Stage 3 -

It was another tough day. We had slipped down the GC but still in the same "E" start position. Today we rode sensibly but still had difficulties with the heat and duration. We suffered a tire puncture within the opening kilometers - which was a huge bummer as we never saw most of the riders from our start group the rest of the day. From the course profile most of the climbing was supposed to be in the first 25k but several small climbs and the dry conditions really killed us. The final water stop came way too late. It was the first time i had run out of fluids. Losing my bottle of Accelerade didn't help. One of the only highlights was racing ostrich and seeing baboons. The final 10k i really drove it home in a stiff headwind to finish in just under 7:30. I am tired.

Post Prologue Interview

Stage 2 - A Hot One

Last night was the first night sleeping in tents. It was actually remarkably comfortable and convenient with the race organization doing a superb job to set up a temporary city. Stefan and i found out pretty quickly that we needed more time in the morning to prepare as we scrambled to get to our upgraded start position. It was a pretty cool morning but by race start it was already promising to be a hot day. We had been warned that the entire course was under no shade. After both me us cramped yesterday we decided once again we should be conservative or "tourist" as Stefan calls it. The start of the race was like road race were you just try to sit in with the pack as long as reasonable as there is a huge advantage to draft especially on the paved sections between dirt trails. What is reasonable we are still trying figure out.
The course took us on some amazing trails and keep roads through private estates and farms. The locals all came out to cheer us. When the climbing came at 100k sightseeing was over. The climbing was no joke (or so hard it was a joke). A number of extended climbs were not rideable. Stefan was feeling the heat and pain from yesterday's effort while i was miraculously feeling good. We had to stop several times to make sure we took in extra fluids and didn't overheat. Stefan was starting to show signs me heat stroke. At that point we were really tourists. (see photos). We finished the day in 8:36 well of the pace of our seeded start group. We're not exactly sure where we ended up but at this point we just hope to finish. Once again a large number of teams DNF'd or missed the cutoff. They refer to this race as the Tour de France of mountain biking. I think its safe to say with nothing that comes close to this race it is proving worth of that label.
Tomorrow's stage is another 129k starting in Calitzdorp the town we finished in today and ends in Riverdale. The temps will be high again with the arid conditions. They said we could see gazelle and possibly girafe so it should give us a reason to be tourists.

final climb of stage 2

We took a short break up the 2000m climb