Fighting back from the start
16 August, stage 6. We’re past the halfway point of the race, after 7 hours in a van on a day they insist on calling a “rest day”. A rest for the family, perhaps, since I was able to use my mobile phone after many days cut off.
After a warm night, at 7:30 we head to the start line of a stage that climbs the whole way. An untimely puncture for our own Nines, leader of her category, puts us on edge. We rush to fix it in time, and we’re just tightening the quick-release when the race starts. In the end I set off last.
I set off as best I can, adjusting my CamelBak, until I catch Nines before the first feed station, while she’s riding second among the women. I tell her “let’s go” and start pulling without holding back. Shortly afterwards there would be a crash that ended with a cracked rib.
Even so, I keep pulling with Nines, and we pass lots of people. The route changes from an ugly “Monegros-like” landscape, as bleak as that Spanish desert, to a lovely mountain valley. The last part is beautiful. The first herd of yaks takes us by surprise: those hippie cows with their manes blowing in the wind tell us we’re getting higher and higher. Children wave at us as we ride past their gers, some give us flowers and stretch out to shake our hands. We keep climbing and picking people up, the slope gets steeper and steeper and our group keeps growing. You can tell tomorrow is the queen stage of the race, nobody wants to burn more than they need to. 5 hours and 116 kilometres later we reach the finish line. Worth a mention: the first stage win for former Liberty rider Carlos Abellán, handed to him by the race’s undisputed leader, the Italian Marzio Deho.