Paris Dakar Stage 2, hot hot hot

Stage 2 of 60, Day 2 of 71: 114.5 km, 922m, 4:39, 196 shifts, ave speed 24.5, max speed 57.6

The second day started out a bit later. I slept until 7am then had 30 minutes to pack. Breakfast was the standard Bike Dreams fare: hot chocolate, muesli with bananas and yogurt and milk, bread, optional eggs. After eating I finished packing and was impressed that I remembered the trick to twisting the wet tent into it’s bag first try.

We left in a big group at 8:40 and it was blissfully cool, nice cruising, up and down, all on country roads with little traffic. It was really beautiful and I was taking it as easy as possible, never leading, always in the back half of a peloton of 10-20 people. We were under orders not to get to lunch too early so stopped at 50 km for a nice break at a café, 40 minutes relaxing, chatting and drinking. From there it was only another 13 km to lunch, a repeat of yesterday. But this time I made sure to eat more and drink as much as possible. I made sure to have lots of salty foods like olives and pickles and peanuts along with a LOT of cheese, bread and veggies.

After lunch, we only had 50 km to go and at first it went really well. We were riding smoothly and pretty fast. Towards the end, it got steeper and much hotter. My power dropped again and I was struggling a bit. The last section to the town of Vezelay was in full sun, kind of steep (felt super steep) and slow. Finally, in town I found the fast guys trying to decide where to have a beer. Unfortunately Wytze spied a nice place on the map at the top of the town, so we did an extra 40m climb up a very steep street, in the sun, ending at a closed café but a beautiful church. We went back to the bottom of town and had beers and shared 2 liters of bubbly water. That was great but just sitting outside in the shade was the best. I felt rejuvenated. Maybe tomorrow, which is longer and has double the climbing, I will use this strategy again.

We felt better and cruised the last 1 km to the campground. I was really sweaty and wanted a shower but knew soup should be first. It was a delicious spicy pea soup; I had two giant bowls and some bread and lots of water. Then a shower, warm unfortunately, again with no temperature control. I set the laundry to dry, set up my tent, and worked on the blog.

The internet died so it was time for a nap. In a few seconds I woke up and it was almost dinner time. Rice, several kinds of veggies, salad, plenty of wine, then apple torte with cream for dessert. This time I had seconds on dinner, two big plates full. What more do you want?