Page 14 - DLNdec2015-1001

The day finished with us climbing through the Olympic ski station and
descending through the rain into Sarajevo where we promptly got lost.
Between us we were carrying 3 Garmin’s each loaded with the daily routes
unfortunately due to the numerous rain storms all of them chose today to
fail, this we discovered was not unique to us. Eventually we found the outer
ring road of the town and checked into the first hotel we came across. The
kitchen was closed but in the spirit we had become accustomed to when
hoteliers are faced with tired, dirty and bedraggled cyclists the manager
phoned his cousin who rustled up a 3 course meal for us. We shared dinner
with a fellow competitor whom we had come across on our ride into Sarajevo,
he was very despondent and at the point of quitting. Katie and I did our best
to encourage him to continue, as we headed for bed we were not sure how
persuasive we had been but Katie had at least kept us smiling throughout
with her comedy attempts at holding a fork after having lost all feeling in her
left arm and hand. As we left in the morning his bike was still in reception so
we didn’t know if he continued, we later found out he had but had then
suffered from a bout of food poisoning in Bulgaria which ultimately forced
him to stop.

More climbing through Bosnia but with the thought of Montenegro
just around the corner I was feeling much more motivated today, I’d heard
Montenegro is beautiful. We crossed the border in the afternoon and it didn’t
disappoint, it really felt as though I were cycling towards a holiday
destination. The weather was bit cooler than the 42 degrees in Bosnia and
if all went to plan we were planning to reach CP4 by night fall. The riding today
for me was much smoother and I felt really strong. We bumped into a couple
of other TCR riders and chatted for a while. Katie seemed to be having a
much harder time of it and as the day wore on she was falling further and
further off the pace. We were headed to Kotor situated on beautiful lake
beneath Mt Lovcen, our final checkpoint. The approach to the lake is on a
long, flat, fast road, a time trailists dream (my usual cycling discipline). I
pushed on assuming that Katie would be making the most of my slip stream
but when I looked back Katie was nowhere to be seen. I waited and as she
came closer she looked in a bad way and was in tears. She still had no feeling
in her left arm and her right leg now seemed to have given up so she was

14