Stage 5

Today was a great day for us! After spending time with the amazingly helpful guys from Polar discussing my energy expenditure and nutritional problems, I simply was not eating, I managed to get myself sorted last night and then we put a plan together for eating on the route. Basically we made sure that we ate on the hour every hour, grazing at least one energy bar but topping that up with GU's and Jellybabies etc. Last night I ate more than I thought was humanly possible as well as drinking gallons of electrolyte drinks. Thankfully it all paid off and today was near perfect. We took the first half easy but steady and gradually worked our way through the field. Then as we climbed out of Botrivier we caught sight of Hansekop which really lifted our spirits as we knew we were close to home. After Botrivier we stepped it up a bit and gave it some horns. We finished in 233rd today which takes our overall placing to 287th which we're pleased with.

Today was meant to be one of the tougher days with 2200+ metres of climbing over 111k's but it was my easiest day yet. Today was a proper MTB stage (unlike yesterday which favoured roadies and sprinters) which played to our strengths with plenty of technical climbing, fast descents and some gorgeous single track right at the end. Initially we were stuck behind a fairly nervous rider in the singletrack but naughtily managed to get past which was great. Now we're really looking forward to the next two days, especially finishing in Lourensford.

Tonight we surprised our wives by coming home. No more camping!!!

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