Badlands - day four

Day 4: San Jose to Alboloduy (and a bit more to Canjáyar). 20 hours 34 minutes. 184km. 3,890m.

At no point in the race did I look at how far I’d been, how far I had left to go. How steep is the climb, how long left of it to ride. If you don’t know what’s coming, what’s to worry about? There’s solace in the unknown. It worked for me.

I rode with Mike and John on and off all day today. These Mancunian brothers went to school with Liam and Noel. I first bumped into them making a brew in the middle of the dessert (bit weird I thought). It was a pleasure to ride with them. We pushed each-other on.

This was my longest day. And with nowhere to sleep I just kept going. I bumped into a Navy Seal based in Spain who had pre-booked accommodation on day one (you were allowed to book publicly available accommodation once the race had begun). A tough gig knowing you’ve got to ride a certain distance each day!

That night/morning I laid down next to a church and slept for a couple of hours. It was somewhat inevitable that I would be shivering in my bivy versus the experience I had on night one.