Oh, Stage 17, just like Stage 16 but shorter, right?!?! Not quite. A relentless day of 3x Cat 1s and a crowning HC made for an extremely tough day, sitting up there with Stages 2 and 10.
All the climbs were relentless, but the last was the hardest. Our last feedstop was on the lawn outside our hotel, and we just had to climb that last hill, and descend again to the same spot.
Aside from my mental/emotional breakdown of a few days ago and my permanent anxiety through the first three stages this was the first time I really questions what the hell I'm doing here. Head in hands, I smashed down a can of coke, found the strength to get back on the bike, and just started pedalling.
This was a day where my triathlon training was really helpful. All those hours and hours of sessions of kilometre repeats come in handy mentally when you face sign after sign saying: x kilometres to go (just ignore the average gradient for the next k). One pedal stroke at a time, one kilometre at a time, one hill at a time, it would appear that anything can be accomplished.
Suddenly you are looking down at that town or lake that you were riding past not that long ago, having accomplished for the fourth time in the day something impossible.
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