Steve's Cycling Blog

Physically I was feeling like I was improving when I went to bed last night but four trips ‘out’ overnight dispelled that.

Yesterday six more riders elected to skip today’s riding and take a taxi into Samarkand – a combination of too hot, too tired and too sick for the majority of them. I also forgot to mention that Ivan had a pretty bad crash yesterday too including grazes, bruises and suspected cracked ribs, so by the time we were heading out to ride this morning there were only seven of us still standing (as it were) and three of us were far from a picture of good health – just too stubborn (having got this far) to do the sensible thing and take the van.

Stage 73 route notes

The first 12km went by fairly well (I was using Run Keeper an app on my phone to track distance) but then I needed to stop in the bushes again. Back on the road and by 15km Michael and Will had caught up with me so I slipped in behind them and in the end stayed there for the remainder of the ride.

Over time we caught up with everyone else who was riding today so for a while the seven of us were together until Michael, Will, Charlie, Grant and I stopped at a coke stop for cold water.

I made it through to lunch and forced an energy gel and a couple of slices of orange in before carrying on with the same group – Charlie and I were next-to-useless so simply stayed at the back following the wheel of the person in front. Grant’s not in great shape today either, so it’s mostly been Will and Michael who have been keeping us moving along.

I remember very little of the ‘afternoon’ – we stopped at a police check point somewhere along the way, Michael poured coke into me somewhere else, we rested in a bus stop, went through a round about but that’s really about all I recall other than glimpses of Will or Michael’s back wheel.

Eventually we made it into the hotel where Rob kindly helped get me to my room where I spent the next hour just lying on my bed under the air-conditioning!

I managed to get showered and laundry in to be done, but have spent the remainder of the day napping and hoping that I feel somewhat more human tomorrow.

Today has been one of those days which wouldn’t have been possible without the support of other riders, particularly Michael and his no-nonsense, pragmatic approach to ‘getting things done’, but also Will and Grant (who himself wasn’t well) who took turns to pull our group of riders across the desert and into Samarkand.

Riding data

View from my tent

Isn’t very inspiring – it’s a shed roof!