Today I decided to race with the big boys and see how I fared against big Joost. This guy is one big powerhouse when he open up the engine and drives that bike along. Everyone rolled out of camp at 8am on the bell, we rolled off slowly and had to wait for James to catch us before the race could start.
Once James joined us, Joost took off like he had a man possessed. It took Alfred and myself a good km to catch him. I had to finally bridge the gap to Joost and we started working together. We went past everyone at 50 kph. James couldn't stick with us and was dropped right from the start. Although James is very strong, it's his top end speed which is the problem. I still have to take my hat off to the chap as he is still leading the tour.
As we pushed along I would lead the bunch up the climbs. On the first climb Alfred went off the back by about 10 metres. I slowed down for him to regain contact with myself and Joost. Another 2 kms, we hit another climb and led the bunch up the mountain. By the time I got to the top Alfred was about 100 metres behind. I turned and asked Joost if he wanted me to slow down and wait for Alfred, but he said, 'keep going, it's our day today'.
I drove on harder over the crest and down the other side into a valley of beautiful purple, yellow and grey flowers. A valley with mountains covered in cloud, but surely also covered in snow. The temperature was perfect for racing, and even though I had my leg and arm warmers on, and a vest, I was nice and war in these conditions.
For the next 40 kms we took turns into a headwind with Joost doing the hard work on the flats and myself doing all the work on the climbs. He had me struggling on the flats, but I had him dangling on the climbs. We pushed each other as hard as we could over every kms till lunch. The lunch stop was at 65 kms and that's where the race ends for the day.
With 5 kms to go the road tended to go flat and I couldn't see any big hills on my Garmin. If I wanted to drop Joost and come in on my own it would have to be over a significant hill. What was my greatest fear was if Joost decided to hit the power button, he could put me into a bit of bother.
With 2 kms to go I could see the fire engine in distance. As I was on the front I did not want to see Joost attack from the rear and leave me stranded. I pulled up and said to him, 'well done, we did it, there's the lunch truck'. On a downhill run there would be no way I could out sprint him, he's just too powerful for me. If it was an uphill sprint I would have challenged him.
We ended up rolling in together and were both awarded the victory. He was pretty happy and later told me I had hurt him on the climbs at the end. Now it was time to sit down and eat. We covered the 65 kms in 1 hr 58 minutes, and climbed over 800 metres.
I waited for Barry to arrive as we wanted to get to camp together, get our gear and head into town and find a hotel for the next 2 nights. I had pushed myself nearly to the limit and still had another 75 kms to go to finish the day. My legs will be stuffed by tonight.
After an hour of freezing at the lunch stop, we headed off with Max, Jurg, Brian, Deb and Buck. Buck told us to go ahead as he wanted to take it easy this afternoon. We kept a good pace and with a strong tailwind we made it to Coyhaique by 2pm. We first had some soup and snacks and got our gear ready. A cab was called and we were in the centre of town in no time. We eventually found the Hotel San Rafael which is pretty good for 75 US a twin room. The room is excellent, with TV, fridge, WiFi, and breakfast. I won't be getting out of bed early tomorrow.
Tomorrow is our rest day and I intend to do some walking to try and stretch my legs.
I've taken some photos of some nice people on tour to add to today's story.
The supreme elderly athletes are L-R. Jan Willem, JR, Dr Carroll, Lupcho, myself and Barry.
The above lady was my dancing partner at a local festival the day before we entered Bolivia. We had such a blast dancing with the locals.
My rest day was non eventful other than eating and resting.
Tomorrow we start the first of nine cycling days in the Andean Mountains before our next rest day. Over 800 kms of dirt, mud, back into Argentina and sleeping in 'Tent Hilton'. But I'm still having fun.
Until tomorrow, safe riding.
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