Betano to Maubisse

Distance – 70km
Altitude gain - 2350m
Going – Significant climbing, to a peak of 1835m, then winding back down to 1464
Surface – Largely bitumen with small sections of dirt washouts.

Ze Mountain Climb.

A gradual introduction, a long steady gradient, a gradient to scare goats then a descent. With the GC leader's jersey changing hands after yesterday's breakaway, and the stage profile indicating decent time to be made or lost.... we'll let's just say I wasn't holding out great hope of this being my day.

The pace on the false flat from the beach was reasonable, all the contenders had guys at the front, just tapping out the ks. As we reached the lower slopes of the climb the road that on the course profile looked steady turned out to be kickers followed by flat followed by kickers. My legs ate up the short pinches, but I could feel my heart rate steadily climbing, by the time the steady climb up to and through Same (pronounced Sarm-ey) started I had hit my limit and fallen off the back. I was to later find out that it was then that the winning attacks were starting to go off the front.

Through Same the day started to get warm, some might even call it hot. Knowing the length of the climb and the gradient increases towards the top I decided that I would try to hold a steady tempo and search for shady sections of road to ride in whenever possible. I soon joined another rider and we set about getting through the day.



A friend of mine, Justin, caught us after 20 or so minutes. Justin takes my award for toughest bloke on the tour, as he rode the entire thing on his Single Speed. Knowing that Justin was on his SS, I had figured him gone for the day after he lost contact with the bunch on the lower slopes. Having him ride through me was a shock, and right then I was ready to write the day off completely. I can't tell you what got me across to his wheel, but we were soon riding together, leaving my previous companion behind.





At the feed station on top the first KOM I took on water, more of it going over my head than went into my bottles. Once on the road again we were joined by the leading female rider, someone I knew well from racing back home, Tory Thomas. Even though she was climbing faster than me, I thought I would help and put myself on the front and set a tempo on the climb. A couple of times I looked back to find I'd ridden off the front and cursed myself for being a bad domestique. After a while as we gained sight of another rider, I decided to go solo and see if I could chase them down.

On the first hard pinch of the summit climb, I stood up and punched it, taking a huge chunk out of their lead. By the third brutal switch back I had caught and passed them. I knew big muscles were good for climbing, bring on the 20-25% gradient efforts!

Stand and sprint, sit and recover then repeat. This was my world for what seemed like an eternity, but it was worth it, I could see another three riders ahead, and the gap was slowly decreasing. Past schools grounds filled with singing children. Past goats hopping up trails, past the tree line, upwards and onwards, always another hairpin to negotiate. Around 1km to the summit the climb suddenly flattened, the hard work was done, I clicked some gears and got some speed, I knew that soon it would be descending time. :)



The descent was incredible, the now standard metre wide potholes and suddenly changing road surface ensured a steady stream of adrenalin to my endorphins soaked brain. A short 2-3 minute climb finished the stage into Maubisse, I'd never caught the final 3 rabbits, but the worst was done.

As a testament to the effort and heat of the stage riders were caked in salty deposits.



A short climb took us to an outcropping where we were camping, the views were breathtaking.



Stage time: 3:31.02
Stage place: 27th
Overall place: 21st

4 stages down. 1 more to go!