June 11th rides...

[alpinerabbit]

So....

I completed 100 km two days in a row.

I was already sort of drained when we left sunday morning, this was going to be the climbing day when saturday was "flat". I can appreciate how hard it must be for the pros to do this 2-3 weeks in a row, and how tempting a little "help" (read doping) must be if you do this for a living.

NEway, we climbed up that killer hill/pass again, which starts with a 17% switchback and continues at 10% for another 3-4 km. I needed 3 stops, the second one I was completely exhausted, nearly dropped off the bike and cried my heart out, just shaking - then gritted my teeth for legs 3 and, after another stop, 4.
It was HOT. 33°C - my first ride in heat. Nearly fainted before the road went into the forest.

Up there we saw another guy who just arrived, and continued up another small ramp next to the farmhouse, but - couldn't believe our eyes - he stoppeth not - and smack! dropped off the ramp, 1m high, and his front wheel was gone - and I don't want to know what happened to his carbon frame.
He couldn't unclip in time. The bike was BRAND NEW! He was humorous and unhurt, so we left him waiting for his friends coming up behind him.

We agreed not to cross the second pass we had planned, but instead to go directly downhill - and proceeded into paradise,



as we'd never been on the back side of that mountain, and on to the finish of today's tour de suisse stage. hehe. We rode through the finish line (in the wrong direction) about 30 minutes before they arrived - with all the spectators already there, felt pretty cool . Then we watched the gladiators (see above re: suffering day after day) arrive before plodding home for another 30 km.

I hurt in the nether regions, a bit of chafing and just too much pressure on soft tissue (outside the pelvic bone area, luckily not the labia et al.) and I had a hard time with my hands. I lean too far forward putting too much weight on my hands - numbed my little finger so much on day 1 that was still weak in the evening of the second day, although I managed to not allow them to go numb.

I think I have the option to raise the stem a little more and perhaps buy a shorter stem - they come in as short as 70 mm. Any recommendations?