Our final day in Cordoba started under clear blue sunny skies, after 5 kilometres of neutralised “fun”, the race was led out onto farm tracks. The organisers have threatened to impose a 120 minute penalty to any team who overtake the lead car, there’s been plenty of opportunities for this to be enforced but I’ve not heard of it happening yet, all part of the comedy I guess.
The race quickly lined out on the farm tracks which where littered with dark muddy puddles, the pace was instantly switched on by the leading teams. The British teams of Gareth and Dave, and Seb and Hamish were eager to make amends after yesterdays troubles and could be seen moving forward through the field. Womens leaders Sally and Milena, and Brits Ant White and Rich Rothwell also in green leading the vets category weren’t far behind. The climbing began soon after.
Ben Thomas sets off for day 2 of the 2013 Andalucia Bike Race
For us today included another post-stage visit to race technical support, their staff are getting quite familiar with us and our bikes now, we had to laugh and joke with them about it today… what else can you do. My bike decided I should just ride in 1st to 3rd on the cassette; it was a long 3 hours after that. We still overtook plenty of people on the steeper climbs and also on some of the more technical descents, however we would then loose those places and more each time the terrain flattened out or went downhill fast.
The race after the mechanical is a bit of a blur, according to the race profile we did 70kms and 1,895 metres of climbing. There were some super steep bits, some more walking (which was nice) and some quality singletrack!
Ant White and his team mate Rich Rothwell continue to lead their men’s masters category
The race is now led by Jose Hermida and Rudi Van Houts. Rich Rothwell and Ant White still hold the green leaders jersey in the Vets category. Milena Landtwing and Sally Bigham have now started to build a comfortable lead in the Elite Womens category, I wonder if anyone will be able to beat this pairing this year?
Ben Thomas is reporting for MarathonMTB.com from his experience racing with Tim Dunford on the Mountain Trax-Vauxhall Motors Cycling Team. To catch up on the action from day one of racing, please click here.