Well, at least I finished this one. It's been a tough year. It seems that I wiped myself out on the Italian Alpi 4000 and never quite recovered.
Bordeaux - right after Alpi, running behind and deciding not really safe to continue.
Philippines - car altercation
Florida - too flat and easy to quit
New Zealand - same as Bordeaux, actually not seriously behind, just slow, didn't feel safe riding through the night.
Virginia - finished without issue
Italy Verona - same as Bordeaux
Bulgaria - on time but saving myself for France / PBP, stopped at 600
France - altercation with another cyclist
Australia - finished but not really pretty.
Day 1 300 - was slow. Hot, biting flies when slow, rough roads. Hamid then broke his seatpost which I (Dave T) and Dave R helped him get through but it was time to call it a day and leave the 100k part until day 2. Finished at 10:30.
Day 2 100k - 4am depart, slow. More flies. More rough roads.
Day 2 300k - more of the same. Finished up after dawn.
Day 3 300k - I suggested 10:30 start. Hamid wanted 11:45. We compromised and rode separately :). I finished up around 5:15 am. Hamid 7 am? I had a good ride albeit cold to finish. Hamid rode last 200k with Dave R.
Day 4 2x100k - I was going to get my usual 3 hrs sleep and leave about 9:15 but woke up to a text suggesting 10. Ok, I went back to sleep. The first 100k was tough. I knew that we needed the break so spent 1/2 hour at hotel in between. We finished at 12:30 am vs the 1:43 time limit. Colder still. Wildfire smoke. More of the same flies, rough roads in the first 100.
There was some climbing but not overly much. Rough roads ate watts. Flies, about 1/2 the size of a house fly, drove you crazy. They would walk across my glasses.
I was pretty strung out with shoulder issue and cold, but it wasn't really cold. I'm needing more sleep and fueling isn't really doing well. I'm not as organized as I used to be. Body temp control never was good and now worse.
Jason asked me if I was mentally ready. The answer was a definite no but I kept that to myself.
Back - tied in knits.
Knee - no issue except at the beginning of day 4 it was clicking for the first couple of kms.
Riding days may be numbered.
From my iwdt
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