We were in the last portion of the queue. We were behind Danish Olympian Annika Langvald (or close to that spelling). Kate and Jon got there right before start. We started with a scenic lap of the old town, which was nice but a gong show. 600 riders through narrow streets with tourists was a 5 minute wait in points. The peloton at points would fill a street 500m long. Once we were out to the main drag again, a guy wiped out and someone rode over his wheel and taco'd it. That's tough when you don't even make it past the neutral start. Cindy and started at, and stayed at the back.
Once it started spreading out, I went pee in a field, let Cindy pace, then joined her on the first paved climb. 20 minutes in we were motoring past people. On a technical climb section she rode the whole thing in the rough while people walked the middle. Shortly after that we got to single track congestion on a climb that was really easy, but essentially I think a dismount or two caused probably a kilometer of riders to stop and stand and wait. That literally took 10 minutes to clear. Everything was rideable - ie. Cindy even got to the top and asked "what made people get off in there".
There's lots of fans out. I didn't know Cindy was so big in Europe to be honest... but it's like she has her own cheering section. She can climb the technical parts where people line up to watch. Plus she smiles. They yell venga venga for everyone, but for her it's 3x as loud and they throw in rubio or rubia, which is funny - it's essentially "go blondie". She gets a lot of cheers from the ladies.
Nice trails, pretty easy, but fun. We went down a stream, which then numbed our feet after riding 3 more hours. Carrying bikes down some massive lineup of a "technical" session, some guy absolutely had to get his shoulder in front of me, then proceeded to try to walk "through" Cindy's bike to pass her. This is when there's 20 people standing in line, and bushes right to both sides of the trail, and no space to actually pass, with his partner behind him too. I tap his shoulder and suggest its not worth it to be that way at that moment. He says "calm down, it's a 6 day race and it doesn't matter if you're in front right here" that it doesn't matter. I said "exactly, which is why you don't need to be pushing in front of a lady in a 20 person queue". I'm sure he sees it another way, but what people think at times is beyond me. He was anglophone of some origin, so we knew each others' views.
We did some fast riding along the flats of a canal, Cindy stayed in a good group. Some Spanish guy chatted to me a bit when I stopped to pee, then pulled him and his buddy back up to the group Cindy was in. He said I had a good wife.
Cindy blew through all the aid stations and I picked up whatever was requested, so she rode all day without stopping. We traversed the back of the mountains, did a final climb, then back down into town. The last descent had a lot of spectators, including a steep rutted alluvial fan of mud and loose gravel that Cindy rode down without hesitation. I kind of ride downhills fast, but not really. There's little point to pushing it when its way better that I don't flat or wreck something.
We rolled in with a time of 4:24. Cindy was relieved that we didn't have another 20k to go, as her computer was set to miles still from Breck.
We tried to not filth up our hotel room much, worked on our snacks.
People wear sexy stuff here for massages. The race pack says "wear something comfortable". I'm impressed at the euro interpretation of that.
We had a convenient dinner in our hotel with Thomas and Dave (and a lot of laughs) and were done "early" at 9:30.
Good report - I wrote one and then read yours, funny how similar the recounts of ride/walk and trail etiquette are between us.
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