Today was one of those rides that really forces you to think about what you’re doing out here. As if our climb to Dalat at 4900ft was not bad enough, the road was less than ideal.

For the first 19 miles the road changed between broken pavement, gravel, mud and sand. It was pretty slow going as we had only covered the first half of the ride by noon when we left at 6am.

It got only slightly better as our second climb was only broken pavement.

Then, just as we finished the second big climb, the rain started. We couldn’t even enjoy the downhills when they came because the road was so broken up we had to ride the brakes to avoid major holes.

As terrible as all this sounds the views were excellent and it is quite a nice change up here, much cooler.

Our hotel is really nice and we found a vegan place right down the block. The food was great. We are going to really enjoy a day off here tomorrow. It feels great to have this day behind us. Definitely a sense of accomplishment.