Day 2. Test of Body and Mind

I am sitting in my hotel room now after a day of riding that I thought would never end.  Today we rode 200km and climbed 2600 meters.  I arrived in Princeton exactly 10 hours after leaving the hotel in Chilliwack, after you subtract the resting time I spent a total of 7.5 hrs pedaling my bike today.
All of the riders left the hotel in Chilliwack this morning at the same time.  We had a nice easy paced group ride into Hope where we had a lunch break. After that, we hit the hills.  This is where the punishment began, the group quickly fractured as riders with different climbing abilities rode at their own pace.  There is no hiding from climbing; it comes down to your power to weight ratio.  That is all.  By the time we reached Manning Park there was roughly a 2hr gap between the fastest riders and the slowest riders.  At the end of the day there was over a three hour gap; showing just how difficult this day was.  20 out of the 22 nine day riders were able to finish the day under there own power.
We are all looking forward to the ride into Osoyoos tomorrow, as it is mostly down hill and "short" at only 120km.
***For ride details click on the ride under the "Clarke's latest rides" heading on the right hand side of the screen***