This stage was to be the first attempt at our original plan of 10 hour shifts. It began at 2.00 am with Mike and Hayley as our crew. The terrain was a bit lumpy to begin with, but with a slight downhill trend and the entertainment of the odd rodent dashing across the road in front of me, things went well. Mind you, the novelty of night riding was beginning to fade, particularly when there was nothing to look at apart from the 30 metres or so of road ahead. The absence of any moonlight made the situation worse, particularly during the first few legs of this stage when we passed through Monument Valley, one of the most spectacular natural sights in the US, and we were unable to see anything. I handed over to Tom just before we entered Utah and, after a short initial climb, Tom was rewarded with a great downhill stretch, which was some compensation for all the climbing he'd done in our previous stage. The absence of a phone signal meant that my next leg was momentarily interrupted while Mike made the necessary phone call at Time Station 11 (Mexican Hat Lodge Motel). My second leg also got considerably more difficult and involved a short initial climb, followed by a much longer one (900 ft), although the sight of my first sunrise of the trip helped to keep me motivated. Tom took over just before the top of the climb and was once again rewarded with a long descent and it wasn’t long before we met up with the RV (just after entering Colorado) to effect a crew shift change. It was just after 6.00 am and so I pressed on alone for a few minutes while the crew got themselves sorted out. We’d had news that Jon was struggling from a lack of sleep and an upset stomach, so we were even more determined to make sure that we did a full 10-hour shift to give him and Coz a decent recovery. The next few miles of rolling terrain made it difficult to maintain an even tempo and I was happy to hand over to Tom again with three of my five stages completed. The crew and I paused at Big R’s (Time Station 13: Cortez, CO) part way through Tom’s third leg and it was there that for the first time I felt a little sleepy. However, we had a 4000 ft climb coming up, so there was little time for any rest. Tom had a great 3rd leg (apart from a scary wheel-wobble moment at one point), competing with the British Army Team (6 man team), who were adopting a 15 minute rotation strategy to deal with the climb. We couldn’t quite compete, but we gave it a good go and after another couple of legs we were fast approaching the top of the climb. My final leg of the day involved a short ride to crest the highest point of the day (Hesperus Hill), the extremity of the altitude being evident in an obvious shortness of breath, but I was then able to relax and enjoy the 15 miles and 2000 ft of descending that followed. By the time I reached the foot of the descent we were getting very concerned that we still hadn’t been passed by the RV and our relief team of Jon and Coz. In effect, we had made better progress than they had anticipated and although they managed to catch up with us around 10 minutes after I arrived at Time Station 14 (Durango, CO), that still left Tom 10 minutes up the road on his final leg. Whilst this wouldn’t have been a problem in normal circumstances, there were road works around the area of TS14 which took around 20 minutes to negotiate. By the time all the vehicles caught up with Tom (1.00 pm), he’d covered around 20 miles in the heat of the day. At that point we realised that 10 hour shifts were a little on the long side, particularly in such hot conditions. As we retired to the RV to get some rest, Jon and Coz pressed on through Colorado over several climbs, one of which, at La Manga Pass, was the highest point (10,250 ft) of the entire route.