Transwales - Day 6

Today was the last special stage. Once again it was in the morning so I got a slightly later start. I had slept better the night before and although a little dozy felt more up for the riding. An amazing start to the day was that it wasn't raining when we woke up, we even had blue skies! I didn't manage to help Ali with the packing at all but since she had a dry day she wasn't really bothered. My time for the special stage was 10:13am, 3 minutes behind Joe and Ollie had decided not to ride it and go straight to the start of the linking stage. So Joe and I set out just before 9:30am, it was hilly on the way up but all on roads with spectacular views. Once we got there they were only just starting, a little late. But they soon caught up as lots of people weren't riding. This special stage was a lot of fun. I felt really strong on the hills, spinning past a lot of people. I just need to work on the downhills. I seem to be really slow in the singletrack, but I'm sure its just practice I need to try and get to some trail centres.

After that we headed over to where the linking stage was starting, they had set the people off who were doing only the linking stage at 10:30am I didn't start till just after 11:45am. Once again most of the day was spent riding on my own and picking people off on climbs. About halfway through I started coming across people who hadn't rode the special stage so I knew I wasn't making bad time. The riding was fantastic today, nice rocky descents and amazig views. Just near the end I heard a shout and Ali was there to get a picture and tell me I was only a few miles from the campsite. I stopped to get the car keys off her as she thought she'd be a while and joked that she needed to get back to wash my bike. Once I got to the finish I noticed there was no queue for the bike wash and got my bike clean then went searching for the car, which I found. This time there were no cars on the field so I then had to search for the tent. As I was doing this I heard Ali shout, she had rushed back to wash my bike - I had been joking, oops!

Once again I made the podium that evening, I was closer to 2nd this time, but still 7minutes behind. But I was only 30seconds off Joes's time, the closest I'd been all week. We now had to wait till tomorrow for final places, but I assumed I was comfortably in 3rd.

83.6km @ 13.7km/h 139bpm
Max Speed 55.3km/h max HR 181bpm