July 8
35 Miles
I’m not sure I’ve ever considered waking up at 6am sleeping in, but in the land of no night, we’ve been waking up around 4am and actually getting up around 5, so this morning when I opened my eyes and it was 6, it did feel like I slept in. I’m still feeling a bit stiff from our long day yesterday, but knowing we only had 35 miles to do to get to hot food was motivating.
We hit a long stretch of pavement that was more downhill than uphill, so we were in Coldfoot by noon. We saw the same cyclist we met on day one, and also met a couple who are riding all the way to Argentina.
We decided to rent a room for the night to rest and recover and have a private shower. It wasn’t cheap, but nothing is out here. We ate at the cafe, we picked up the box of food we mailed to ourselves, we showered, and I’m feeling more human again, though my butt is still sore. I need to harden up!
New life bird: White Winged Crossbill
Suspect you got a TDF update but here’s one for July 13: Rest day. Pogi up by 2 1/2 minutes plus. Del Toro 3rd. I think Pogi is gonna try to set up UAE for a 1-2 finish. I won’t be surprised to see him do some pulls with Del Toro on his wheel. We’ll see.