It was a mass start on the road which suited me and I quickly gained some spots. Although I was very careful not to go too hard as this was my first time back on the bike after a week without riding and over two weeks since I had been on the Mountain Bike.
The field quickly thinned out as we hit the single track and started heading down hill.
It took me a while to settle in to my rhythm but once I had I was feeling really good.
Just as I was riding along having a fantastic time another rider came up along side me and asked how I was going. I had just answered “fantastic” when the two of us steered our bikes down hill and within seconds I had flat tyre. This was my first time running tubeless tyres and I was running a no flat solution but that hole was that big that the solution did nothing. So I quickly dropped a tube in. The hole was that big the tube was sticking out (see below for a photo) and this all happened at the 15km point. I was concerned about another flat as I was only carrying the one tube and one CO2 canister.
The rest of the stage whizzed along without any problems. I dropped the pace back and kept on eye on all the rocks that might cause me another flat.
I managed to make it to the finish feeling really good and glad to make it back without another flat.
