Stage 4 Barge to Torre Pellice

The lost hour.

Today was a later start after last night's celebrations, and consequently everyone felt relaxed and that it was all over bar the shouting. Even when Claudia announced that an hour was being taken off today's limit no one batted an eyelid.

At the 9.00 am start it was already very hot and we set off up a baking asphalt climb out of Barge. This first climb was effectively 26 km's and soon moved onto a steep tree covered off road climb that became very dark and humid. Here I found Paul crouched over his bike. I stopped to help, but he said he was ok and I rolled on. After passing colle de Rucas, a renowned ski resort, we topped out on the colleto Super Valanza. The descent was a wide white chalky powdered track into a quarry, with huge lorries full of stone coming in the opposite direction.

From the ironbike website:

.....From Rucas athletes go up and down the Col Valanza (1530 m) passing on rough streets full of stones falled down from the trucks that work in this area. Infact, in this valley, the famous “stone of Barge” is produced. It is used for pavements and roofs, all over the world.



I took a wrong turn here but was called back almost immediately by the riders Paul was with. I only lost about 500m but it took half an hour to get back up to Paul, he was strong today. After some rolling up and down stuff, we suddenly came to an almost vertical climb. Paul shows me how to shoulder the bike and we hike-a-bike to the top. An almost as steep descent follows where Paul goes over the bars on a muddy section. He's ok, so I roll on.






At the CP Paul rolls in just as I'm about to leave and says we'd better hurry, there's only four hours to get back.
There's a short descent which leads to the climb of the day ,15 km's the rifiugio Barant. The climb began with an impossibly steep asphalt section, I was in 32/34 and standing for the few km's. After five km's the road became a rough double track, now in the sun the temperature was 35'C plus. The road winds up and up, I glue myself to the backwheel of a friendly Italian rider. I ask the time at the top and realise that It's taken three hours and have an hour to cover almost 30 km's , luckily it's all downhill.....according to the map anyway. I need to be back before 6.30pm

I have to average 30kph! I set off down the loose gravel off-road hairpinned descent, as fast as I dare go, the bike sliding around all over the place. But, as is always the case in Ironbike the downs are full of ups too! And I now feel time slipping away from me, this starts doing things to me emotionally
At first I start to feel angry with ironbike for taking an hour off todays time limit and have a bit of a shout at them. Next I'm frustrated with myself for being weak and not training hard enough, so I have a bit of a shout at myself. Then I start to think about all of the people who've wished me well, and I'm consumed with an enormous and overwhelming sense of shame. Shame that I'm out of the race already, shame that I'm not trying hard enough, shame that I'm letting everybody down, shame that everyone's faith in me is being squandered.
I think about each person who has wished me well : Jane, LCO, Maam, tios Grim and Beryl, Greg, The mighty D, KB..... Then the weird stuff happens and I start crying, sobbing with tears running down my face. I start to draw a lot of strength from this, then I pray........Is this the road to Damascus?
15 km's of asphalt left and I'm flying, big ring and chain fully to the right. I like to think I'm gritting my teeth, but it somehow feels like a beatific grin :-). It's still very close and I cross the finish line and knowing that I'm within a few minutes either side of 6.30. I ask a guy watching the race what the time is and he says 5.27 and I think excellent three minutes inside the time.
As I walk away I realise that he said five not six, and I walk back and say six? "No, five" he says.

I'm too weirded to work out what has happened, so I get my bag and tent.

On the way in I hear "Vegeteriano!" and see Chef waving to me. He's found me some Italiano veggie burgers and gives me a packet. It seems I've become his pet Vegetariano solo- their term for vegan :-) Just another example of how considerate and friendly the IB is.

Tonight we camp inside an ice rink and pitch the tents on the concrete base, the other end is set up for tea. I have a little lie down and and Paul comes over and says " Did you make the cut off?" I said. "Yes" And he tells me that he didn't. I then explain that we didn't need to be in until 6.30 and he smiles. We work out that somehow he'd heard we'd got nine hours to finish(which we had after deducting an hour from the original ten hours)and had taken the hour from the nine. So, he thought we'd only got eight hours for the day!

After tea I noticed Claudia had posted something on the wall. It was a print out of the messages that friends and family had put on the website. It was wonderful, everybody I been thinking about earlier had sent us both well wishes and luck. Now I had that stupid happy grin again.

Later, I wandered the short way into town. Torre Pellice (pron.torray pelleechay) had put on a little show for us in the main piazza. It was about 10pm and a gently warm evening, people were sitting eating gelato, walking arm in arm or just chatting in groups. In the piazza they were sitting in orderly rows, oldsters all in deck chairs watching the show.

The show was a middle aged songstress in tight jeans 'giving it large' to trashy europop, ie Born to be alive..etc - with a gaggle of local teen girls doing an enthusiastic synchronised dance routine in the background. Stupendous!!!!

distance 78km
I take 7.57 and Paul 8.26