Monday 9th June 2008.
Epic Camp, day 2
The day started with a 50 min run to the pool, and an easy, early morning sort of a pace. We met the others there with our kit and were lead through to another enormous and beautiful out door 50m pool. Not as cold as the previous, so no wetsuit this time. I attempted to do one of the point scoring swim sets 10x200 on3.35, which I usually quite easy for me short course, but just wasn’t working out for me on this occasion. I adjusted the times to 3.45 and completed the minimum swim requirement for the day that way.
Gordo set a much faster paced run back from the pool, requiring a bit of a loop to make the 50 min and then breakfast in the hotel before our ride, which would see the start of the KOM competition.
Feeling good after a short spin out of town, when the road starting pointing upwards and some of the riders dropped back a bit, I decided to stick with the group of guys at the front and hold their pace. Gordo made a surge off the front, which no one followed so I sat with John, Steven and Scot behind me, enjoying the work up the incline. Before long it became apparent that no one was especially keen to share the work load and a few cracks were made about ‘protecting the pink’ me being Steven’s domestic as I towed toward the ‘real’ hill where KOM would be scored. I’d been sitting on a heart rate of about 170 bpm for about an hour when we reached the start of the climb over Passo Vezzena (a mere 1400m) so when Scott cheekily waved at the ‘14km ‘ sign and upped the tempo, I wasn’t about to respond. Instead I felt stuck on a HR in the 150s and watched the wiser riders pull away into the distance ahead, frustrated at having made such a pretty novice error. Still, the rest of the campers were no where in sight, and I was satisfied with 5th position and after just a couple more hours slogging through rain, our exertions were finally rewarded when the sun came out and shone on a glorious descent back into town at the end of the ride.
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