Saturday 25 May 2013 and it is time for the
AMA Rider 100 miler in the Malmesbury area.
Preparations for this have gone well with
the 36ONE and a number 100 km plus rides in anticipation of the 100 miler.
Three of us planned to travel together to the start at Swartland Cellars in
Malmesbury and we arrived in good time for the start, which was scheduled for
07:30.
As is custom with most races these days, we
got going promptly at 07:30. The first 8 km was through some farmlands and jeep
tracks east of Malmesbury and included a number of small sharp climbs. We then
hit the local district roads passing on the eastern side of Paardeberg to the
first water point at 32 km. This included a stretch of 4.2 km where we climbed
162 meters. We left the district roads for a while and had to negotiate some
farm tracks leading onto the short stretch of tar road to cross the R45 running
from Wellington to Malmesbury. This took us onto a good district road again
before we had the turn off to the “breakfast” stop. After the breakfast stop we
encountered our first serious climb of the day. 130 meters over a distance of
2.23 km followed by a 150 meter descent in 2.43 km, which led us back onto
district roads, with the exception of crossing the R46 leading from Hermon to
Riebeek-Kasteel. This was negotiated through some farmlands and using the bank
of the Berg River where the road bridge for the R46 crosses it at 70 km. During
this stretch we formed a nice group, which was working together well and
managed to maintain a good pace. The next water point was at 82 km. Total time
to here was about 3:50, which meant I was on for completing the course in less
than 8 hours. I ate a couple of slices of banana bread, had a couple of glasses
of Coke, stuffed my pocket with jelly babies and had my chain oiled. After the
water point we formed another group, with most of the previous people, and
cracked on the pace. We got onto one of the local large district roads, but due
to the fact that it one of more regularly used roads, the corrugations were
very bad. It was virtually impossible to find a piece of road that was smooth.
We really were pleased when we were guided to left onto a lesser road, which
was narrower, but with a much better surface.
The lunch stop came at 110 km. By this time
I have spent 5:53 in the saddle. We were treated to some pasta salad and a cup
of soup. After I ate and had my water bottle filled, I was on my way again.
This time I left on my own. There were three guys a bout a kilometer in front
of me, but I was not making any impression in catching them. I therefore
decided to continue a pace that was comfortable for me. We turned right
onto the R311 running from
Riebeek-Kasteel to Moorreesburg and continued on this road for one km before
turning left onto gravel again. I was not catching anybody, but nobody was
catching me either. This continued
for about 11 km, when I heard wheels grinding on the ground behind me. I tried
to latch onto the guy as he came past, but gave up very quickly. The pace was
just too high. We covered 30 km from the lunch stop, climbing 110 meters in the
process. Nothing serious, but a nice energy sapping grind not giving an
opportunity to rest. After 15 km we turned left again. We now had a stretch of
5 km during which we climbed 87 meters to the final water point.
After a short climb we had a descent of 3
km before the final big climb of the day. 191 meters over a distance of 4.84
km. I passed one guy on this stretch, but he caught up with me at the next
climb. I managed to drop him during one of the number of ups and downs before
we hit the final, mostly downhill, stretch to the finish. Here somebody caught
up with me again and we worked nicely together to the finish. We once again
used one of Meurant Botha’s signature under passes to cross the R45 with some
single tracks through the local cow grazing area to the finish, which I reached
in 7:55:43 after 163.25 km and 2,276 meters of climbing. Actual riding tome
came to 7:40:21, which meant I spent 15 minutes at the various water points. I
managed 96 from 215 finishers, 10th from 35 in the 50+ category,
which was won by a 60 year old in a time of 6:16:55. He is a real machine!
