After my posting about Cristina’s accident, I was flooded with emails from friends encouraging me to keep riding. It was really great to get all the support from home and to know that you were all still tuning in, despite my unofficial ranking.

You will all be happy to know I’m still competing in my own personal race here at the Cape Epic. Today was stage 6 and the last of the really long stages. The last two will both be less than 100km.

After a torrential downpour for most of the night, I awoke at 5 a.m. to a clear crisp sky. I must admit that I might have been tempted not to ride if it were pissing down with rain at the start.

I did my usual stealth start and slipped into the peloton unnoticed. The first hour was again hard to coax the tired legs. I found my mind wandering and wondering a bit about why I was there. As before, I got motivated after I warmed up and the kilometers started to come more easily. This stage was 125km with just over 2000 ft of climbing. All the altitude was crammed into two really big climbs, so I prepared myself mentally to push hard on those two climbs. Despite the rain, the temperatures soared above 100 again and I reverted to putting most of my water on my head.

The new Team Specialized

Halfway through the race, I passed the fourth place women’s team on a grassy downhill through a cow paddock. Then, as good luck would have it, I connected with the Specialized dealer from Brazil. Danny’s teammate had also dropped out and he was out there on his own as well. He was riding super strong and happy to do a lot of the pulling into the winds.

It seems as if it’s always windy in this country. And regardless of which way the road turns, it is always a headwind. I can’t even explain how happy I was to have a new riding partner for the day. It made the whole experience so much more like the team event it is meant to be.

The whole day was cruising by fantastically until the last 30km of the race. On the race profile it should have been the flat, easy part, but as we approached the seaside town of Hermanus, the course director turned us into the sand dunes. You all know what it’s like to ride in sand, but after approximately 800km of riding, it was torture to try to turn the pedals through this stuff. Danny and I at least had company in our suffering. I must say, at least we weren’t saying as many swear words as some of the riders we passed.

For my own personal race stats, I ended up third place in the women’s field, just 15 minutes off of the second-place finisher. I was really excited with my time and to find out I am inching my way closer to the top of the women’s race.

Our only view of wildlife today

On a side note, Hermanus is known for whale watching, so we decided to give Claire a break from cooking and have dinner at a seaside restaurant and watch the bay for wildlife. The only creature sighting of the day was some sort of small mammal digging in the trash cans!