The queen stage - 120km and 2750m climbing

Hamish cannot remember a lot of the stage. Leah can remember all of it because it was damn long with a ton of steep climbing (which to her surprise, on a mountain bike, apparently means “walking” – she was not alone in this) and she rode a dang lot of it by herself (REALLY need to work on those descending skills. Somewhere in the Netherlands.). For Hamish, the 3 leaders got away on the first KOM climb, and then they were gone. His group started with 5 riders, then 3 in the small “chase” group and then stayed together until the last 2 climbs.

Hamish’s group took turns working, and waited on the hills for each other, and agreed that they would race from the last two climbs (yep it was really that kind of stage). To put this in perspective, there were 3 aid stations. By the 1st, 4 people had dropped out, there had been 2 (at least) significant crashes (although nothing serious e.g., broken), and the field was spread far and wide. Fortunately the organizers kept a random element in the mix on a day that didn’t really need it – at the last aid station the cheerful gent said “ 2 more climbs”. Unfortunately, there were 3 (!!) more climbs and the last one was an absolute grovel. Loose gravel, steep as nuts. It is lucky that Hamish was NOWHERE near Leah as she went up it, because the air was blue, and the bike was close to getting thrown over the edge. (This would have given Leah an excuse to buy the full suspension (to save her butt), the bike she thinks she wants!).

For Hamish, it was race on at this point and the truce for the last 60km was broken, on what his group thought was the 2nd to last climb, and the skinny Spaniard rode away, as he tried in vain to follow. No luck, and the gap increased again on the next climb, and the final climb, that Leah was swearing on. The only positive was Hamish managed to gap the third rider in his group, to come in 5th on the day.

It was nice to finish in the same camp for a second night, and VERY nice to recognize the last 5 Ks and know you were almost home on a day like that.

Hamish: 5:34:55

Leah: 5:14:00

Fastest: 5:19:10

Slowest: 10:40:00

Cold shower and 4 person cabin

Our little 4 person cabin trying to dry cycling kit.

Scenery from the day.