111km (1,060m vertical)
Tough day of cycling. Not really a lot of fun. But even a bad day on the bike has a sense of accomplishment at the end of it. It was Manon's birthday too, although we'll have to save the celebration for tomorrow night in Bucharest.
We rode all day on the same road, which was really busy. It seems that every trucker in Romania hits the road early on a Monday morning, and they were all racing past us without giving much room at all. We had two big climbs in the morning, with two steep descents that really made people nervous in the heavy traffic. Several riders decided to catch a lift with the tour van to lunch.
Then there were the dogs. There were 2 that charged out onto the road at me today. Both times were in the middle of climbs, when I couldn't ride away very quickly. I just yelled at them and that made them hesitate long enough for me to get up the road.
There was also a lot of construction en route. At one point, I did an entire downhill pulling my brakes because there was a long line of backed-up traffic. And there was a 5km back-up leading into the lunch stop where we were cycling on a tiny bit of loose shoulder beside stopped cars and trucks. Not fun.
Finally, there was the heat and sun, which were back again this afternoon after a few days of respite. When we started riding, at 7am, it was 59F. When we finished, at 2pm, it was 96F.
“Camp” today is on the property of a small hotel. We booked a few rooms to use the showers, and pitched tents on the small patches of dirt and weeds around the building. Most people decided to take their sleeping bags and have a “sleepover” in the hotel common room.
Manon on her birthday (she doesn't usually have the flowers and balloons on her bike):
No comments:
Post a Comment