The start was a bit of a cluster again for a few miles. I lost everyone that I was hoping to ride together, but I figured that I'll meet them soon. Pretty soon, we were riding through the woods (which is a nice change from the day before). My quads were slightly hurting, so I didn't push it that hard. There were a couple rollers, but mostly gradual downhill and flattish. For the first 15 miles or so, I avg'd 16.7 mph until second aid station (I didn't even stop at first aid station because it was at mile 8, (there was 35 miler option), so I decided to skip it.

The first 4-5 miles, the road was HORRIBLE chip and seal. I could feel everything rattling. I picked off so many people left and right due to some of the climbs. It was odd because I was going somewhat slower than my normal pace. I found out later that many of the people that came, lived in an area that was more flatter than Sedona/Cottonwood, so they didn't have quite the hill climbing experience that I have. So, KNOW THE TERRAIN before racing/touring!

Anyways - at the 2nd aid station, I decided to wait for the BLV group. I really did not want to ride this all by myself. I saw them, and caught up with them.

Hills, hills, and more hills. This time, there was some LONG climbs. I'm great at shorter climbs, but need a little bit more work with the longer climbs. It didn't help that my legs were sore from the day before. Everyone was hurting, so we all took it fairly easy. After large hills, we waited and stopped for the slower climbers, so there was quite a few regrouping points.

The descents were AWESOME though! The last 10 miles, was just bad. More of "ugh..how many more miles do we gotta go? My neck hurts. My back hurts", etc. So we just kind of had a social pace. At this time my neck and shoulder was just so so so tight.

After we arrived, I was just cheering loudly and thrilled for this to be OVER! :D Day 2 wasn't that tough, but it was no piece of cake. 2700' of climbing.

Nothing really. There wasn't anything wrong with my nutrition, bike (except the calipers again...UGH!) or anything. It was a super challenging weekend, and totally worth it for me.

Stretched, got my shoulders and neck massaged. Not as good as the one I had yesterday, but I'll take it. Chatted up a little bit, and got ready to leave for Las Vegas.


Nothing! Probably sore body.


Provided Lunch, Starbucks coffee (which I didn't have...I hate coffee!), plenty of drinks and snacks.