Day 2 yak attack

Interesting day to say the least!

For some cruel, cruel reason they combined 2 stages into 1. They took 2 40km and combined them into an 80km, 2900m vert day. With 4 major climbs. Remember those numbers cause I sure didn't.  Lucky for me it was steady state for the fist small hill of 1800m over 10km. Found myself with a new group of fellas and was feeling pretty good about myself.

Long descent and found then I was riding with 2 Nepalese guys who have won the race before and our friend Thomas from Belgium. Good pace and off to second went well.

Long cross valley section which was kind of cute for the little Nepalese guys.  One of them weighs 47kg! That's 103.6lbs. As Jay would say " I haven't weigh that since grade 8". The benefit of 80kg is that inertia keeps the whhels turn thru the dead spot of the pedal stroke, also lets me coast downhill while they pedal what little ass they have off.

Actually went into 3 rd climb with Thomas ahead of Raj Jiv and Auman.
The grade stepped up and Auman had his revenge, so did Thomas as he had a 24 tooth front ring and I had a 26 tooth. It was keep up and blow up but didn't do that. Aumen caught me about a 2/3 of the way, he saw that the Old Mule (me) was beaten. With a big smile he asked if I need a gel, answer? On if ha estra- translation- "only if you have an extra". I don't think it would matter super nice guy probably would have given me his last gel.

He took off, I suffered to top of climb to aid station. I drank 1.5 liters of water, 2 cookie bars, and 3 bananas. Had a nice smile on my face by the time I got to the bottom and was feelin' good. That didn't last long.

I did catch up to Cory Wallace onky because he is sick and took a 10min nap. He rode with me for a bit and was looking for ice cream in every little shop we past. He didn't see any which was odd considering the number of ice cream wrappers on the ground?

Quiz-Remember the distance and climbs? Good on ya. I didn't. I was sure I had another long descent and a climb finish. What it actually was was a shallow descent and shallow climb. I have been using the, "if your not there then you have not gone far enough" mantra. So there I was thinking I had kms to go and a climb all the time fading fast. Stopped for a coke, poured it into water bottle then rode 100m to Finish! Yep was just on the other side of the building.

I don't know how the legs will feel tomorrow but I am feeling pretty good after 2 plates of egg noodles and my coke.