Ride time: 5:45
Climb: 947m
The first half of today was probably the strongest that I have felt on the bike for a couple of weeks. Having lost a bunch of weight during the sickness (85kg now) but getting over it means that I can push up hills pretty good on the bike.
For about 40km, I thought that I might have a crack at a stage win. I was out in front of the group and feeling strong. Unfortunately, there was some pretty rough pavement and my saddle sores really fired up. After that, I could really only pedal standing up. Still made pretty good time, but I got passed by the one-legged Kenya, Gerry and Marcel in pretty short order. After lunch, Tim caught up with me as well. What I didn't know was that Jethro had also left early and was waaaaaay out in front. Still - it felt good to be strong for a change.
The funniest thing about the ride was the construction zones. There was a diversion road off the side, but it looked pretty sandy and rocky. Instead I opted for riding on the road under construction, like that life saving road back in Northern Kenya. This worked out pretty well for the first bit. A mixture of fresh tar and hard pack dirt meant that I could haul along - outpacing the 4wds and stuff on the diversion road.
The plan only really came unstuck when I saw some tar with water on top of it up ahead. Well, I thought it was tar with water on top. It was actually wet tar. If you haven't been stupid enough to ride on wet tar, I can fill you in. Firstly, you will notice that wet tar is being flung up at you. This will coat your bike (including the drive chain) in tar. Secondly, it is slippery as all get up. I managed to stay upright, but a couple of riders had some falls.
I got into camp pretty early. Instead of getting to sit around the campground drinking cokes and talking crap, I spent hours and hours trying to get the tar off myself and my bike. We sent a guy into town to buy 10l of petrol to clean with. I used a couple myself to clean my drive chain and body.
If anyone from Bike Culture is reading: don't click on this picture - it will only make you sad.
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