DAY 2 – Whitefish to Holland Lake (111.3miles)

It's been light a while when the four of us break camp and roll out together. As we go through Columbia falls looking for breakfast we notice some 29ers outside a seedy bar so dive in there to eat. Inside we meet Hodge, Kevin and a few other riders tucking into a cooked breakfast. After some value hash browns and scrambled eggs I head over the supermarket next door and stock up on Powerade and junk food for the day. I'm getting the hang of the GDR junk food shopping list now.

At a later junction Bruce heads off on his morning classic. Josh, Matt and I wait for him to find us again, only to lose him again moments later when our route cards go awry and confused we have to stop. We try to follow the map and road names, but do a few extra miles finding our way out and waste a lot of time. We discover later all of us had four or five lines missing from our route cards and missed them on the map too. Bruce had noticed this before the race but neglected to pass on the information. We find him at Echo store some miles ahead chatting to the other racers.


As the last of the light is fading at nearly 10pm we are close to Holland Lake Lodge. I time trail the last few miles hoping to get there before 10pm when I'm sure the restaurant will close. I get there moments before 10 and although the kitchen was closing the understanding chef offers to lay on a set meal for the four of us. I then hang around uncomfortably in the nice surroundings feeling a bit filthy and only half dressed. Oh how things would change over the next three weeks…

There are a few other racers at the lodge who got here earlier and are hanging around looking clean and wearing non-cycling clothes. I have no other clothes but the cycling ones I'm standing in. Hodge is limping badly and speaks in a devastated voice about a painful achilles. There is a rumour Ashley is here too but see no sign of his bike. Kevin joins Josh, Bruce, Matt and I for dinner and we chat about the race and his attempt last year. He is complaining about general knee pain, which is apparently a 9 out of 10 on the pain scale, and I wonder what Kevin really knows about his body and cycling.

After dinner Josh and I head out to find somewhere to crash for the night. We check out an old bus that looks ideal, but the floor is rotten and sharp so we head on. We see a headlamp in the trees and go over to find Dave Nice bivvied up under a bench. We join him and I feel guilty for having a belly full of good food while Dave is eating GDR junk.