Thursday, August 27, 2009

Day 3 - Loihuno to Betano

DAY 3: Loihuno – Betano 95km

PAUL PIAIA'S BLOG: 
This stage was a relatively long and flat stage on a mix of bitumen, rock and sand with a couple of river crossings. Again the stage began with a downhill section where again I witnessed a terrible crash where a guy slipped on a down ramp from a bridge going really fast, to later have 7 stitches in his hip and end his race. I found todays stage terrible hard because of the long rocky roads, unable to get a constant rhythm going and used too much energy just to stay upright. A day where a dual suspension bike would have certainly come in handy yet I had a hard tail and literally thought the bike was going to fall apart. Luckily it didn’t but in the heat and bumpy roads my energy was certainly depleted. Having lost a drink bottle on the rocky roads I slowly became dehydrated and found it hard to keep up with some of the packs. But as the roads got better once we hit the south coast I was able to keep a consistent pace and swapping leads with a Malaysian national rider I kept up a good pace to the finish line and even had enough strength for a sprint finish.



TEAM LOG:  

Piotr's dual suspension came into it's own with his ride "relatively easy, fairly fast track, with some nasty surprises and big holes!" For the other mortals with "hard tails", the ride was best described by Paul, "first half was very rough, hard to keep a consistent speed, hard on the bike and body. Second half was flat with groups moving very fast." After finishing at Betano we camped on the beach, swam amongst fishing boats, black sand, and around two hundred spectators.

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