257km, 4300 alt gain, 16 hours ride time
Today was a spicy meatball. I really struggled to cope with the hard endeavour of prior day and the blazing 40 degree heat. But kept moving and hydrated as much as possible, however my average speed was lower than planned meaning a late finish coming into Sofia at 1am.
It was a nice flowing start coming out of Gabrovo while the morning was still crisp, but needed sleep so that set me off at 8:30 which put all the big climbs in the heat off the day. It’s a very hard balance getting the right sleep but avoiding heat – but that’s what makes these races so intriguing.
The amount of climbs today was staggering. Sitting watch Tour de France stages you are in awesome of those climbers, and often wonder ‘what would it be like to do a true Hors climb’ – well today was that day. 20km, 4 hours, 1100m of switchback alt gain in a single climb!! Holy smokes
Video:
I started the drop down at 4pm with another 100km to go to Sofia. That 100km was filled with at least 6 medium climbs (think Chapmans Peak). The poor body was starting to fight heat exhaustion at this stage, first sign is constant dry mouth regardless of how many litres of water you down.
I took a little nap in shade and ate some some power food and let night fall come to get cooler. Then it’s was a case of red bull and good tunes to get me through the final 50km.
Such bazaar moments in this race. With 20km to go I was bonking big time, starting to get hazy, spotted a McDonalds sign, pulled up and there are 5 other TCR riders all tucking in at 12:30 am – hilarious. The McD did the job and was instantly revitalised. Checked into hotel and did quick chores of washing riding clothes and doing the necessary ‘bum maintenance’ 😂
