Today got off to a bit of rocky start. Traveling is always a nightmare, and this time was no different. Somehow my bike never made it to Paris, so I had to ride a rental today. The rental is actually quite nice though. It’s a Rose bike, and I’ve always liked German engineering.
Due to traveling issues, I didn’t get to Marseille until midnight last night, and with a 5am wakeup, things were going to be a little challenging. I think I got about 20 minutes of sleep last night, and since I was already awake before the alarm, getting up wasn’t too difficult.
We started the day with a bit of a swim competition. Sadly, since I packed my wetsuit with my bike, I had to try and swim in just a speedo today. I took three strokes in the Medditerranean and said there’s no way. The water was way too cold. Instead I went for an easy run and took some nice pictures.
The bike ride for today was promised to be huge. And it delivered. :) After riding for 70 miles, we found ourselves at the base of Mont Vonteux. This is an absolutely gigantic mountain: The route we would take to the top would cover 13 miles and ascend 5000+ feet. That is massive!
About 25 minutes into the climb, John Newsom passed me for the lead. This sucked. Physically I couldn’t push much harder with the last of climbing gears, and mentally I didn’t think I could catch up with Newsom.
And then a miracle happened. Somewhere before the 6k to go mark, Newsom exploded and left a massive crater on the ground. There was support stationed at 6k to go, and Newsom pulled off to drink some coke. When I saw that, I was almost furious. How could he do this now? He was winning by a considerable margin, and then he stops? What the heck?? Apparently later I found out that he could barely push 200w, so it sounds like he was not in good shape. I pushed for the summit and made it in 1:38. I missed my goal by eight minutes, but it doesn’t matter that much. I gave it my all (which arguably wasn’t much,) and ended with the King of the Mountains jersey.
Due to missing the swim this morning, I’m a little behind on yellow. Three points exactly. That can be made up pretty quickly.
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