Day 2

Today's stage began with a 10km pavement rollout from the small town of Lake Cowichan. We had an auto escort that took us out of town to a short fire road climb. As soon as the car pulled off, the battle was on. As we crested the first climb, we settled into a pace line with a bunch of fast racers taking turns on the front. This train was motoring and we soon caught the main peloton that was comprised of about 50 other racers including all of the race's leaders. It was really cool to be sitting on the wheels of North America's top pros including Kelli Emmett and Katie Compton. At about 50km, the group hit the first mandatory check-in where the race volunteers scan your number plate. Chaos ensued as three hopeless volunteers tried to scan and write down as many numbers as possible. The pros bolted, AV and I stopped and filled our Camelbacks and bottles. The next 50km involved me setting a blistering pace that I felt I could maintain until the end. We would catch a team or two, sit on their wheels for a couple of minutes, then pull into the wind and hammer until we could reach the next group. At about 100km or so, the heat was getting oppressive and we dialed back the pace a touch to make sure we could finish. We suffered up the last climb and hit the day's token piece of singletrack with the dexterity and bike handling of beginners due to haze of fatigue that was taking over our bodies. After the singletrack it was short jaunt on some pavement and a drop down to a recreational track for the finish.

Some totals from the day:
5 hours, 3 minutes racing.
Just over 125km covered.
27th place overall out of 92 open men teams
Three 60 ounce Camelbacks consumed by me alone
5 Gu's
1 Pack of Clif Bloks
1 Pack of Sharkies

Tomorrow is going to be a tough one. 85km with four very big climbs and the day ends with some super-technical 1track.

Sorry, no pictures today. We were faster than our support crew anticipated and beat them to the finishing town of Port Alberni. Be sure to check out AV's blog over here and the Grande Americanos here.

Thanks for reading,

Blue Star