Cambodia day 2, Cycling as a TEAM

Another very early start and another 1hr coach ride to get us out of the city and to a suitable place to be greeted by our new bikes and fill up our water (little did we know just how much we would need today!!!)

Today was all about the cycling, it was going to be, long, hot, dusty and mainly off road, it was always going to be a day to pull together as a team and simply get everyone over that finish line.

Water stops were more a welcolme sight today than any other day, we were burning so much energy in the extreme heat and the dust from the roads, were making us drink constantly, it wasn't unusual to drink 2ltrs of water every 20K and at least a litre at the water stop itself.

Between stops today, i decided to sit near the back of the group and take it all in, well that was until Andy (the group leader) came along side me and said "fancy a burn" so that was that, we got down low on the handle bars and went for it, flying down the dusty track until we were at the front of the group, we sat there for about 10 mins at a steady pace, then me, him and two others, Mark (king of the mountain) and Gary Foord went again with Nak, one of the support riders, I managed to keep up for 10/15 mins but my legs gave up, so Gary and I dropped off and caught up with them at the lunch stop.

Lunch today was a Cambodian pack lunch, it came in a small basket and contained, fish, meat, rice, potato which were all wrapped in banana leave, a little pot of sweet and sour veg, a sweet spring roll and fruit

After lunch it was back on the road for another 20K through beautiful Cambodian country side, the roads were dusty and full of huge potholes, but you simply don't notice (unless you look down and notice your leg is a terracota colour)

The next part of our journey would take us to what is called the bamboo train because it used to be made of bamboo, it no longer is, but boy its fun!! And as usual we were greeted by lots of lovely kids.

But the best part was the train took us to a small lake where we all dived in for a swim.

After this it was back on the bikes with about 40K to go and still very very hot, many people at this point were suffering with the heat and the distance and some of the cyclist sat back with the guys who were finding it tough to get them to the finish, I rode with Alison and we had some fantastic conversations about our families and how we ended up signing up for something like this and it turned out that this was the start of Alison's journey, in a similar way to its the end of a 18 month journey for me, from deciding to lose weight, back in July 2011until now, cycling across South Vietnam and up in to Cambodia and being part of a team of people, who are all willing to help each other achieve their own personal goals.

Alison and I were very happy to see the hotel and drink a beer to celebrate our 100K achievement