stage 2

Sant Antoni - Santa Eulalia

The forecast was for 20% chance of rain today, it had rained hard in the night so we expected some more.  It  was much colder as we lined up for the start of today’s stage.

The first part of today’s stage was neutralised and we rolled out of  town as a large group and stopped at the foot of the first climb. We had somehow managed to get ourselves squashed to the back of the first 100 :(  The first climb was  fairly wide fire road and we made good time up this, passing a few of the other ladies. One girl ……. Who was second yesterday tried to get onto Jane’s wheel but couldn’t hold it. She got back on at the next flattish section, and off again on the next rise. We hadn’t seen her for a while when we hit a steep, rocky and rooted greasy section.  Jane was riding very well up this stuff , as people all around were spinning out,  slipping and dabbing. A lot of the guys were walking, but Jane was riding all of it. Then …… just rode past!…. On the worst line possible, she floated over everything….amazing and we just watched her ride away.  This climb lasted over two km’s me and Jane cleared it but it was a long walk for some :)  The steep descent was through a recently cleared forest area and was  at least six inches  deep in wood pulp.We descended fast and I lost the front wheel a couple of times on the bends. But the scary bit was the sticks and branches flicking up and hitting the spokes, I was concerned that at any moment I would lose the rear mech.  

The next climb was a true hike-a-bike section , we shouldered the bikes and scrambled and hiked for a good ten minutes. The next descent was one of my favourite types on the island.- steep wooded, tight  singletrack with rock slabs and rocky drops :)  

We recognised some of the next trails as rutas tres and neuve but in reverse. It’s strange how a previously great climb becomes an amazing descent the other way around. We hit a great descent here again, deeply rutted and loose. On one big drop I flicked up to the right to avoid it and I heard ‘paso, paso!’ on the left. The poor guy ‘supermanned’ over the drop! He was immediately up and apologising to me and Jane and then rocketed of down the trail. My turn next - on the next bend someone went wide, I tried not to and the front washed out………..Rider down!  :) As I got up, I looked up and I was next to the video guy and the photographer……..and they looked very pleased. I shouted ‘saca mi foto?’ ‘Si, si’ they laughed. Everyone loves a crash. :)

The last climb started with an amazing technical section of about 500 metres of  deep ruts and channels which I immediately fluffed and Jane cleared it leaving me and a couple of guys walking. There was about three km to go now, all up. The trail widened into a smoother fire road and we started to reel people in again. This led to a big sprint fun sprint and we dropped the group we were with. At the finish they told Jane she was third women. We met the girl who’d gone past on the technical climb, she was just under three minutes up on Jane. 

We rolled the next 20 odd neutralised km’s with Juan Ferrer and some of the guys from his shop in Eivissa town. It turned out he’d been the guy who crashed in front of me and we hadn’t recognised each other :)

As we came into the finish area we could see the finish line inflatable had collapsed, so we climbed under together and on the other side the t.v. guys were filming us crawling out. :)