Stage 2: York to Sheffield

Wow. 200km, 4000m of climbing, 9 classified hills (and several unclassified), 14 hours on the road and at least 10 of them riding. The biggest day I've ever had physically.

The briefing was for one of the toughest days of the tour, and frankly it looked impossible. Hill profiles are just so scary looking, and if yesterday taught me one thing it's that a lot can be achieved one pedal stroke and one km at a time.

I was nearly in tears for the first 40km, my glutes wouldn't fire up once again, I couldn't stand up on the pedals and I was having 'How the hell am I going to do this tour thing' thoughts. At the first stop (and the next three) I had ten minutes of physio, and thankfully it worked. The muscles are there, they just don't like turning on.

There were some amazing views, some horrendous climbs. It was actually a really great day and I had a great time- it was just also long and hard!

Darwin connection update: proving once again that Darwin is the centre of the universe I've so far talked to three people on tour with a Darwin connection. One has mates who just did the Alice MTB Enduro, another has two kids in Darwin and spent some time working at Alice Springs hospital, one one of the wonderful physios has family there too.

BVS Update: 

A second day in the saddle is always a bit, well, uncomfortable. I was kind of glad to feel it though, because it meant the pain in my knees wasn't too bad. I went with Sudocreme and Vaseline, and aside from the soreness of sitting on one spot for too long there was no numbness (nothing like pins and needles in your nether region to freak you out) and no extreme chafing. For Stage 3 I'm tribally the Rolls Royce of chamois creams, Assos, so I'll let you know how that goes.

After arriving at 10pm last night, in bed at 11pm (food, massage, shower). Awake at 4:45am, breakfast at 5am, bus at 5:30am. 2 hour transfer, easy peddle (160km) from Cambridge to London, and then a quick catch up with mates before going to FRANCE!