Quagmire.

Apparently the mountains round here are known as The Accursed Mountains. Hmmm. Woke to the sound of rain - the irony. UK has a heatwave & here it's rainy and Mancunian. Stomach felt a bit iffy - brushed it off as overeating from last night's meal - being challenged to eat as much as possible. Hmmm. Starting with a 10 mile climb right from the get go so cool & damp wasn't the worst. What was the worst was getting 8 of the 10 relatively smoothly only to discover the last 2 miles had no road surface to speak of - just hardcore. Not going to puncture - pushed the last 2 & towards the top we were talking mud frenzy. Once back on tarmac there sounded like a little rubbing. Looked down to see both brakes caked in mud. Poor bike. Looked as bad as the rider felt - saddle sores had been mitigated somewhat with Compeed & as for the stomach - could be a challenging 40 miles. Downhills were very technical and the road surfaces didn't allow great speed. All very jiggly. Thank god for isolated restaurants and petrol stations. By the time the final climb had been completed, the descent into Podgorica cycling was being done on instinct. And really instinctively cycling shouldn't be happening in 35° heat. Found the hostel - room had Aircon which was good. Need to figure out how to get to the airport when stomach & arse not playing ball. In hindsight probably shouldn't have drank from the spring on that first epic climb yesterday but it was hot & wanted to preserve water supplies. Ah well not as tough as the rest.Leggi altro