DAY THREE – Stage 2: 104.7km, 2223m climbing
Today was a big one. The Queen stage with 104km ahead of us and over 2000m climbing it was on a whole other level to anything I have done before. This would be my longest day on the mountain bike ever and it was only 1 part of multi-day event, so I was justifiably nervous. Luckily, after yesterday’s shoe problems I had packed both my pairs of MTB shoes I own so after giving my bike to the mechanics overnight to get the cleat out of the pedal, everything was ready to go.
We again set off on some fast gravel trails just trying to hold onto the front bunch while not using up too much energy. The bunch quickly split into the top 12 teams or so and then our group which was led by the leaders in the mixed pair category. With one person being a local to these trails and the other being an Olympian athlete, we were in good hands sitting behind them. We then began what was the nicest single-track climb of the whole week. Winding, flowy trails all the way up to the top of the hill. The pace that the mixed pair leaders set was hard for me but not too hard that it broke me for the rest of the stage, but it was faster than I would have liked to go. We made it to the top and stopped at the aid station for longer than the other teams, so Rohan and I were now left to our own devices. With some rolling fire trail climbs and 4WD track where we passed some teams and got passed by other, we turned into our last big climb of the day. To put it nicely, this was a b*tch of a climb. Really steep bumpy fire trail meant a lot of hike-a-bike. After 45 minutes of climbing (some riding, some walking) we finally reached the peak and descended into a town called Clyde. Once at the bottom there was a long section of flat sealed road and gravel road. Rohan and I caught up to the leaders in the mixed pairs who were coming 2nd in their category at the time. We activated roadie mode and got low and powered passed teams taking the mixed pair leaders all the way up to a group with their rivals in it (not sure whether to feel good or bad about helping the leaders not lose time, sorry other teams). We caught up to some guys who we thought we would ride with until the finish as we were all working together nicely. With about 5km to go I was riding with some strong Belgian guys powering along a flat section before I here one of them yelling my name with a Flemish accent that I almost didn’t understand. I look back in confusion and see that Rohan my partner, is not with the group. Rohan hit a wall (figuratively) and was feeling today’s effort so he had to back off the pace to the finish as to not ruin his legs for the rest of the week. We rolled into the race village happy to have that monster stage over and done with. We bumped fists across the line and thought the worst of the Pioneer was done as that was the Queen stage. We were wrong. Keeping the result similar to the day before we got 21st overall which made us think maybe yesterday wasn’t a fluke and we were actually strong enough to be in the mix this far up.
Declan Prosser - Cycling 