Day 2: cooler, faster and nicer

 

Day 2 was a much, much nicer day than yesterday. The temperature was much lower big part of the day and a cool breeze was coming in that helped a lot compared to yesterday. We made 143 kms in 6 hours and 27 minutes of moving time, with an average of 22.2 km/h. Much higher than the 20 km/h average from yesterday. 

I see the ride in 3 phases. The first one with rolling hills, which we all took gingerly. Nobody was sure how the legs would react after the ordeals of yesterday and all were riding very carefully not to push too much. We got some very gentle hills and amazing roads with no cars at all. Until around 50 kms when we did our first pit stop we were cruising easily. 

The second part of the day is when we dis the longest climb of the day, 20 kms with a steep start and a long climb around 4% gradient. Easy but long. And better even, mostly protected by the sun. After this one, a short descent brought me to the biggest challenge of the day: the col de Montalet. A 3 km climb with 2 kms around 10% and parts of 16% inclination. Really hard but Im happy that I decided to tackle it (there was an option to do a shortcut and avoid it). When I started my heart raced too quick up and I decided to stop for a second. The temperature was around 37 degrees at this point. I took a couple of long seeps of water, let the heart rate go down to 135 beats per minute and then started again, completing the last 2 kms no problem. 

The rest of the day, with around 50 kms to go was very fast. Mostly it was downhill with an occasional climb around 5 or 6%. I stayed with the group and we arrived together in the hotel. Happy to have used this day to recover and enjoyed great roads in this region of France. 

FEAR - That been said, one thing that is bothering me is my way to descent steep hills. I’m not doing a great job and frankly it is embarrassing. When descending inclines over 10% I’m really chickening out and breaking heavily. And the same time I’m afraid to break too much and overhythe tires, causing them to explode.  Which makes me really tense in the downhills. Part of it is due to not having done big mountains for 4 years. One loses the touch and confidence. In other words, fear creeps in. Other is that this is the first time I have carbon wheels with rim breaks and I don’t what is the limit to overheat them and they do break and behave differently from aluminum wheels. Today I pushed myself a little harder on some turns. Let’s see if I can control this and lose the fear of crashing. They say when you are afraid of something you invite it to happen and if you have the technique and control, nothing happens. 

LIVE TRACKING - Regarding the live tracking, sadly something went wrong when I updated the new link in the blog. The page didn’t updated and the link for today was not saved. I just realized that after I checked back at our destination. ☹️ I will double check tomorrow. 

Photos of today: