September 3, 2016
You’re probably wondering where day one is. It’s coming soon, the lads are going to write it, lets just say it wasn’t pretty.
In bad condition I set out at around 6-45am on my 2nd day ready to climb the Rocky Mountains. It’s pretty cold in the morning so I had a jacket on etc. I knew this was my toughest day with a 60-70 mile climb. It’s quite hard to comprehend a road that goes up for 60 mile and it turns out it’s even harder to ride it.
It was absolutely brutal. It’s not massively steep, with the biggest grade coming in at 14%, but riding uphill for 6 hours certainly takes it’s toll. In addition I was really struggling with the altitude. It’s a strange feeling, I wasn’t totally depleted of energy but I was gasping for breath, even downhill I was panting. The views were stunning but it’s quite scary cycling through the Rockies, I kept thinking I could see a bear!
My legs are feeling decent despite a tough few days and I’m looking forward to a relatively flat ride today across the Nevada desert!
The van is excellent and we’re starting to get used to life on the road, despite being only two days in. The washing pile is a bit excessive though! Rob assures me it’s going to be sorted today! Rob has done an amazing job in the van, it’s absolutely massive (30ft) and he navigates it like a go kart. Matt is very useful indeed and it would have been so much harder had he not been with us.
Overall it’s been much tougher than I thought these first two days, but it’s no where near as hard as the challenges face by the children I’m raising money for, is it?
