Mill Blog ♥

Day 3: Epic huge day, non-stop sunshine.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Left at 08:15 arrived 21:00!
2nd longest stage of this year's tour.

During the first climb of the day Ed and Luke stopped to help a struggling Firefly but unfortunately despite their best efforts he had to get in a support car for the rest of the ride. As our boys battled on the day bought lots of brutal climbs and incredible descents making the route feel like three days crammed into one. Highlights included a chapel at the top of the 4th climb, which commemorated legends of the sport who have passed away.

Then came the business end of the day, the last climb. This started with a reasonably steady steep accent until they arrived at what is know as 'the wall' aka an incredibly steep 25% climb for nearly 0.5km. This presented a truly tough challenge in even being able to stay upright (!) let alone keep the bike moving at all.



Luke stormed up the climb and was the 4th firefly up - encouraged on by rallying cries from Ed who was shortly behind. They then focused their attention on cheering the remaining flies in. Stu was adorned with a Scotland flag during a race up 'the Wall' with another firefly who was wearing a union jack. Stu dutifully won the race to the delight of the Scottish contingency. Day 3 was the most incredible day so far and finished in the beautiful lake Como, where over a well deserved dinner this stage was voted by all veteran fireflies as the hardest day of cycling from ANY fireflies tour. Ouch.



Top speed -72.8kmph on the descent.
Top heart rate:
Ed - 189bpm
Luke - 233bpm (we think/hope there may be some discrepancies with this reading).