Race Day 2

Despite it being the toughest day on paper: 88km (54miles) and 3200m of climbing, we had so much fun today. 

We spent most of the day in the Czech Republic. The terrain was noticeably different from yesterday which was all in Poland.  The climbs were not so step and there were more pine forests.

While me, Tash, Steph and Anna all started together we were soon separated in the huge number of riders in the mass start. Happily we all came together again after about 1.5hrs and rode the rest of the day (6hrs 20) together. It was great to be in company and we laughed and chatted our way round the course.

There was some incredible single track which was good enough to rival any Welsh or Scottish trail centre.

We all had our bad moments though. My lower back was very sore from the previous day but was hideously painful after the biggest climb of the day.  Steph had a slow puncture on one of the trickiest steepest descents but managed to come down keeping most of her weight on the front wheel. Goodness only knows how she managed to stay on the bike! Tash had a bad time on the last few km. But being together meant that we were always able to  help eachother keep our spirits up.

We all came over the line together on 5th place.

The big news of the day though was that Iwona was top of the podium!.  Well done Iwona! She was incredibly quick and still looked pretty fresh afterwards.

Two stages down, two to go!