95 km, 749 m vertical ascent, in a gentle 6:10
Reitz, it's cold. it's a little better than this morning, when it was cold AND wet. today was most likely the easiest stage of all - less than 100 km and less than 1km ascent.
we started in the rain. there were a few 'tufties', lovely track next to a railway line (and on the track, when it got too muddy next to the track).
oh, and some mud. here's one of the river crossings that caused the grinding paste:
a waterpoint where they washed and lubed the bike. the cold & wet weather & riding with a cotton longsleeve shirt together with not eating caused the team mate to bonk rather severely - it was very slow going till the next waterpoint. they had nicely salted steak off the griddle ... when finally i could persuade the team mate to eat 'junk food' (potatoes, steak, donuts from the water tables) in stead of race potions, he recovered quickly :)
we followed a bit of boring gravel ... and then the bike suddenly came to life: some awesome singletrack, first a little climb, and then downhills, jumpies, a little bit of gravel, and more down. some gravel road into town, and some singletrack to the showgrounds. the kids took my bike to wash it - then they dragged my bike to the tent, and they fed me. the getting clean i unfortunately have to do for myself ... i'm shivering, but there's unlimited hot water, so i think i'll go over there now (life is tough)
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