Cool and drizzly for the first 30 km and very windy at times. Had problems with my cadence sensor - didn't kick in for the first 5 minutes and I was resetting it on the go. Fortunately it came right. Then I tried to keep the cadence at 85-90 rpm's for the first half as they told us at the race briefing we had an elevation gain of 1300 meters in the first 30 km. Was doing well until the very steep climb to the first waterpoint at km 20. Was half way up when I misjudged a couple of rocks and lost traction. Had to put my foot down and it was too steep to get going again so had to run up the hill with the bike for about 600 meters before getting back on. Demoralising because I was passed... Visibility was very poor - I eventually gave up on my clear lenses as they were either too fogged up or covered in rain. So no eye protection but slightly better visibility. Unfortunately, it was still hard to see in the drizzle and I paid the price for screaming down a couple of sections at 45 km/HR and then not seeing the directional arrow until it was too late. Took a tumble on a sharp corner and had to sacrifice my knee and elbow and dive left (try that on.a right hand turn going 45 km/HR - harder than it sounds!) to save my derailleur. Fortunately no Castelli were harmed in this stunt! I overshot another turn about 600 meters later when I couldn't stop in time to make that sharp corner. That was at about km 23. But it motivated me to dig deep and try to catch guys that were already about 5 minutes ahead when I took my tumble. I caught sight of them about 25 km later and finally reached them after gunning it for 5 km, catching up just before we got a stretch of paved road where I could recover at the back of the peloton. Rode behind them on the technical single track at 7 Passes, then turned up the heat, sprinting the last 7 km to take the finish. Then went to the First Aid tent and after getting patched up, grabbed a beer! Tomorrow's the last stage - bring it on!