HellFire day 2 has the longest and toughest stage of the event at 50KM with around 1250M of climbing so a big day in the saddle for every body. The stage starts at 9AM after sending any drink bottles and food off to the half way stop at 8AM on the truck. We all wore hydration bladders today for extra water out on course.

The stage starts with the traditional start loop around the village to spread us all out then out of the property onto a short gravel road transit to the first climbs up Franklins road. The climb was different to yesterday and much longer. Plenty of people walking some of this to save energy for later on in the day. Much of the first 20KM was climbing with some short respites here and there. There were a couple of stonker hill sections but they were pretty short luckily. Plenty more walking around these sections for some.

Once we got to the top of the climbs there were some very fast and loose descents with quite large fist sized rocks to catch the unwary. Liz is dynamite down hill and had me way out of my comfort zone keeping up on more than one occasion. I almost binned it in the tress at one stage at some ridiculous speed, one of a couple of “brown underpants moments” following Liz today. After all this fun descending on fire trails and some sweet single track called Aubs track, you guessed it we started to climb again on Wielangta Rd all the way to the feed station at the 28KM mark. Liz wasn’t feeling too good so a helpful hand on the back saved her a few watts of energy for later on in the day.

A pretty lazy stop at the feed station as first place in our category was going to be too far in front of us to reel in and we already had a large lead over third place so we made the most of it. Back on the road and you guessed it more climbing broken up by one sweet descent. The last 13KM of the stage is what Liz was here for, all downhill and FAST! I almost found the trees again keeping up but survived the rather exhilarating descents back to the gravel transit into the Kellevie property. Some single track fun for the last part and across the line with big smiles on our faces forgetting that we had climbed most of the day.

A late lunch again provided for us today and it was well received by all. Some time after this during the afternoon down time the bodies started to tell a tale of climbing and tiredness. Liz from Sydney turned up today to do the Half Satan event (just SAT+SUN) (a friend of TAS Liz). Another tent popped up at “Camp Inappropriate”. No other stages today but the afternoon seemed to fly by and we had some great wood fired pizza from the onsite vendor for tea.

The strangest story today was the white dog everybody was talking about. We did not see this dog but many others did and Jess our support and photographer picked this dog up on her way back to camp and went to try and find some owners for it. Along the way she came to some obscure gravel road with a rock cairn so she gave it a try. A ramshackle shack was at the end and 2 drugged up local staggered out half naked in their drug induced bliss – “Yaah found my fucking dog then, wondered where he was”! Jess was a bit worried by all this but after some really strange conversations with them they moved their car so she could turn around and she was on her way unscathed (she told the story much better).

Tomorrow has 3 stages, 2 for us with an optional night stage that is compulsory for those doing the shorter 2 day half satan. The night stage has $1000 up for grabs for the first man and woman across the line. Results here.

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