Andrew Randell has been suffering through the heat and climbs at the Tour of Utah. Andrew tells the story:
To Hell and Back. That’s a phrase used to describe one of the French cobbled spring classics, Paris-Roubaix, but it is certainly how I felt through yesterday and today.
Yesterday I got worse on each of the three, twenty minute, climbs we did, suffering just to finish. Horrible. Races like that are always “worst day ever on the bike!” kind of days and certainly contribute to a love-hate relationship with the sport. I was a bit worried about how this week was going to go.
Today, to my relief, the legs turned around and were normal again. I could be part of the race and not just hang on as best I could. Admittedly it was flatter on today’s stage, but it was still hard at some moments and I was never really in trouble.
Mostly today was boring with brief moments of excitement: breakaways that split the field and a crash in the finale that Lucas was caught up in. For that we did a full-on team chase to get him back to the peloton in the last five kilometres.
One constant though was the heat, which meant repeated trips back to the car for cool bottles and ice socks (pantyhose filled with ice) to stick in our jerseys. Even the wind here is hot. It is so dry that when I blow my nose all I get out is blood. Yesterday before the stage I stuck some Chamois Butter up my nostrils to try and alleviate the dryness. It is extreme.
— Andrew Randell
