TransRockies Day 3 - Livin' on a Prayer

We slept under the stars last night. Four of us shared about twelve feet of space under the awning. Half of the space was occupied by Erik an I on our thermarests and Craig on his cot. The other half was occupied by Jon on his giant blow up princess mattress.

It was a little bit cooler outside than I had bargained for. Despite my awareness that temperatures in the moutains are known to fall substantially at night, it was hard to imagine that was possible when it was still tshirt and shorts weather when the stars came out. I guess that's kind of like how it is hard to imagine what five and a half hours of mountain biking is like when you are sitting in the comfort of your chair at work.

When we lined up at the start, we were advised that we had been moved up to group two (of three) based on our overall performance from day two. This was flattering and a nice surprise as we had not given much thought to our performance relative to the group. We quickly learned that this move came at a price as we were surrounded by cyclists that had a notably more competitive mindset.

Cindy and I rode the stage at our own pace. Around mile 57, we came up with our TransRockies prayer:

My partner I'm so diggin'
Cause awesome she's so friggin'
Wicked is her speed
Johnny apple seed
Amen

The fun died down as we started a sketchy descent that had major water bars cutting across the trail. We were eventually stopped and asked to wait, as there had been a crash that required a helicopter rescue. Ultimately, I think three people were airlifted out from separate incidents during the day.

It was a very fast day overall. We rode strong and were happy coming across the line in a little over 7.5 hours.

My daily massage getting harder, as there is not a lot of surface area that is affected by cuts, scrapes, bruises or blisters.