Well, what can I say about Day 2.... HOT.... and LONG... and VERY HILLY! The first 1.5 miles was an 8% climb and that basically set the tone for the day. 88 miles to go and, 30 degrees centigrade, and no cloud cover. Managed to get suntan lotion in my eyes so they stung all morning. Had to find a chemist and get some eyewash. The best I could do with my limited language skills was to buy a box of 48[!] eyewashes. Couldn't give 'em away! The pain finally subsided at lunchtime. By lunch the pain and heat had caused a headache and I had to force my food down. Felt totally sick and thought I was not going to make the day, but after lunch when the pain in my eyes had subsided things started to pick up.
Funny story of the day... not the most ladylike thing to do but was riding with a guy and my eyes were streaming because of the suntan lotion in them and my nose was full to dripping! All I could think of was "please just ride on because I need to get rid of this snot". Anyway, after what seemed like an age the guy said, "I'm gonna crack on now, see ya". "Thank God" I thought and as soon as he was 10 yards ahead I let out one massive snot shot... only then didn't I hear a scream.... turned out some guy had ridden up silently behind me! I got him with a proper spiderman slingshot! LOL. My team mates found it really funny when I eventually caught up with them!
Lunchtime was the other side of this bridge... Looks flat yea? [see first photo]. Nope... see next photo!) View from the top was brilliant tho! and windy! thought my bike was going to get blown off the bridge on the way down.
Sun finally went behind the clouds for the last 10 miles of the day. I was riding with Patrick (one of Action Medical Research's staff riders) and we were finally able to crack on... both of us had struggled because he had done about as much training as me and the heat was killing us. We rewarded ourselves with a cornetto!
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