"50ish km of gentle uphill, then its mostly downhill, what can be so hard?"
Today was 34 degrees, and there was a wind of 15-20mph, and guess what? it was in our faces for most of the downhill and ride to the finish.. I've been back for about 2 hours, and nobody feels like they have had an "easy day " to let the legs recover after the Alps. We made this mistake on Stage 4.. riding 180km is never easy (especially with 2,000km in the legs from the previous 10 days..)
The first part of the day was great. A lovely flatish 45km leading into the one classified climb of the day. The category 3 Col de Cabre was a great ascent, 5km long with an average of a 6.5% gradient. I climbed this with Dermott, a 53yr old iron man triathlon competitor (pb 11hrs 49) and heard a few good stories on the way up.
The descent off the Col was unusual in that it was 13km long, very nice after only climbing for 5km..
Once through the 100km mark, it was clear that the final 80km were going to be a grind into the wind that was blowing right into us. I rode this last few hours of the day in a well organised peloton of 5 (Dermott, Olli, Doug and John), helping each other through the psychologically tough sections. We had to ensure that Olli stayed awake on his bike as there were a few occasions when he was wobbling all over the road.
The awesome fivesome
We rolled into Bourg Les Valence at our earliest time so far, just on 4.15pm. How nice to see the lovely swimming pool at the entrance to our hotel complex, it wasn't long before everyone was having a dip and massaging their sore bits under the jet sprays.
Also a surprise was to get my own room for the first time! big double bed too... i haven't slept well at all since i've been here (still feel wired most nights as i get to bed), hopefully the 8am start tomorrow means i can get some decent sleep. Tough day tomorrow with 210km and a very nasty finish!
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