Three days done

The race brochure says about tomorrow, "After arguably the hardest start in Absa Cape Epic history, day four is a relative rest day..." Finishing today, I hope it is true... We had a tough, long ride of about 8hrs for 74 miles and 8000 ft climbing. The scenery was stunning - you may get a sense from these last three pics. Think of Arizona/Baja California/Eastern Sierra high desert type terrain.
Again we had fast road race style peloton riding - this time across roads so dusty you couldn't see the front of the pack! There was more ridiculously steep rocky climbing (Tom and I seem to be much better at riding this stuff for some reason and there were spots we would just ride past whole columns of forlorn riders pushing their bikes up the hill). Heat was also a factor today - it was forcast at a high of 36c or 96.7f and it felt like it especially climbing the windless box canyons. All in all we are surviving which is more than can be said for others... Just yesterday 48 teams fell out of the race, who knows how many didn't finish today.