on the concrete. It bent and I straightened it out as much as possible but it was still rubbing a lot. There was nobody around with any tools so that's the way it stayed for the rest of the day unfortunately. The wheel just stopped when you spun it. Not ideal for the special stage!
I couldn't eat lunch after the stage so had a bite of sandwich and an apple & orange. Then there was so much climbing you wouldn't believe. I felt rubbish! I was tired and everything ached. We ended up doing the most miles and climbing so far. I wasn't pleased because every corner we turned there was yet another climb in front of us!
We finally reached the camp site and I had a recovery shake from the Gore bike wear truck within a moment of getting in. I also showered and put compression tights on before washing my bike. I hope the nights sleep heals me or I'm in big trouble tomorrow!
Guest blog from Lisa:
A wet river day! Knee deep and bike on my back early on... Wet feet all day! 18miles til the special stage so just enough warm up time,rounding the final corner prior to it I started to recognise the landscape from last year-and recalled the very long climb out!A fab stage :) if painful! A very long day with lots of climbing,but the rain never came and all very enjoyable :)))
News update:
The Scottish girls beat us! They are very good climbers indeed, I couldn't of tried any harder! They have a 41 sec lead now too. 2 more half climbing half downhill stages left so the jersey is gone but at least we got one and also a stage :-) we'd need to spend a lot of time practising sprint climbing to beat those girls!!
Day 5: Machynlleth - Cymystwyth | 4th Special Stage |
| Route Distance: 75km | Distance from start: 18km |
Total Ascent: 2350m | Loop: Nant yr Arian 8.5km |
Total Descent: 2150m | Ascent/Descent: 426m |
