Day #4 Speechless

Článek je k dispozici i v češtině 🇨🇿.

I woke up and I didn’t feel any worse or better. The good sign was that my runny nose had stopped in a warm room. I felt little dizzy. I arrived at the hotel at 16:00. That is plenty of time to sleep when you have nothing to do. My Garmin told me that I slept for 4 hours and 12 minutes and got a sleep score of 26 out 100. That was a success. Recent nights Garmin didn’t even recognize I slept. My HVR was 18ms. I wasn’t checking this during the race but for a retrospective view, it’s very interesting.

I put everything on my bike hoping I won’t leave anything behind. I can hardly imagine a thing I would be willing return for.

After a dozen revolutions, I felt that the long rest has helped. The weather situation was better than the forecast predicted. By the morning, I should have already encounter rainy Armageddon, but nothing was happening and sky looked chill.

Nevertheless, I was scared. I rode in a lot of kinds of weather before and every time I knew it was going to be OK. But here with everything I already experienced… I just wasn’t sure I can make it. Knowing this before the race I would take better gloves and jacket. Otherwise, I was OK.

📑 The Checklist

As I was roaming on asphalt road and saw a lot of houses, my bear bell was off … and that was the first time I saw a bear. At first, I thought it’s only a big dog. It appeared just a few seconds on the road and disappeared into the woods. Bear thing was checked.

The funny thing is—in my original plan the Ferndale – next town—was a place where I should sleep for the first time in the race. Because of longer rest yesterday my daily average has dropped to 208 kilometres which wasn’t that bad. But I didn’t do the math in the race so I thought I was in a big trouble and I was ready to do everything to reach Ovando.

I went off the route to reach Ferndale gas station. I had enough food, but I needed a different kind of supply. I heard that here in the US, clothes are very cheap, and I was wondering If I could buy something. Maybe a jumper and gloves.

The jumper would probably be too bulky, and I had one piece of warm fleece in a bag that I was reluctant to use to keep it dry. I found only a three-pack of warm gloves and that wasn’t a bad idea. I could just switch them when they get wet. And when I was already in a shop, I bought a big chunk of jerky which I heard it’s very good there.

⛰️ On My Own

I went back to the wilderness and there was no way back.

As I was climbing the first hill, the weather was still good and I could put a good amount of power into my cranks. The long rest has paid off and I was catching some riders. As talking made me cough I usually just say hi-bye and went my way.

The rain has started near the top of hill. The temperature was about 5°C which wasn’t that bad. The road wasn’t muddy, and I was able to keep my speed. It was just kind of boring. There were no views just the same forest going a little bit up and little bit down. It was like being on a trainer.

It was raining about six hours and then it stopped. It sounds easy when I write it. Let me tell you, I met a guy in a bivy who set up a fire and was trying to warm up. It was a serious weather. Fortunately, I kept myself relatively warm and I was able to eat something now and then.

I was passing Marie-Soleil Blais and we had a short chat about miserable weather. Both of us were coughing and I felt I’m not alone in my suffering.

The seconds endless road in Tour Divide.

Despite my best efforts and sucking tons of cough drops, I lost my voice. I could speak only very silently. But as I passed a guy with a broken crank arm, I didn’t meet anyone to talk with.

🌨️ One Last Hill

Later, muddy roads were slowing my progress, and my bike and chain became very dirty and inefficient. I was wasting my power.

Marshall pass was the last big climb before Ovando. I hoped for the best but at the base of the mountains, it started raining again. My energy level was low. I was stopping on the road unable to move and rain was pouring on me. For every stop, I was able to find strength and climb a little more. As I got to the higher altitude it snowed which made things little bit easier.

A view on Tour Divide from Marshall pass.

The wide gravel road has changed to a narrow singletrack. Small trees covered by snow were bending to my path. I made sure that my bear bell is fully open. I didn’t want any surprise.

For a few kilometres, the descent was a singletrack which was a nice change. As I wasn’t that fast, it doesn’t make me too cold. Then it changed to a wide gravel. In the half of the descent, there was hidden diversion which was hard to notice. I had to get back to find it.

All the trees around had burned down. There must have been some big fire. I had to carry a bike over a few obstacles before I was back on gravel.

🫠 So Close and So Far Away to Finish

I felt I was already in Ovando and I wanted to be there fast so I could get a long rest. I started breathing too heavily. During the day I started to feel a sharp pain in my chest as I coughed. It was on the exact spot where I fell with my bike day before the race. Is it from the fall or is it something more serious?

It wasn’t easy to move forward because road was full of mud. It wasn’t sticky, which was a good sign, but it slowed me down as it was slippery. A few times I almost fell off the bike and saved the situation in the last moment.

When I reached Ovando it was dark, and everyone was already sleeping. As I read about a bear attack in the town a few years back, I was very cautious about where to sleep.

Based on my study of Tour Divide culture, racers usually have three main options (if you don’t want to build a shelter and deal with a bear hang):

Take a hotel
Take a pit toilet
Take a post office

To complete my Tour Divide full sleeping experience I went for option 3. I was hoping I wouldn’t make anyone angry in this small town. It was warm inside and only problem was a light that can’t be turned off.

I was so tired that I didn’t even inflate my air mattress. The pain was strong and I coughed a lot. Despite this, I was able to enter a sleeping mode.