The Cape Epic Journey

As some of you, if not all of you may know, it makes a big difference to your riding if you are able to have a good massage after a hard days riding. Last year we had excellent massages. Not only did we have massages, but we also go some washing done.

We are using the same people for this years Epic, and the good news for all you riders out there without a massage service for this years Epic is that there 2 more slots available. If you are interested please contact Dorylee on dorylee@gmail.com

A bit more about what is offered:

“Faan will be working with me this year as the demand for professional hands recently grew! We will be massaging a team at a time and we have 6 slots per day (12 riders). That’s good news for you as you won’t have to wait for your partner while he receives his massage. You’ll be “done” together. Faan is a qualified Biokineticist and now is in his 4th year Physio. He has kinesio taping experience which is a great skill for injuries that might creep in as the week progresses.”

I have managed to get some quality training rides in while I have been in CPT. Using my cousins as a base between my office and the mountain – in particular Tokia Forest. After Thursday mornings climb fest I had a bit of a sleep in and got the office nice and early as I was going to sneak out early to go for a ride with my cousin Kevin. I have not done much riding with my cuzzy because every time I’m down in CPT he has to work….at least this time the timing was spot-on and the two of us managed to get in 3 quality training rides together.

Ride number 2 of my stay was on Friday afternoon with Kevin. We had the standard “not a race, just a training ride” chat and off we went. Unfortunately we both have this “Alpha Male” syndrome and it became a race…well more of a hard ride than a race but the pace was furious! We basically sprinted up the first climb in Tokia that Kevin calls “Asthma Hill” and turned to face my nemesis….a short, steep section of single-track that I have never managed to ride up. I followed Kevin (who made it up without a problem) and ended up losing traction on a root and had to walk the rest of the way… L More on this little climb to come!

We ended up riding up to Silvermine and then turned back to race down some of the awesome single-track in Tokia. I wish I had a helmet camera to show you all those tracks and the drop-offs! Really awesome stuff!

Stats for the ride:

Time:  1hrs 59mins

Distance: 36kms

Climbing: 525m

Average Speed: 19 kph

Saturday morning:

We had a lazy start to the morning after spending the night with an old school friend of mine for a braai – I inhaled 500g steak for dinner…..nom nom nom nom….needed to fuel my body for a BIG ride.

Kevin and I left mid morning in some serious heat to take on the Mast and then go back down and up to Noordhoek Peak in Silvermine. We took it nice and easy as it was very hot down at his house but the temperature fell from 30 to 17 degrees at the Mast!!

We started as usual up Asthma Hill and then turned to that nasty little uphill. I said to Kevin that if I don’t make it today I can’t call myself a proper mountain biker! With that as motivation I changed down into my granny-gear (yes it is that steep) and powered up the hill and let out an almighty “YES BABY!” when I got to the top!

Now that I was a “proper mountain biker” again we took on the final part of the climb to the Mast. It was very windy and little misty….physically it was a tester of a climb in those conditions but we did it in good time. From there we turned and made our way down to Silvermine to do a loop of the reserve and climb up to Noordhoek Peak. Our legs where feeling the pace and I was running low on fluids…. I left my water bottle with ice-cold energade in Kevins garage because I was fixing my slippy gears and dodge rear wheel before we left…..

We made it around without any major hassle and then turned back to Tokia for some play-time in the single track before heading home.

Stats for the ride:

Time:  3hrs 59mins

Distance: 59kms

Climbing: 1415m

Average Speed: 16 kph

Sunday in Heaven!

Kevin took me to a special place on Sunday….we went out to ride in Jonkershoek in Stellenbosch. I was feeling very tired after 3 good rides already and some serious climbing. We spotted (what we think) was Christof Sauser and some other guys kitting in their Specialized gear going out for a road ride!

When we arrived at Jonkershoek we wasted little time and got stuck-in to a 7km climb up some awesome single-track. Flowing corners, switchbacks, rocks, steep descents, steep climbs, soft sand, logs, it had it all! That was only the first 7kms!!! This place is awesome! After reaching the top of the single-tracks we got onto a forestry road and followed it skywards! The climb was brutal! Very technical and great Epic training!

We eventually found ourselves at a dead-end and had to follow our tracks back. Not the end of the world because we just found another fork in the road and followed that! We came to another single-track that was closed because of “Fire damage and Forestry”. Being from JHB I lead the way and pretended to have not seen the sign….my bad behaviour was rewarded with a walk down a steep sandy, dusty slope because the single-track was indeed damaged by fire and forestry….nice on Horndog.

After Kevin and I successfully got off the mountain without hurting ourselves or the bikes we got onto another dust road where we just turned over the peddles till once again we went up! Kevin took me to another great single-track to end off our short but excellent ride.

Stats for the ride:

Time:  2hrs 15mins

Distance: 25kms

Climbing: 600m

Average Speed: 13.5 kph (lots of climbing!)

Strange to think that the next time I’m in Cape Town it will be for the Epic!

40 days to go!!!!!

I’m down in Cape Town yet again for work but like always I make sure I have enough work to justify a longer than normal trip and make sure it includes a weekend so that I can get some quality saddle time in! 

My first ride down here is one my favourites! Definitely not for the faint hearted and one the Worm will have to do before the Epic! It is up to the Constantia radio mast…..lots of climbing! My ride unfortunately was not the greatest. I am being plagued with issues from my rear wheel. I have just had the axel replaced (again) and had the hub serviced but it feels so stiff! At least I have new rubber on my bike so I’ll corner like a champ again! 

I rode from my cousin’s place close to Constantia. Hit some of the short climbs and some single-track in Tokia forest and then got into the guts of the climb up to the radio mast. Great views from up there! The climbing was really tough going with the stiff rear hub and to make it worse I was having problems with my gears…felt like I was a pregnant yak climbing a steep icy slope! 

Stats for the ride: 

Time:  2hrs 8mins
Distance: 38kms
Climbing: 915m
Average Speed: 17.2 kph 

More rides to come!

So this last weekend was a good weekends riding, although it was quite tough. Haven’t done the Pecanwood ride in ages so we decided that we would do that on Saturday. It was just Doug and I this weekend.  After about 20km’s or so I realized that I had a flatish front tire, which I quickly sorted out. Not sure how long I had been riding with it like that since I didn’t check my pressures before the ride. The terrain wasn’t as wet/muddy as we were expecting due to the HUGE storm the night before, so we were pleasantly surprised. That said the weather didn’t know what it wanted to do. At times the sun would start shining, and then it would go away and look like it was going to ride. After our usual (onthe Pecanwood ride) stop at the garage for a bite to eat, we headed off to tackle Breedts. While doing this we discussed which way we were going to go back to Pecanwood since Doug had mentioned going back a different  way. Going up Breedts there was lots and lots of fog and once you hit the top you couldn’t see what was 15m’s away from you. We decided not to go down the other side, but to go back and go back to Pecanwood the different way.

The different way was to go over Hekpoort hill and then takethe buffelspoort road. This is essentially the last part of the Telkom Classic ride, and was not what I was expecting. It has lots of rolling hills and the road seems to go on forever. Not exactly exciting riding, but it is good extra climbing and distance in the legs.

Unfortunately I don’t have all the stats for the ride as my polar battery is toast, and I need to take it in to get replaced.

Sunday we decided to do the Fast One MTB race. It was a mix of road and offroad, with very few technical sections. I didn’t eat dinner the night before and a little after the 1st lap of 2 (30km each) I started feeling a little weak. Stopped and had a bite to eat and soon started feeling better and pushed onto the end. I believe we got a top 50 finish.

I must say that the route was marked excellently, and the marshals were placed in the right places, and were always friendly. BIG UPS to the organizers.

My legs were quite tired after pushing hard this weekend, but felt much better after 2 action cricket games on Monday night. Won 1, and just lost the 2nd one.

Looking forward to punishing the legs a bit more this weekend.

With 53 days to go till the start of the Epic, the excitement levels are rising! I think this could be compared to an addiction of sorts. You know you have Epic Syndrome quite bad when you go to bed thinking about the Epic, and wake up thinking about the Epic. Everything you do can somehow be linked to the Epic. At work I take the stairs rather than lifts because it’ll be better for my legs. I park further away from the office so that I can walk a bit further and work some different muscles, and help relieve them from the riding.

In terms of the training things are going very well. Riding lots. Doing some excercises to strengthen core muscles and I can feel the improvement with every ride. The closer the Epic gets the more riding I want to do. I’m not sure the taper off phase is going to go well… It’s going to be tough to force myself to take it easier with the riding closer to race day.

I know I am not alone in my excitement for this years Epic. The Horndog is also excited. How can I be sure…? Well when you exchange a bazillion e-mails on a Monday morning all about the Epic, then you know.

I’m going to be updating the site more often. It’s not only going to have cycling related stuff (mostly will though), but this is afterall about our journey to the Epic, so I figure it should include other day to day things. For instance, I will be playing action cricket tonight. My friends and I have a team, which has been together for ages now. It’s all about spending time with mates, and hopefully winning.

Safe riding everyone.

This last weekend I took part in my second ever road race (The Fast One http://www.fastone.co.za/). The race started at the Nasrec Expo centre and finished at Vaal Triangle Campus in Vanderbijlepark 103kms away! My dad was also racing . We got to Nasrec around 6:30 in the morning and it was raining….not ideal for road riding….My dad and I were sitting in the car debating if we were even going to ride. Andrew & Richie (Riding mates of Worm and I) rocked up to start with me in “F” group and the rain stopped…game on!!! The race got off to the usual roadie start….slow and Andrew kept telling me to back off the pace…hehe.

Eventually we all got bored and staged our own mini-breakaway with Andrew, Richie, The Yellow man and me! We worked well for about 10km’s when The Orange man joined our mini-break. The Orange man didn’t do any work on the front of the bunch…so about 10km’s from Suikerbos we dropped him like a bad habit! The race proved a little too hot for the Yellow man as he fell off the back when we joined a faster group being led by a very strong Tandem team. The group had about 20 riders and we were cruising at 40kph!

With about 35km’s to go the Tandem team picked up the pace and the group split, Andrew, Richie and I managed to stick with the Tandem team and so did the Red man and the Blue man. Blue man fell off the group with around 10kms to go and we picked up the White man instead…. White man dropped his bottle in front of me with 3km’s to go!

We made the final turn of the race without incident and in the distance I could see the finish! I promptly got out of the saddle and powered past the Tandem team and crossed the line! I later heard that this is taboo after getting pulled along by a tandem and the polite thing to do is to let the Tandem cross the line before you….toffees to that – I’m a mountain biker!!!

I finished the 103km route in 2hrs 48mins at an average speed of 36kph. My final placing was 743 overall of 3665 riders, 78 in my age group of 284 riders and 26 in my group of 195!

Time:  2hrs 48mins

Distance: 103kms

Climbing: 405m (FLAT!!!)

Average Speed: 36.2 kph

After the race I took in some liquids and had something to eat and got back on the bike to ride back to Nasrec! It was Dennis (The old war-horse!), Andrew, Richie and I. After about 10kms Andrew started having pain in his knee which eventually caused him to abandon the ride back – Richie stopped as well because he was getting lift home with Andrew. Dennis and I soldiered on but as the pace started to drop – Dennis changed the route back to his house and he would give me a lift back to my car in Nasrec. When we arrived at his house he could hardly walk up the stairs! Shame….His Mrs gave me a lift to my car and that was that .

Stats for the ride back:

Time:  2hrs 47mins

Distance: 60kms

Climbing: 295m (Flat again!!!)

Average Speed: 23 kph

My keeps showing a steady improvement with his riding! His results for the race:

Time: 4hrs 17mins

Distance: 103kms

Overall pos: 3333 of 3665

Group (O): 137 of 199

Well done Dad!!!!

So I’ve been pretty slack in updating the blog, but the good thing is I haven’t been slack in my training. The training is going good and I can feel the improvement all the time. My climbing is starting to get back to the level I want it to be at, and hopefully it will improve a bit more.

This past weekend I rode out at Breedts again. It’s becoming quite a regular ride now, but I’m glad that we change the ride almost every time we go out. It’s good because we won’t be building muscle memory. This weekend we did an 80km loop. It’s basically the normal 60km loop, but you go through a little game farm which adds on the extra 20kms. The details for the ride are as follows:

Time:  3hrs 51mins
Distance: 80kms
Climbing: 1035m
Average Speed: 21.3 kph

On Sunday I ended up going out to Bultfontein with Big Blade Doug to do the Babbas Lodge race. I haven’t done this race, so was quite looking forward to it. All I can say is it is a very fast race. Doug and I decided to take it pretty easy. We started near the back and just rode at a nice easy pace. It rained the night before so the soft sand wasn’t so soft, which made the riding a bit easier. Will definately be out there again to do the race though. It’s not very technical, but if the soft sand is in full force it will  be good training for the Epic, which has LOTS of soft sand. There are 1 or 2 technical climbs, but nothing much else to challenge the rider. In the end I think I came in 61st which was just in the top half of the field.  The details for the race are below:

Time:  2hrs 49mins
Distance: 67.2kms
Climbing: 510m
Average Speed: 23.8 kph

Will be out at Breedts tomorrow doing an 85km loop with roughly 1500m’s of climbing. Might do the loop through the game farm on the way back which will make the ride just over 100km’s.

Hope you all have a good weekend of riding.

Last week was a tough one! Spent a good couple hours in the gym, got some great rides in as well! This weekend the weather let me down a bit…..the worm and I were going to go ride Breedts neck (with all the usual suspects) but at 4am when I woke up…it was wet! I was not going to make the 60km odd drive to Breedts if we were going to get rained on so instead I had some breakfast and packed up my road bike, got in another 2 hours sleep and made my way to Suikerbosrand to do the big loop from the hotel. What a ride! Lots of good climbs! It did start to rain towards the end of the ride but that wasn’t too bad!

Time:  2hrs 24mins

Distance: 57kms

Climbing: 1145m

Average Speed: 23.7 kph

Sunday morning was another early start. I joined another mate of mine (Paul) at Northern Farm for a ride. I was a bit nervous to go riding there…recently there have been a number of bike-jackings at Northerns. They have beefed up the security but our route was going to take us outside the relative safety of the farm to the dust roads on the outskirts. Needless to say the pace was furious! I’m glad to report that it was an incident free ride! One thing I must comment on is the BELTER who was there riding with some of her mates…..words fail me at this point!

 Time:  2hrs 47mins

Distance: 51.5kms

Climbing: 700m

Average Speed: 20.4 kph

Well the “holidays” have come and gone – unfortunately I had to cancel some of my leave for work but all was not lost! After the Sabie Mud bath I headed down to Cape Town for work and managed to get in some valuable km’s before X-Mas!� In the 4 days I spent in the Cape I clocked up 125 odd km’s and nearly 3000m vertical assent – very happy with that. I got in another 170km’s of training over X-Mas and New Year, 2 hours on the home trainer and 5 rounds of golf� – not bad considering I was working as well. Oh and before I forget I have also got my first saddle-sore! HAHA

The 2010 ABSA Cape Epic is just around the corner so the Worm and I really need to pull-finger in terms of Epic training – longer rides, time in the gym, early nights (for me at least…the worm is a bit of a night owl and likes to win his Poker Gamesh). I think we are in for a great Epic! We are so much stronger physically and mentally than we were last year and we know what to expect which is a huge advantage in a race as demanding on your mind and body as the Epic….

On a lighter note – I spent a day at the Vaal River with my cousins and some of their mates. I had my Cape Epic hat on and I was asked if I had done the race to which I replied yes and took great pride in telling them I was doing another one. After some great admiration from some of the people and then more when I told them the amount of distance you cover on the Epic and the amount of climbing over the 8 days, one ignorant guy piped up (with his cigarette in-hand) “I did a triathlon once and didn’t train for it” HAHAHA Well done you fat knob.

Firstly I hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas. If you’re anything like me, you ate too much, and now need to lose a few kg’s. Just makes me that more motivated to be back on the bike. Currently in a bit of a rest period before starting out again in January, but I have still done a few shortish rides at a nice low intensity to keep the legs moving. Will start with the serious training for the Epic in the New Year. On that note I hope that everyone has an awesome New Years. Have fun and keep safe.

Hope to catch you on the trails in 2010.

Worm