Cape Epic Day 7 - Stage 6... A Stunning Day With Toast For Legs

It was bitterly cold this morning, but that was because there had been no cloud cover overnight. The day, in contrast to yesterday, was looking to be an absolute stunner. I felt ok and had managed to down some breakfast, but my legs were absolute toast... Probably a combination of the effects of yesterdays cold on them and the effects of six days of hard riding. John, on the other hand, had legs of steel, and he towed me everywhere today. We got another 10th placing for the stage and we owe that in full to John, because any hills longer than ten seconds were filling my weary legs with lactic acid and relegating me to the granny ring and the dish on the rear. The photos taken from the trail are also from John... He was able to get to the top of the hills well before me, which was actually kind of a blessing in disguise... It was an incredible day and our climb to the highest peak on the course, at 1100m, gave us the opportunity for some stunning views.



There were a few big climbs today... And they weren't pitched with breaks as you climbed... They just went straight up, and my poor legs weren't handling it well at all. Our biggest climb of the day, at 600m, unfortunately wasn't suitable for towing, so I whacked it in the granny ring and grovelled my way up... On the way, John got a photo of me riding past a cemetary... How poetic! The views were absolutely amazing and when we finally got to the top, the descent was crazy fun! All this loose bedrock with lovely lines through it... The frustrating thing we have noticed over the course of the race is that there seems to be a severe lack of technical skills amongst a great deal of the riders, so they climb like weapons and then sit on the brakes the whole way down the descents... It has taught me to pick alternative lines very well to overtake and smoke them!



We had some good undulating riding along the ridge which my legs seemed to cope ok with, and we came across another mixed team as we were descending. I remember John saying this morning that he liked passing the other mixed teams hard, and I was of the same frame of mind, so I sat in behind them, then took the b-line past one of them, then did a styley little jump of a rock past the other one... One of the highlights of my day! Whe. We got to the last water stop, we went through pretty quick and into some lovely lovely singletrack with sweet berms and fast, flowing trail... It was absolute bliss (and if I didn't have to climb, I was on the pace pretty well!). A couple more climbs near the end, which I had to hold John's bag for again, and another lovely piece of singletrack delivered us straight to the finish line on a lovely sunny afternoon.



I felt disappointed that I had to sit on John's bag for so long today. I doubt I would have made it without him, and certainly not with the result we got. I suppose that's the amazing thing about riding as part of a team. We have moved up into 12th General Classification for the mixed category, and are only 4 minutes behind 11th. Tomorrow is our last day... 65km until we finish the Cape Epic!!! YEEEOOOW!