Planned day was either 179 or 140 km ( min) ride from Andorra to Prades ( France ) with most of the climbing in the first 50km and a KON on our 2nd ascent to Port d' Envilara which rises to 2406m and is the highest paved road in the Pyrenees.Then if you rode 140km , 10 km run to complete the day.
Another not so great sleep but got up at 6am to get my self sorted as brekky at 7 so deposited overnight bags in van, etc etc. Loaded up on a decent brekky, then with plenty time to spare pumped up my tyres and in the process of removing the pump managed to pull half the valve extender off so bang, no air left, quick change and pre ride loo trip while Ian wrestled with the tyre to get it back on the rim ( those Mavic Cosmic wheels on the Cervelo are a bloody nightmare for tyre removal. I changed to Conti GP 500- tyres as I thought it was originally the Mavic tyres that were on, but no...). The others in our grupetto grupetto had already left and it was quite drizzly and chilly when we set off from Arinsal. Its a ~ 7km descent down to the turn for Ordinho ( first climb of day ), through a few roundabout.... first one I nearly got wiped out by a Subaru that didnt give way, then took a wrong exit from a roundabout in La Messana and the Garmin kept telling me to U-turn and I was super confused but worked it out eventually ( duh... was being a super blonde this morning...). I started on the climb to Ordino and just about fell off my bike to a large rumble of thunder then lightning then progressively heavy rain......... I was able to pass the time a bit chatting to a German guy who was doing some self supported bike race from Vienna to Barcelona, oh dear.... carbon rims in the wet with a loaded bike than he also got a front flat .... I felt a bit bad not stopping to help but to be honest, despite climbing I was absolutely freezing as the rain was hammering down with intermittent rumbles and lightening flashes. Oh well, tyres are rubber at least so i can't earth the lightening should I get struck.........
From the top it was a ~ 7km descent to the next town ( Calina) where we basically started to climb up the 16 km KOM to Port d Envilara. Aside from being so cold, it had quite a lot of winding tight switch backs and I had a few hairy moments with my brakes just not working, as well as getting progressively chilled and starting to shake.... we had been told, left turn at the bottom then hit lap button after the garage to start the KOM. So some dumb arse went right...then got confused by the Garmin saying off course.... but I was also shaking so bad in every muscle and teeth chattering I actually thought I was going to throw up...I stopped at the petrol station and asked the lady who pointed left.... duh.....blonde...
Once on the climb I pushed it really hard, not so much for KOM ( honest ) but was trying to warm up.... at that moment Deacon Blue "Raintown" came on my iPod which I thought was appropriate for the current situation........
"Its a rain dirt town job, hurts but it don't pay.......don't you see, don't you understand.....rain down on all those tired eyes and tears and frowns........
Luckily there was a wee cafe/bar at the top so the support crew ( who did a STELLAR job today looking after us) hustled us all in and ordered hot drinks, soaked through. I took off my wet tops, Philintaor lent me a thermal he had spare then I put my winter jacket, booties, beanie , knee warmers on. However, as soon as stepped outside and felt the wind chill and knowing we had 20 km of descent ahead, I decided to get in the van ..... however today, I was not the only one. Half the boys took that option and the other half decided to complete the ride ( the LONG ride). So big kudos to them !!
It did look at one point like it was clearing but then we were straight into torrential rain again.
We are staying in a lovely Best Western and thankfully there is a heat pump in each room ( mine is on "heat" not aircon.....can you believe ....) AND a heated towel rail. Heavenly!!
After a hot shower as I was still quite chilled I thought I ;d better get this 10 km run done so had a wee poodle around the town centre, aiming to not get lost for the 3rd time today.
I had only run 4km with a bit of faffing so found a country road to run out and back on .... and suddenly the heavens opened and its still pissing down now.........
Anyway, definitely an Epic kind of day, still got 3 hours of riding in with ~2000m of ascent...not sure how the KOM points will go after today but I think George got back out of the van at the base of the descent and rode with a couple of the other hard nuts so I feel I don't really deserve it if I did win the KOM today.
Right time for yet another hot shower and ohhhhh perhaps a wine before dinner :-)
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