This is the sixth part of my memories from Transiberica 2021. Please find the previous parts on the main blog page: pikopulawski.wordpress.com

I opened my eyes, dressed up, and got back on the road. The feeling was great. After about three hours of sleep, I felt rested and ready to push. Portugal was waiting and it wasn’t that far away. I crossed the amazing Rio Duero and I got to the main N122 that took me straight to Portugal. Just before the border, I got off the main road onto some small Portuguese roads. It was around 3 AM and there was no traffic at all.

It is not much to write about the Portugal episode during the race. I’ve reached Braganza Castle way before the sunrise. The city was empty, the castle was big, but it didn’t touch my health. I rode to the main gate through some ugly cobble road, made a photo, and road out, wanting to leave the city before all the traffic will wake up.

The best part of the Portugal bit was the road taking me out of it. The sunrise on the border and the beautiful small roads welcomed me again. The day was up and I dreamed about a coffee and a good breakfast. I stopped in Puebla de Sanabria, resupplied, and continued north towards another parcour, the Carretera del Morredero. Over a 1950 meters asl climb. I was around this area a year ago and being relatively close to Villablino or San Emiliano, it was super tempting to get off the route and visit the heart of Asturias one more time. But no! The race was still on, and even if I wasn’t sure if I’ll be able to catch up with Urlich, I wasn’t going to stop fighting for it.

While riding towards Truchas, I’ve checked the FMC page and I’ve noticed that my route to the next CP goes around the mountain, and adds about 30 kilometers extra detour. This was a mantel killer, and it was also too late for me to change my route. I knew that this silly routing mistake will cost me some time, but I also didn’t realize yet that it will cost me so much of it. I couldn’t stop thinking about how did I not see this road while planning my route, but I was also trying to look up some good sides of this. The only one that I have found was, that instead of climbing a short and steep mountain, I’ll have a long and gentle climb. Sometimes it can be faster, but in this case, I knew that I’m lying to myself.

11:30 AM I was at the bottom of the climb from where I had about 30 kilometers to Truchas, where the actual parcour was starting with another 24 kilometers to the Puerto De Los Portillinos, nearly 2000meters asl. The sun was way up already and the slow, long climb, without a tree that would give me any shade ended up to be much worst than a short and steep one that I could have. The best moments of the race changed into one of the most challenging, physically but also mentally. I felt that this is the moment where I’ve definitely lost the race and I felt super sad. It was hard to find extra motivation after a mistake like this. As it wasn’t enough, I accidentally rode into the huge pothole and got a flat. Fixing it in the 35 degrees heath was even more exhausting than riding. I was in a really bad mental place.

Just before the Truchas, I’ve found the small bar. I stopped, refreshed, ate two soups, had a lot of icecreams and cold drinks, bought some croissants, and after spending generally too much time there, I continued to finally ride the parcour. It was a strong, endless open space climb. I was low in my motivation but surprisingly, I made it pretty easy. Carlos and Pablo (the race team) caught up with me half the climb for some photos. At the top, we spoke for a moment about my route choices.

They were super nice, and Carlos as always, calm and assuring, that the route I took wasn’t a bad one. He assured me that the other climb was bad and poorly surfaced. I love this. The notion of how does it feel. You could clearly say that Carlos is an experienced rider and he knew what happens in our minds in moments like these.

The views from the top were one in a kind. Like I would be on the roof of the whole earth. I forgot about the heat for a moment, but once I rode back down, I felt it quickly. My skin was burning, my head was boiling and I suddenly felt super weak and dizzy and everything was a bit more dark than usual. I’ve stopped in the same bar near Truchas and sat down on a chair. At the same time, blood started pouring down my nose. It was probably too much for my hot head. The whole day on the deep sunlight took its toll, the biggest from the beginning of the race. I’m not a specialist to say that it was a heat stroke, but it was proper heat exhaustion for sure. I wasn’t able to make any constructive decision, and I was just sitting there for a short while with a head up. Finally, I went slowly to the bathroom and I was trying to cool down myself, as much as I could, with the cold water. This definitely helped and I felt a bit better after a while. Everything got brighter, my head wasn’t that hot anymore and my nose stopped bleeding. I was ready and pretty happy to be able to continue and that was the moment when all my motivation came back to me.

It was looking like this is going to be my final night of the race so I planned to ride it through, without taking my usual 2-3 hours of sleep. After the slow day, the evening was super fast. With a brilliant tailwind, I was averaging 30-35 km/h for nearly the next 100 km. It was flat again and it cooled off. Perfect conditions. Picos De Europa (or rather a small part of it) was next on the list, but these few climbs around the Riaño reservoir weren’t the main challenge for the night. It was the long descend from Puerto De Ponton to the foot of Lagos De Covadonga. Probably one of the mentally hardest downhill road rides I have done so far (not including my fixed-gear ride down the Falls Creek). It was still amazing and I dear this memory a lot. Once I started descending and I was on the north side of the mountain, the humidity got super high. I could clearly say that this pass was a border to Asturias. At first, I was riding fast, but when a huge fox crossed the road just a meter away from my front wheel I slowed down, and I stayed like that for the next 30 kilometers. It was a long, cold, and never-ending descend. My hands, arms, and neck were all super busy. And without a need for pedaling, it was an ideal condition for the „sleep monster”. Once it arrived, it didn’t want to let me go. I was falling asleep on the bike and losing focus on riding. I looked upon the moon and I couldn’t get my eyes on it. It was jumping up and down and left and right and it didn’t want to stay in the one place. The same thing happened with my bright Garmin screen.

I couldn’t continue like that and decided to stop for a 10 minutes nap. I sat on the roadside in the middle of the forest, leaned myself and my bike on the rocks, and closed my eyes. I fell asleep in a second. Only a few minutes later I hear somebody shouting at me. I opened my eyes, and I could see a car parked in front of me, and the lady who was worried about my life. I assured her that I’m here only for a nap. The answer back was: „ok, but it is not safe to sleep here you know”. I looked at the moon and it was in one place again. I got up and continued riding down. 

Once I got to the bottom there were still some kilometers to the final CP parcour climb. It was still dark and I was totally exhausted after this long, slow, cold descending. I probably could continue climbing Lagos de Covadonga in this state, but the more reasonable option was to have a nap again on the bottom of it, but this time I wanted to make it right and more convenient. I found a bit of super soft grass, a few meters from the road. I rolled into my bivi, covered myself with my emergency foil, took my SZakwa under my head, and set my alarm clock for 30 minutes. It was around 6:00 AM and I wanted to climb the mountain on the sunrise.