107.52 km. 1,346m ascent. 5h46 ride time
Last night we shared the hostel with 3 others, an Englishman, Matt riding the same way as us and 2 American TransAmerica racers. The racers got up at 03h00, I heard their alarm clock! They left without cleaning up after themselves which, I think is inexcusable. To empty the coffee grounds out of the machine and rinse the coffee pot would not make them any slower!
Matt set out a little before us and we left early anyway at around 06h40 as we had 3 big climbs to do today and the weather forecasters were warning people not to go out unless absolutely necessary because of the exceptional heat and humidity. Of course, we had to continue out ride so an early start was the best option.
Climb 1 was OK, long and not too steep at max 12%. Climb 2 was the longest at 5km and 300m but a nice relatively continuous grade of 8%. Climb 3 was a killer with sections at 17% and it was already over 30ºC. Luckily for us the road repair group foreman was at the top and he offered us cold water out of his cooler. Very kind and very necessary.
The end of the ride brought us to Virginia. Virginia is officially the last State on the TransAmerica but we are going to ride the 300km up to Washington DC so we get a bonus. We are also going to make a small detour to go into Tennessee, just for the hell of it.
