Morning Ride

On a short training just before the Argus, I couldn't help but take a picture looking back at Helderberg, and the Hottentots Holland Mountains. At 6:30 in the morning, it was already 26C. The haze you see is the smoke from the fires that have been raging for the last 3 weeks in and around the Boland.



Three days later the sky was clear, as "The Mighty Wind" of the Argus 2009 cleared all the smoke.

Argus MTB 2009

Argus Week is officially here, and the Argus MTB is the first event in the series of bicycle-centric events to happen in Cape Town. The Giro del Capo follows, and then it is the big day - the day 30 000+ cyclists get to take over the streets of the Cape Peninsula - the Argus.

But before the skinny wheeled, lycra clad, speed loving roadies get their chance, their hairy, tar hating, mud loving bretheren got the chance to make Boschendal Winefarm their giant race course. And more than 4000 of these creatures turned up for the occasion.

The weather report all week had been for a hot and windless day, with temperatures peaking in the high 30's. It certainly makes for a change compared to a couple of years ago where we rode this race in the pouring rain.

The hot shots

This was to be our last hard effort before the Epic (the Argus hardly counts as a hard effort - even if we do do two laps). I wasn't sure what sort of state my legs were in after having a tough ride the day before. We arrived at the venue, got our numbers, put our kit on, fiddled with the bikes (this was going to come back and bite me later), and already the temperature was 30C at 7 in the morning. By the time I got into the start chute the sweat was pouring off me.


The race started in its usual frantic high paced, testosterone filled, argy bargy manner, and for the first time in a long time I actually felt quite good, and was able to make good progress early on. I am not known for my fast starts, and tend to get better the longer a race goes. I caught and passed a couple of familiar faces, including my Epic partner which worried me - was I going out too fast? I eventually caught Sara Muhl, and since she usually beats me in these sorts of races, I thought I would slot in behind her, slow down a little and ride a bit more conservatively.

Eventually, Craig caught us and passed us, and I decided that Sara's pace was going to cost me. The only problem now was that we had got into a mildly technical section, and between my semi slicks and absent technical skills (I think I left them at home in the rush to be on time), I could only watch as both Sara and Craig rode away from me. We eventually got onto the wider farm roads and I could put my head down nd try to catch the bunch of riders with white jersey's up ahead. One by one I would catch them as they dropped off of Craig's group, and each time I would be dissappointed that it wasn't Craig. My pre-race fiddling had resulted in me pumping my tires harder, and with all the soft sand about, that was just a recipe for disaster.

The sand claims another victim

On the foot hills of the climb the gap would close right up, but as soon as we levelled out the gap would increase again. I just couldn't get it under 40 seconds. By now it was hot - very hot, and the sweat was pouring off me. Good thing I had filled my 3l CamelBak. Our route had merged with the route of the 36km riders, and they were strewn all over the place like victims on a battle ground. Some stumbling alongside their bikes, some sitting under whatever shade they could find shaking their heads, some lying down mumbling things about being crazy and rather taking up golf. It was hot, and it was tough, and this is certainly not a race like its tar namesake in a week's time that you could just rock up and ride. I think several people learned that the hard way.

After gving up all hope of catching Craig, my attention was focused on not being passed by anyone from behind. Yet again my technical skill let me down, and in the last singletrack of the day I heard a rider approaching. It was a swiss rider - the first lady - and she seemed to be about a million times better than me on the technical stuff, so I let her past, and tried my best to hang on. I did so, and once again on the flats I was able to put my head down and paid her back by giving her a nice tow to the line

The first lady - I was just behind her

All in all, it was a good day - hard, tough and just what the coach wanted. I finished in 26th place in 2h36, 1:35 behind Craig, and with an average heart rate of 175 bpm.

Yolanda also rode, and did the long route, and although she was slower than last year, she did admirably well given her lack of training and mechanical mishaps.

All photos from the HubSA
(except those of Yolanda)

Wilde Fruit 2009

After a couple of years starting and finishing at the industrial park on the Agter Paarl road, the Wilde Fruit Funride finally returned to Wellington. I enjoy this race, but I think it is only because I was lucky enough two years ago to get into the winning break (where I finished 4th out of 4 - I can't sprint).

Previous glory

Windguru had promised a near windless day (they also promised a cloudless day, but got that horribly wrong), so I didn't expect too much suffering on the road back in from Malmesbury. Oh, and the fact that I was riding in A, and not racing in the League.

Our race got underway with A to D being lumped together to make up a reasonably sized bunch. I could see the fear on the faces of the D riders - they really didn't want to be there. There were probably a handful of A and B riders who, like me, were too lazy and too cheap to ride League this season. Right from the start things were heated, with the better riders pushing the pace immediately. For the first 40kms up to the big hill we flew, with about 6 or 7 riders setting the pace. I tried to be a little cocky and gutter the bunch, but got scolded - obviously this isn't the thing you do when riding in the seeded groups.



As the big hill of the day approached (Botmasnkloof) outside Riebeek Kasteel any help we had from the other riders quickly evaporated. We were busy catching some of the other groups ahead of us (Masters, Juniors and Ladies), and they provided tantelising targets for the climb. I found a comfortable gear, dropped my cadence to just above 60, and powered up the hill on the front. Out of the corner of my eye I could see some one behind me, and since I wasn't killing myself up the hill as in previous years, I just assumed that most of the bunch was still there.

When we got to the top I looked back to see that I had 4 other riders for company, with the rest of the bunch nowhere to be seen. We still had about 45kms to go, so it was always going to be tough staying away, but we gave it a shot.

We got a good pace line going, although I did feel we were carrying two riders who weren't really contributing to the work. The road from Malmesbury back to the Agter Paarl road was littered with riders from the Leagues who had been dropped, and once again, this gave us targets to aim at. Slowly but surely we started loosing riders - every time we went over a rolling hill I would try to push the pace a little and before long we were down to just 3. On the very next hill, with a largish bunch in front of us we lost another rider. We still had 10kms to go, and I wasn't sure that the 2 of us would have the legs to hold of the others. I kept looking for the rest of our bunch, half expecting them to come steaming by, but there was no sign of them.




With aching legs from the LT session the day before, both of us dug deep and tried to keep the pace going. We got a bit of help from another rider who had been dropped from the Sub Vets and with 3km to go we had to negotiate a horrible little hill into Wellington. By now the cat and mouse had started, and the other two were quite happy to let me sit on the front without coming through. With about 600m to go, I pulled over, feeling pretty knackerd - luckily my fellow break away partner thought i was finished and came through. I hopped onto his wheel, and was in the perfect position to be lead out for the sprint. Except I messed it up again, and probably went 100m too early which allowed the other guy to come back at me and beat me on the line.

So - what have we learned? I think the answer is that I really suck at sprinting - that is now 4th out of 4, and 2nd out of 2 in the break aways that I have been in :(

Mike had a good ride - once again time trialling his way through the field. After the report I had heard about him at the Medallion I was expecting him to be totally knackered, but he looked good at the finish. I wish I could say the same about Yolanda. I had washed her bike the day before because I am a loving husband. Unfortunately, I think I might have cleaned away half the dirt that was holding her bike together. Her brake pad came loose, and was rubbing quite badly for about 50kms. She ended up bonking, but didn't have the insight to check to see if there was a mechanical problem. Fee had to play the role of the cheery friend to get Yo home in one piece.

I have subsequently fixed the brakes.

New Shoes

I have a thing for shoes, and particularly cycling shoes. While my new shoes aren't quite as classy as the Italian made Sidi's I have had for the last 4 years, they are not far off. The fit is certainly better. I think Italians all have narrow skinny feet!



Here they are - my new road shoes - Specialized's BG Pro Road Shoe



I'll wait until after the Epic before riding with them - don't want to risk anything that might give me knee reason to act up. For now - I'll just wear them around the house ;)

24hrs of Wiesenhof

This year's Dirtopia 24hrs of Wiesenhof had attracted a couple of really good riders, all keen on winning the event.

I was a little more nervous than in previous years - I didn't have great form, and my knee was still giving me the occasional niggle.

The pre-race preparations mainly consisted of checking out the competition, and having them check me out. There were mind games a-plenty.

The racing got off to it's usual fast paced madness, with several riders putting in some blisteringly quick laps in the beginning. I preferred the more sedate approach of riding to a constant tempo, trying not to overdo anything, and slowly but surely I was moving up the field.
After 3 hours of racing I was lying in 6th spot, about 10 minutes behind the leader, on seven laps. Everything was going according to plan - my legs felt great and I had settled into a good rhythm. Yolanda was doing a great job of keeping me supplied with snacks and drinks, and updates on the other riders.

At about 5 in the afternoon, after 5 hours of racing, I was starting to take a little strain. It felt like my neck was constricting, and my glands where starting to ache. And I had a headache. But my legs were fine! I persevered for a couple more laps, and then took a break. I was lying 4th overall, so things were going well.

Meanwhile, Mike had made his 24hr debut with a rag tag bunch of guys, and it looked like they were having a great time. While not in overall contention, they were racing for 3rd, and doing a rather good job of it.

Back to my race - I had rested for a bit, Yolanda had massaged my legs, and my ego, and I had had something to eat. It was time for the night racing, and I had put my new fancy light on my helmet - I was ready to go. The first lap went fine, but after that, the neck issues returned, and by now my mind really wasn't in the race. I was looking for any excuse to stop, and when my knee showed the slightest signs of acting up, I decided to throw in the towel. I had done about 4 or 5 laps in the dark, and was still in 4th place on 19 laps at 11:30pm when I decided to have a shower and take a nap.

The irony is that we don't bring any bedding or sleep stuff to the 24hr, as we fully expect me to be able to ride through the night, so before we could take a nap, we had to beg, borrow and steal some bedding. I awoke at about 5, and was going to have another shower before settling down to watch the rest of the race. As I wandered past the scored board, I saw that Julian (my Epic partner from 2007) was in 5th place, and going well 3 laps ahead of me (I had slipped down to 10th or 12th). If he could be out there and still going, I should at least give it one more lap before giving up. I got into my kit and hopped onto the bike, and for the next 7 hours had a great ride.

I ended up in 5th place on 31 laps, salvaging some sense of pride, and Julian rode brilliantly with a 3rd place on 32 laps. This time I can say that I will be back next year.

The results for 2009

Velotales word cloud

From www.wordle.net

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

Makes for some interesting reading!

My last Maverick race

The final race of the year, and my first proper mountain bike race since TransBaviaans, saw us heading off to George for the Rock Pedal Classic. By all accounts this was supposed to be an easy end of year race, focusing on the social side more than the racing. The profile even had us believing that we were in for a cruise...



The nice thing about the ride was that there were two distances, both ending up at the same point where we would spend the night, before heading back the next day along the same route, just in reverse.

There was a reasonable turnout, with a good mixture of people doing the 50km and the 80km.
We would all head up the Montague pass, before the 80km route would take us on a detour through some tough undulating terrain for about 20kms, before we would rejoin the 50km route. Later, we would do another 10km loop with some nasty hills before rejoining the route for the final 5kms.

Team Dulux reunited - all smiles before the start

Team Dulux taking a breather going up the pass

Both Craig and Marius looked to be in goods shape - Craig doing the quitely confident thing, and Marius promising to ride with me (he did - for about 3 and a half minutes!).

The great thing about this ride was not really the ride at all. That was tough, testing and the 37C didn't help. The organisers had gone to the effort to make the small things count - there were plenty of water points, and each point was stocked with the usual coke and water, AND biscuits. Nothing beats a biscuit as a snack when your lungs are burning and your legs are cramping! The course was well marked, the finish area was cleverly thought out, the spectators and other non-cyclists where catered for.

Snack time

We spent the day lazing around the pool, eating (LOTS) and chatting/snoozing and. For once - the bike race itself wasn't the most important thing - the whole outing was. The Betts backup crew did a great job of making sandwiches and other snacks - even if they were a little late to see Craig finish.

Craig had a good ride - coming 4th, with Marius a little bit behind in 8th. I was a little further down in 14th place, but a massive 22 minutes behind Craig. Yolanda had a good ride, coming 21st in the ladies for the 50km, with Bonte coming 53rd in the men's 50km, beating her dad by 15 minutes.

Food and naps - what more do you need!

We spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for the net day's racing, having the supplied supper (of tasty chops and wors), and watching some of the photos of the day's action. We missed Yolanda's mud puddle wallowing action. When I find some photos I will post them!!

Craig powering up the pass on day 2 - just behind the leaders

Day two saw a slight change to the long route - a nasty rocky section was taken out, and as a result we only had 70km to look forward to. My legs seemed to be ok, and I quite enjoyed the first 2 hours of the ride - towing Marius to the bottom of the pass. We passed the remaining members of Team Dulux as they waved at cows and seemed to be having a very social ride.

The ladies posing under the railway bridge on the downhill side of the pass

Yo and Bonte's competition

Yo playing nasty and pointing the tortoise in the wrong direction

All in all a great weekend - and we will definitely be back - this was a fantastic event.

Here are the overall results

Marius descending the pass