On the bikes by 7am and heading for Caledon - staying at the Casino Hotel there. There was light sprinkle of rain and enough chill in the air to make cry for your bed.
This was the hardest day of the ride and snapped a couple of us, none more than yours truly. The total distance was about 170kms of which I only did about 80kms and slept on bus the rest. My legs and mind was porridge to steal a President Wilson comment. Les also joined me on the bus for a little while.
The uphills were killer (total climb was 1.5kms up) and the downhills were too short to recover. The legends stood out massively - Kelvin for Matrona, Dean Hahn about 10 of us, Mike for Channon, Kevin for the UK girls, Ian Wilson for a bunch of people, The Bullet Thorpedo for a few people (especially at camera time) and Henry for Mike. Cesar led from the from the front breaking the headwind for the peloton.
All the top riders commented that this was one of the hardest days they had ever ridden. Strong headwind, big uphills, pushing the newbies and fatties (me) at the back and rain toward the end. It takes serious mental strength to push through the kind of pain that was delivered to the crew by mother nature.
Lawrence and Kim had organised massuers at the hotel. We were all over them like fat kids on cupcakes. Chas even tried to go for seconds the cheeky porra.
Then to dinner, fines and bed. Apparently someone was snoring so badly it sounded like they were chopping down trees - poor roommate.
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