It rained a lot last night and I  woke to find the hills around were covered with snow. I slept probably 10 hours last night. That is way more than I should be sleeping for a race, but I felt so drained there was no other option. My appetite is finally returning from the food poisoning and I woke feeling better than I’ve felt in 5 days. My tires issues continued today. I have a slow leak in the back tire which seems to be getting progressively worse. I’m really not happy with the Tubalito tubes. At first the tire was holding pressure about 4 hours, but by the end of the day, I had to pump it about every hour.

There was lots of climbing today. We crossed a series of ridges between deep valleys. There was one climb that too me about 4 hours to get up. Once on the top of the ridge we entered this beautiful grassland plateau filled with Yurts.

At the end of the day I hit another climb. At the bottom there was a farm and the kids there were trying to get me to come play soccer with them. I wanted to get as much ground covered today, so I declined. It was a bad move, the riders about an hour behind me camped at the farm and were invited in for dinner.

I ended up climbing for about an hour and finished at dark. I didn’t hit my mileage goal but looking at what’s coming between here and Control Point 1, I think I can make the time cut.