The Cape Epic Journey

So my first race since the Epic this year and I must say even though I was not feeling 100% it still went pretty well

The race started and finish on a sports field in Grabouw. The 50km route was a lap race with two very different 25km loops and it was FUN!! This was my first race with my cousin Kevin in a long time and the 2 of us were both hoping for a good race and feeling rather punchy after a strong (but short) ride on Friday evening in Tokia.

When we arrived at the race venue (just before 8am) it was only 7 degrees!! I was freezing!! Kevin and I got through registration quickly, kitted up and went for a warm up ride (much needed!). The start for this race was different to anything I have ever done and good fun! It was a Le Mans start! You but your bike down about 20m ahead of you (behind a red line) and you walk back to the start line (behind the yellow line), wait for the starters orders and run for your bike and go!!!

The first 25km lap was pretty flat and fast with some really nice single-track sections, a river crossing and fast downhill’s! We ended up doing a very short section from the last day of the 2009 ABSA Cape Epic and then a bit from the last day of the 2010 ABSA Cape Epic in reverse (but only a very short section ). I finished my first lap in 1hr 30mins and wasn’t feeling too bad.

The next 25km lap was a monster! We just climbed and climbed and climbed some more! There were a few awesome technical sections and portage over a river but on the last climb of the day (about 38kms in) I noticed I had a slow puncture in my left lung! I felt horrible! I didn’t have any food with me on the ride and was starting to pay for it badly! I stopped for a minute on the climb to have a Hammer Gel and let my heart rate drop a bit before I continued with the climb that just seemed to go on forever…

The climb did end eventually and on the way down we hit some great rocky single-tracks! We had around 5kms left at this point of the race and I miss-judged on of my turns…lost the front of the bike and took a tommy-tumble! No damage from the crash except for this triggering the cramps…not fun. We ended the route riding some single-track that we had to walk on the Stage 8 of this year’s ABSA Cape Epic (really enjoyed this section) and started to find some sort of rhythm again.

My stats for the race are as follows:

Time:  3hrs 23mins

Distance: 52kms

Climbing: 1195m

Average Speed: 15.8 kph

I’m not sure where I finished in the race….my times have not been captured for some reason…which sucks!

I just wish we could have races like this in JHB – what an awesome way to start the day!

Since the Epic I have not done that much mileage on my MTB….and that is all down to the weather in JHB at the moment. That said I have been doing 3 rides a week on my road bike and I must say I am feeling super strong at the moment! I am down in CPT at the moment for work and I have entered a 50km race in Elgin/Grabouw this weekend (8^th May). Epic country!!! I am itching to get out there again!

I am going to get some nice rides in this week in Tokia forest to make sure all is well with the bike! Updates to follow!

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!

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!!!!

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.

Another week closer to the Epic and another solid weekend of training! Sabie Experience is due in a little less than 2 weeks (12 days) from today which will be a nice way to bench mark our training to date and it marks what is effectively the start of the heavy training for the 2010 ABSA Cape Epic.

This past weekend I covered 190kms on the bike and spent 9 hours in the saddle .

Saturday: (Suikedrbos on the road bike)

Time:  3hrs 2mins

Distance: 70.2kms

Climbing: 980m

Average Speed: 23.9 kph

As I have said before in this blog, riding on the road is probably the least exciting thing you can do on a bicycle but I did manage to hit a new personal record top speed of 85.9 kph down one of the hills! That was fun! I rode from the circus in Walkerville to the Suikerbos entrance where I met Craig on his MTB. He was meant to hook-up with some of his colleagues for a training ride but they were the other side of Suikerbos…Craig and I rode hard (well I rode at a decent pace on the road bike and Craig pushed like mad!). We completed the lap just within 2 hours. I really take my hat off to Craig – he rode really well in very windy conditions! I rode solo with a head-wind of note back to the circus to complete my ride.

Sunday: (Breedts Neck)

Time:  6hrs

Distance: 119.6kms

Climbing: 955m

Average Speed: 24.2 kph (on a mountain bike that is moving!)

We had all the usual suspects together (Team Just Jockey made up of Andrew and Craig, Worm’s brother Barry, Single-Speed Doug and of course Worm and Horndog). I must admit I was feeling a little nervous of the pace after my ride on Saturday…I didn’t feel too bad until we passed the 50kms and got close to the big climb of the day up Breedts Neck. I was really impressed with Craig – he was very strong for the duration of the ride and Andrew (who is used to doing short super-fast racing) also had a very strong ride. Worm took it all in his stride and didn’t even break a sweat! Barry was also very strong – sure he is going to smash Sabie! My legs faded and I suffered for most of the ride…they came back to me towards the end but still not a nice feeling! It is good mental prep I suppose. Let’s not forget the class act of the Breedts Neck ride – Doug. Holy smokes! All power, big-blade all the way! Definitely teaching the younger guys a lot of respect!

What a ride!!!! The worm and I were taken on a training ride of note by our mate Doug! 132kms from Hartees out and over Breedts Neck and back again. An Epic ride and one we will be doing a lot in the near future!

Stats for the ride:

Time:  7hrs (had a few stops to stock up in liquids and to eat )

Distance: 131.6kms

Climbing: 1420m

Average Speed: 21.5 kph

The route took us past Pecan Wood on a stretch of tar for about 15km’s then it was rolling hills in the big ring (blading) all the way to the base of Breedts Neck at about 55km’s. As we hit the climb ol’ Worm showed his class on the climb up Breedts Neck leaving us all in his dust! After a Peanut-Butter saami break we went down to the other side of the mountain stopped for a coke, heard an interesting story about the mountain from one of the locals then made our way back to the top again! The 60km ride back to Hartees was not easy due to a savage head-wind! Great day out in the saddle!

Some good news to report is that I have been reseeded for the 94.7 road race so that I can start with Worm at 7:21. We look forward to your support at the race!

Friday afternoon and my mind is drifting to the weekend thinking about 1 thing (for a change it isn’t girls!). The weekends training rides! The time and effort required to finish this race is just unreal and something that few people understand. I found this “You know you’re training when…” by Gregg Petersen, from Dubai on www.cape-epic.com and it does a pretty good job of explaining the experience!

You know you’re training for the Absa Cape Epic when…

1. A 05:30am wake up is a nice late start to your day for a change.
�
2. Other than working and sleeping, your bicycle is your other half. She requires care, attention, money to keep her happy, always looks good (clean or dirty), you hate it when your friend’s looks better cause then you want theirs, and will probably give you trouble once a month.

3. You miss Super Saturday on Supersport every Saturday. However the noise between the Formula 1 start and finish become your new Sunday afternoon sleeping tunes.

4. Your friends keep trying to convince you that “one beer won’t kill you” and you soon realize that it does while trying to hang onto the group ride as 1 became 10.

5. Your partner only ever sees you entering and exiting the front door. This look does get progressively less sympathetic as the end of March approaches.

6. Your mates start sending you “Are you still alive?” emails. These will start to become less frequent as they realize they are fighting a losing battle.

7. Your boss battles to understand why you are hardly awake in the 02:00pm meetings and why you have a double espresso and large water in front of you in the meeting

8. It becomes nearly impossible to stay awake after 09:00pm, at which point you become very grumpy and eventually stubborn.

9.Your maid knows exactly where to put your cycling gear everyday and eventually knows what bib shorts are.

10. You are now using more chamois cream than body cream and can apply it in any situation.

11. You replace the R2000 per month bill at the pub with the local bike shop.

12. The only lube you use in on your chain.

13. You realize that shaving your legs now only takes 2mins 43secs. This is another time you will better by the end of March.

14. Your mother tells you that you are starting to look ill you are so thin. You however, can still feel the love handles. P.S. They don’t get used for love anymore either.

15. Your sex life is like a JHB winter, disappears until the end of March but in April will slowly start coming back.

16. The pain in your ass becomes like your in-laws. Something that hurts like hell but you still manage a smile and a little swear under your breath.

17. The only rubber you will touch for months is your spare tubes.

18. You spend more time with your training partners than you do sleeping next to your partner.

19. You get to solve the world’s problems every day for a few hours BEFORE work.

20. Your most frequently used website page is the weather page.

21. Urinating in public becomes so much more acceptable.

21. You can pack your training food in 3mins 14secs before your ride. This is another time you will better by the end of March.

22. You can wake up, get to the toilet, get dressed, mix your powder drink (without spilling), feed the pets and kiss the better half good bye ALL without having opened your eyes yet!

23. A two and a half hour training ride is a rest day.

24. The only conversation topic you like/know how to hold is about the Absa Cape Epic. This will change in April.

25. You start talking nonsense after your first beer at your 14th cousins wedding.
 
AND FINALLY...

26. Your biggest dream in life becomes crossing the finish line of the Absa Cape Epic!!