Our so called “easy day started with a 6:15 meet in the lobby of the hotel. We drove ~15min unloaded from the vans and started a run with either a 1hour option (1 point) or 2hr option (2points). The first mile was down a significant decline on a paved road and I was left on the wake of the speedier runners. The road flattened and then kicked up for about 3 miles at about 4-5% where the pavement ended and a proper hiking trail started the trail was pretty good to run on for about the first 800m is then the footing got a it technical and the grade really increased such that it became a run/hike towards the top. It was well worth it at 7:30am to reach lac d’Oo
this amazing lake with a waterfall feeding into it. I jogged back down the trail with John N and Phil and I chased after George and the two of them as we retraced our steps on the pavement to complete 2hrs of running. We loaded back in the vans and headed back the hotel to enjoy the most glorious breakfast buffet of the trip so far.
Due to tacking on the extra cycling and running yesterday I moved into the yellow jersey temporarily, a massive 0.25points ahead of John Newsom.
The forecasted high was 42C today and it felt like it as we rode 26km to a lake where we all swam 3km including a competition to see who could get the best estimate of their time for two laps of ~575m. Chrissie was a mere 1 second off her predicted time!!
Instead of riding the 26km straight back to the hotel. I added 30km of riding (worth 1 bonus point)in the valley which felt hot but not too bad. I decided I would try to get another bonus point (awarded for climbing 800m) by climbing up this side of le col de Peyresourde. The 40C plus temp hit me pretty hard with the cooling affect of the wind gone. When I finally had gained 800m of elevation I was only ~2km from the summit so I finished off the climb.
Totals for the day:
Swim 3k (1 point)
Bike 26km x 2. (Lake and back) and an additional 60 km which included the 900m of climbing (5 points)
Run 2hrs (2 points+2 bonus points)
Tomorrow we are riding into Spain!
Epic Camp France 2019 