Day 2 - The worst day so far!

Day 2,  23 June 2013, Bastia to Ajaccio, 154 km 4 mountain climbs 3x3 cat and 1x2 cat

Information, information, information.

Tough but beautiful. Four categorized climbs and now the riders are starting to appreciate the enormity of the task. Both Nick and Matt have decided to go slower, Matt to conserve his knee and Nick to conserve his energy otherwise these is no way either of them will cope with the last four days of the Tour in over 2 weeks time.

Roadside view

The aim is to ride themselves fitter and to keep energy expenditure to a minimum. Today’s route was spectacular with the weather hot and sunny. One rider was very late back, a psychiatrist called Adrian. He said he had been in a bad place all day but still did all the miles.

View of Ajacchio from halfway down the last climb
 

Sarah and I flew back from lovely warm Corsica today (Sunday) and it felt quite sad leaving the boys behind and worrying too. I try not to think about the ride too much, Matt has had so much trouble with his knee and then a really heavy cold just when his knee was sorted out so he hasn't been able to train as much as he had hoped. Nick has done masses of training so he's really 'flying' at the moment but his age is against him and it's not like we've got lots of hills in Norfolk to train on.
Nick phoned tonight after I'd got home and he sounded very tired. The route was much hillier today, like doing  Cheddar Gorge in England four times! Matt was more upbeat despite the fact that his other knee is playing up now! TdF have got a physiotherapist with them so he had seen him and was hoping for the best and I am too.


I must just mention our week staying in the apartment in Porto Vecchio which I couldn't before because we were all away from home. We actually arrived in Corsica a week before the start of the ride which Nick felt was a good move because the temperature in Corsica was 30 degrees and it meant that both the boys had a bit of time to acclimatise before having to cycle up mountains!

 

They didn't do any training in that week but just relaxed in the warmth, swam in the beautiful pool where the swallows were doing high velocity dives to steal a drink, and ate food which we mainly prepared ourselves in the lovely modern 2nd floor apartment with its large balcony. It was very hot so the air conditioning was useful in order to get a good night's sleep.Every night an army of little frogs appeared round the base of the big globes set in the manicured irrigated lawns, out to catch a feast of insects attracted to the lights. The week went too quickly and in no time at all we were saying goodbye on that last evening.