Ride Brasil 2012 - Day 5

Day 5:
When you wake up before a stage of any stage race you ask yourself if you feel good, human, semi human or like shit. Here, after stage 2, we asked ourselves if we felt kind of shitty or totally like shit. After yesterday stage I thought I would feel totally like shit  but I was surprised I didn't feel horrible. Unfortunately, Trever was feeling like shit.

We went out slow. Mellow. Got a good warm up. It was almost all dirt roads today. We got with some good groups and kept a decent pace. The course today started uphill from town and then a long descent followed by about 30 miles of flat washboard roads. Not good on a carbon hard tail.

We hit the first aid station after 30 miles about 2:30 hours in. I could see Trever starting to struggle. About 5 miles past the aid station Trever had had enough. He said he was quitting and for me to go on. Well, I couldn't really leave him so we agreed to ride to the next aid station and decide there. We stopped for a few minutes on the side of the road to recover then headed towards the aid station - I could tell that Trever was physically and mentally exhausted  By luck a pick up truck came by. We waved, they waved back. I had to sprint to catch them and ask for a ride. They said yes, no problem.

We each went our own way. I took off a little fast - I was feeling good - looking back probably a mistake. You pay for these mistakes here sooner or later. I made if to the second aid station at pretty quickly.  Next station was at mile 65 but first I had to climb around 3000 ft. I started slowing down a bit, I was running out of juice.

Finally made it to the aid station and refueled - btw, I officially hate heed, come and warm water. Aid stations suck down here. 30 km to the finish with one steep climb, one long washboard filled road and finally 15 km on the highway. My ass is raw by now, my knee hurts, my toes were numb, my back muscles were screaming at me. A few riders came by me but I didn't have the strength to grab their wheels.

Finally was able to hold the wheel of a mixed team with 4 km to go and I was so grateful. Made it to the finish in under 8 hrs. Not sure if I wanted to ride tomorrow, but I'm feeling better as I type this so I'll give it a shot. Tomorrow is 119 km with about 5000 ft of climbing with lots of fire road. Hopefully no washboard, but I would not bet on it.

Thanks for reading.