The good early cycling quickly turned into a steep 5 km climb out of the valley made achievable by a coffee break 1/2 way and a young Chinese traveling musician (who our support van had picked up) playing Stairway to Heaven which was pretty damned appropriate given the climb ahead !
Andrew was suffering day 2 blues after his big effort yesterday while Jacquie proved she was still alive and on the road to recovery ( see her pic below and her great photos)
As for the GC contenders Harro & Sandler again performed well showing that blue cheese and red wine are must training aids for trips like these !
With the climb achieved it was a rocket fuelled descent to lunch although this time done with caution as our road had largely turned into dirt & rock
After a lunch of more veggies and rice we exited town when the master of mayhem Kevin Henley once again took center stage !
Riding with Kev i pulled over to put on the sunscreen that he'd provided - while applying it I asked "what shit sunscreen is this" - as I struggled to rub the thick cream in - H pulled the tube out and started laughing hysterically telling me that he'd given me his bum cream by mistake !
The remaining 39 kms to Rongjiang were some of the toughest any of us have ever ridden slowly traversing unmade road segments with lose rocks and worst off all competing with trucks and vans in the heat on dust choking roads
To the credit of the group everyone kept plodding along fuelled by a massochistic pleasure and about 39 litres of water each !
The day ended with us gratefully cycling into the large town of Rongjiang and direct to our Hotel for a life saving shower and some medical advice on how to remove the lanolin based bum cream !
There's some very tired and dusty cyclists tonight !
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