First, the idea of riding from hotspring to hotspring through the Andes is a really good one, if you're into mountain biking.
Really enjoyable day. Gravel road climb off the start, some flats to cross a valley, then a 20km climb to the high point, followed by downhill to the finish with a few km of flat in the other valley. Roadie day in some ways, beautiful views of volcanos along the way. Great scenery overall in this part of the world.
We climbed hard off the start, and dabbled with some pushing due to some of Trish's gears skipping till we worked out some barrel adjuster strategy. Everyone else pushes to the max.
On the valley floor there was a bunch of singletrack that led Trish to get frustrated with the riding "skills" of the field, and did sweet blazing passes of handfuls at a time. I did a bunch of work on the flat keeping us in a group to draft, burnt a few matches.
We eased into the big climb, and right off the bat the Specialized Chilean team saw us and started pushing. Trish just stormed by and we didn't look back. I'd boost her over the steep to flat transitions to get her up to middle ring, and off we went on our own. I was feeling tired by aid 1, and chowed on potatoes as Trish motored off. Had to chase back on uphill with potatoes in my cheeks which took 10 minutes. Climb was long long, top was shaded in a beauty forest though. So hot at the top. I forgot to mention earlier, but the last few days when I'm completely strung out on the climbs, sweating as much as possible, I've really enjoyed the cool refreshing burst of energy from hot peanut butter Gu's. They should do egg nog too.
So I kept telling myself the top was near, just empty out and keep going, as I had caught Trish and was setting pace. That willpower worked until a last steep climb she spun up and I just gulped peanut butter for a second in the sun.
Didn't matter, downhill was a blast and easy to make up 10 seconds on. Long downhill on nice trail, then road. We screamed into aid 2, and as we were almost ready to leave, the other mixed team spotted us as they rolled in. They descend fast. The girl rolled on and dude grabbed stuff then took off. We caught on, then just sat in, as results showed us 12 min up (more on this math later). He did a large number of hero pulls, but eventually realized on a net downhill, separation wasn't going to happen. On the flats I pulled with another Canadian guy, and they sat on. I think if he pulled he would have just rode 15km/h in protest.
Turned left with 3k to go up a steep climb and she launches. He moves in for the push, and Trish follows. Unwilling to yield time at the end, I push Trish hard. Road flattens, then it happens again. Top of that one he looks over and I just smile. After he looks away I gasp for breath as I'm not made out of that many high Watt intervals!
We descend the hill, and at the bottom two cars try to pass each other (toward each other) on a narrow road. They squeak through better and make a gap. They look back, see it, and hammer. We think this is cheesy, and hammer to get back up to prove a point they don't get a second today, especially not like that.
Steve came in a couple mins after and liked the day. No dismounting, no blister pain. He's rocking his category.
We didn't see Gerry come in later but he sounds sore.
Tomorrow is supposed to be very tough. Despite the 12 min gap yesterday and no seconds yielded today, we're now 3 min ahead only. No idea really how that works. We jockeyed back and forth today and burnt some matches, so who knows.
The food at the lodge is great, we skipped the tent food. The pools are nice.
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