Stage 6

Got up this morning to the sound of cool African music, they pound it each morning to wake us up. This race is so unbelievably organized. The breakfasts are great and coffee is ready at 5 am. Gary tells me he is ready and I feel super charged. I have changed bikes, yesterday I tore the sidewall off a tire and had to tape it and use a tube to finish. My front shock also blew up for the second time this week and my new XTR brakes are loosing pressure. My second bike is the Flash, 16 lbs of cruise missile, the perfect weapon for the biggest vertical climb day. Once again we are at the back starting gate. 500m out of the race stadium I tare a sidewall off my rear tire. Because we are now in separate categories in the race but choosing to stay together as a team we wouldn't be penalized for not crossing the timing mats along the race course. Gary continues on solo and I run back to the start area, find a young guy crawling out of his tent after working on bikes all night and together he sets me up with a new tire and stands fluid. 32 min later I head out again but this time I encounter that the signs and race course marking ribbons have already been changed for our return to the finish line later in the day. I decide to follow the 1000 tire tracks and soon feel I'm heading the right direction. I don't catch my first rider until the 14 km mark. Then my front tire has begun to loose air. I throw some CO2 in it and continue on, not seeing signs of a hole in the tire. 8 kms down the trail it's flat again, so I inflate it and hope to reach the first water stop. When I get there I'm low again so I open the tire and dump 3 stands sealant in, inflate and head out. I've lost over 45 mins on tire repairs but feel strong and the bike loves to climb so we put the hammer down and finally catch Gary at around 100kms. He has had a steady day but doesn't want to flow up in the last single track so sends me on. Without the downtime I would have won the individual competition that day in the standings. It felt fantastic to have had such a strong ride and was without doubt my favorite riding day.