TransRockies day 5

We climbed up gravel road in a large peloton out of Whiteswan, with Nutbrown doing the hero pull on the front that cracked the peloton. I think he pulled for the entire 7k to the first checkpoint if I'm not mistaken. Checkpoint one was at a goofy location, doesn't work too well when there's 35 teams in a group going through at 40kph. We started climbing quad track, and I felt comfortable climbing in about 8th place, legs felt good. Mike and I did the carrot pacing method up the doubletrack, which worked well to reel in 3 teams. We caught a few teams on the way down, and had a 6 team peloton through to checkstop 2, with Mckee, Ryan Draper and I being the only ones to work. Most teams blew through the checkstop, so we tried to chase back on.

As the course peeled off through the singletrack, I sped it up and had some fun. Mike climbed hard and was pushing our pace, when a stick went up between my tire and my chainstay bridge. It made a funny rubber thumping sound, and I was reflecting on how it was so nice not to have any flats yet, but 10 seconds later it blew. We did a 5 minute fix and put in a tube, losing 6 spots. We worked hard to checkstop 3, and reeled in 2 teams.

Checkstop 3 was at the base of the last big climb, and Mckee popped a Red Bull, I had two swigs. That was all it took to remove me from all pain. My tire felt a little soft, so we decided to split up, I rode ahead to the top to give it some air before the descent, so I'd wait for Mckee at the top. I had a blast, was able to ride the rideable climbs, and had energy to burn for the hike a bike parts, was able to attack them hard.

Got the tire sorted out at the top, then Mckee schooled me on the downhill. Seems like after my little Fernie spill I've become a much poorer downhiller. I rode the entire descent with the three debris torrents, but I've got a much slower pace than I may have a year ago.

I caught Mike on the gravel road, and we TT'd it home, putting in a strong finishing pace. Dad was at the 1km mark cheering us on. We cranked it up a notch, and Mike was suffering. In his own words, he knew once we hit pavement it was just over a kilometer to finish. His body was screaming, and his quote was "shut up bitch, keep given'r". Mom was at the finish. Great to see them out, especially when we're working hard at the end.

Both Mike and Craig had strong days, they really recovered from the hurt yesterday put on.

Jon and Craig came in a few minutes ahead of us, I think I heard that they were 11th and we were 13th, but I'm too lazy to walk over and check. Spent energy to just hold on rather than making forward progress.

Jon had a rockstar day by the sounds of it. I haven't heard the full download, but I hear he climbed the first climb with the leaders, then between checkstop 2 and 3 agreed to split up with Craig, and bridged up from 12th to the lead group, then slowed down and pulled the Rocky team with Matt Hadley back back up to third. By all accounts he burned a hell of a lot of calories out there, there's a lot of the top guys who've mentioned his performance tonight.

Ed looks like a man who's given just about all there is to give, he's been a man of few words the last few days. I know what it feels like to hurt as much as he is, and I'm rooting for him tomorrow (the longest, hardest day).

Talked briefly with Gerry, he was sitting in a lwanchair, full dusty spandex, fast finishing time, with beer in hand. He said Lloyd is climbing very well.

Trish said her legs felt flat on the climbs, but they sprinted into the finish line looking good.

Tomorrow is the longest day and has 3 climbs instead of two, plus they're some of the biggest. I think it'll be a soul tester.