Ride Brasil - Day 6

Day 6;
Ok, I was wrong, today was not f?&king hard. It was just hard. 76 miles with 5000 ft of climbing....does that sound easy?  In a sick sorted way it does after the days we've had.  It was not the most spectacular day for sure. Almost all dirt road. The last 25 miles were same as yesterday's stage with the same climb that I had to walk, so I was a bit concerned before the stage and decided to be conservative at the start. 

Race started at 8 am and it was pretty cool and windy, with some riders wearing vests or arm warmers.  I was relieved, a cool day is better than a hot day!! I stayed with my buddy brasileiro for the first 7-8 miles when I saw the only other American at the race Paul Romero on the side of the road. I guess his knee didn't hold up. Another casualty to this torture ride.  Nothing I could do to help. 

I was riding alone today and it felt a bit weird at times. Less thinking, less talking, ride by feel. I started feeling pretty good and even started pulling a group. Brasileiro was in the group - finally caught him again - and he came over to tell me to stay out of the wind. LOL!!
I told him I was feeling good.  I also rode with our Swiss friends trying to help the a bit but I eventually rode away from that group. 

I rode alone for a while until the climb. I hooked up with the second place grand masters team and another team and we rode together to the last aid station. Legs felt heavy on the climb, but I managed to ride the whole climb, not like yesterday when I walked a good portion of it. What a difference a day makes. 

Last 20 miles are flat.  Half on dirt road, the other half on pavement. There were now 3 teams and me. One of the riders from the second place team was struggling and his partner and another team were trying to help him, so I decided to help out by pushing him or blocking the wind. I did the bulk of the work and kept asking the third team to help out but they never did - dicks!!

When we got 1km from the finish I saw the third team exchange looks and head to the front. I think they wanted to attack after sucking our wheels for 20 miles. I don't think so!! As soon as one of them moved up I blocked his partner from moving up and then moved right next to him. I just looked at him and shook my head "nope, you're not doing that". When we finally hit the last 200 yards I just blocked them. I knew they wanted to come around me but it wasn't going to happen. I let the grand masters team finish in front of me. They were so happy with my help, they were hugging me, and took pictures with me and one of them wants to exchange jerseys with me tomorrow. He even washed my bike. LOL!!!

Tomorrow is 40 miles with the prologue course being the last 12 miles of the race. It'll be interesting how the body does on the same trail after riding for 6 days. My biggest worry is my ass and how it holds up for one more day!!