Stage 4

Today was the longest stage of the week and meant a very early start. The night before we'd dropped our bikes off for transport to the aboriginal community of Santa Theresa, the start location some 70kms from Alice Springs.

The bus was due to pick us up at 5am which meant a 4:30 alarm. As it happened I woke around 4am and got up soon after to get ready and start eating for the day ahead. The bus ride out was pretty quiet, most of us seemed to be trying to find few more minutes of sleep. On arrival the first task was to try and find the bike as they were dotted all over the place, it took me about 5 minutes to find mine, the stress levels were increasing until I did come across it. We had to refit pedals as they had asked that we remove them prior to transporting to create more space and less chance of damage.

A couple of trials bike riders had come to the start with us and were hopping about off rocks and the local kids were loving every minute. It was also used as an opportunity to promote safe driving and road use.

It was another fast start off along some rutted dirk road and then off onto sandy farm tracks which, despite the recent rain, were still quite soft in places. There were limits to where we could ride as it was mainly double track and someone soon got it wrong and came off in the sand, this happened a couple of times but they seemed to have a soft landing and carried on. this was really a day for the roadies as it was generally flat (we climbed 300m over the 85km distance) and so a bit of bunch riding was called for, it also meant that there was no freewheeling, so constantly on the pedals. I got into a group of around 10 although there was no more than 2-3 of us doing turns. It was mostly sandy but there were a few washed out rocky sections to deal with. For the first hour I averaged just under 30kph. After we had to dismount and hop over a gate I got dropped. For what seemed like about 30 minutes I didnt see anyone ahead and no civilisation, just red dirt and escarpments. A group of 4 came up to me and I hopped on the back of the train until the water point. I had to stop to refill a bottle whilst the others pushed on so I was riding alone again.

The next 20kms or so were the hardest. After a rocky climb we turned onto a straight sand road for about 12kms, out of a group this was hard, at one point a truck came past and kicked up some sand, that was the highlight of that section. After about 20 minutes another group of 4 caught up and we worked together. From there on in we stuck together, not really racing, just riding to the end.

Looking back on the stage it was pretty spectacular in that it showcased the environment in which we were riding, even though it drained the legs. A good, but tough day.