As most of my supporters are Afrikaans speaking, I am going to do a lot more of my blog in Afrikaans. I will include some English for those who do not understand Afrikaans.
Die voorbereiding vir BB2BB vorder goed. Ek het die afgelope vier weke 'n gemidelde van 306 km per week gedoen. Dit werk uit op ongeveer 16 uur per week in die saal.
My CANSA fund is standing at R100,005 of which R78,650 have been paid. I have identified B & B's at 25 of the 30 places where I plan to sleep over. I am hopeful that I will be able to sort out the five outstanding places shortly. I am also managed to get people to join me for 16 of the 31 days which I will be on the road. I am still working on getting people to join me on the open sections.
Alles loop vlot en is op koers vir die wegspring op 1 April 2016
Dinsdag 22 Desember 2015
Sondag 29 November 2015
BB2BB riding planner for April 2016
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Maandag 31 Augustus 2015
2015 Trans Baviaans #2
Our team for the 2015 Trans
Baviaans consisted of Hennie de Clercq, Hoffie Conradie and myself. Hoffie
picked a cold the week before the race and had to pull out, so we were down to
a two-man team. My brother agreed to be our driver and we left Cape Town at 10:30
as I first had to attend to a 08:00 appointment with my main “client” which is
SARS! Hennie has a home in Natures Valley and invited us to stay with them
after the race. That meant that we drove down in two cars. The woman went to
Natures Valley and the men to Willowmore. Hennie had to pick-up a lady friend
in Durbanville, so they left before us and we agreed to meat along the way
where Sue would get in with Helena and Hennie joined us. This happened at
Barrydale. E got away from there, after a light lunch, at 14:30 and arrived in
Willowmore at 17:30. After we collected our numbers, we drove the 60 km to
Marlu Guest Farm, where we were staying for the night. The total Trans Baviaans
complement staying over at Marlu, come to 20, back the host and hostess (Martin
and Lucia) were up to it for the occasion and treated us to a marvelous supper
of chops, wors, steak, vegetables and some more delicacies. Breakfast was at
06:30 to ensure that we get to Willowmore in good time to hand in our
containers for water point 3 and 4. Our aim was to complete the race of 225
kilometers in about 14 hours.
The weather was perfect as we lined up for the 10:00 start. The
first 7 kilometers is mostly on a good jeep track through a nature reserve
leaking up with the main road from Willowmore to the Baviaanskloof. This road
is quite undulating and we gained 328 meters in the first 29 kilometers, which
took us 1:38:46 to complete.
The “real “Trans Baviaans start here. As you exit water
point 2, you immediately encounter a hill. It is only 500 meters with a 60-meter
ascent. Nothing serious, but just something to “warm the muscles up”. The next
8 kilometers is mostly down hill during which time we entered into the
Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve, where the conditions of the roads are much worse
than district road we encountered up to here. The first major obstacle of the
race comes after 114 kilometers in the form of Grasnek Pass, at climb of 193
meters over a distance of 4 kilometers, which took me about 22 minutes. Hennie
arrived at the top only 2 minutes after me.
Going downhill in the dark on a rough road is quite and
experience. It was awesome to see the lights at the bottom of the pass as we
started our descent and then again looking back from the bottom seeing the
lights of the participants coming down the pass. The road was pretty rough and
I really enjoyed negotiating it and made good time. Hennie did not enjoy it at
all and I had to wait for him at the bottom to catch up with me. The rout from
here to water point 5 (Komdomo) is quite beautiful, but it is difficult to
really see and appreciate the beauty at night after you have ridden 150
kilometer and still had to do another 75! We covered the 20 kilometers from the
bottom of Combrinck Pass to Komdomo in 55 minutes. My brother was waiting for
us at Komdomo and I changed my shoes and socks again. Refreshments consisted of
a “chip roll” and chocolate flavoured milk. We stopped here for 23 minutes.
Only 55 kilometers to go!
We were treated to 8 kilometers tar up to the Humansdorp
turnoff, followed by the Kouga River crossing via a low water bridge, which was
dry. Three years ago the water was following so strong, we had to cross here on
foot! We then encountered a small hill before we had to negotiate the “never
ender”, a hill of 12 kilometers going up a gentle angle of an average 21 meters
ascent for every kilometer. This took us just over an hour. The road meandered
along and we had to “clock in” at the unmanned checkpoint along the way before
arriving at Zuurbron at 23:18. The route into Zuurbron consisted of a nice
little single track of about 200 meters. Hennie actually over shot the turn off
and then encountered some trouble in negotiating the single track at this
point! We had a jaffle and were on our way after 11 minutes.
With 25 kilometers left, the end was in sight and we were
not really prepared for what was to come! Out of Zuurbron the road turns into a
jeep track, which once again had a number of mud holes due the rain, which fell
on Thursday. One of these caught me out I briefly parted company with my bike. When
I got back to my feet, my light was pointing to the ground and my Garmin was
lying in the road. Fortunately all this could be easily rectified and by the
time Hennie caught up with me, I was on my way again. I was quite please when
we went onto a good gravel road, because I remembered from the previous times
that this led to a tar rod and from there it was easy going to the end.
Unfortunately, the organisers decided to “through us a curve ball”! Just after getting onto the tar road, we were
deviated onto a single track next to the railway line. This single track
generally went upwards, had a number of mud pools and railway line crossings
over which we had to carry our bikes. So instead of having a nice leisurely
ride for the last 6 kilometers, we now had quite a difficult ride down this
single track! This probably added another 15 minutes to our time! We finally
crossed the finish line at 00:01:12 on Sunday morning. Total riding time
15:11:50. Total distance 227.21 kilometers. Total ascent 2.652 meters. Total
elevation loss 3,379 meters.
Vrydag 19 Junie 2015
Maandag 27 April 2015
36ONE - 2015
The annual 36ONE was scheduled for the weekend of 17 April
2015. Once again organised by Dryland and to be run around the “basin” around
Oudtshoorn. I do not think it is a good idea to drive a long way on the day the
race starts, so we booking into a B&B in Ladismith for the night of the 16th.
Alex, a Scotsman who has been living in SA for 16 years, runs the Ladismith
Manor. He moved down to Ladismith after retiring from a corporate job with a
plantation company in Swaziland. He really made us feel welcome and we can
recommend him to anybody who wants to stay over in Ladismith. We left after a
scrumptious breakfast and made a quick visit to the local museum before heading
for Oudtshoorn. We arrived there at 12:00 and had a light lunch before registering
for the race, which was due to start at 18:00. In the queue I met a father and
his son, Tonie and Bredell Roux form Johannesburg, who was doing their first
36ONE. They were looking forward to the race with some apprehension and I
managed to give them some ideas on how to tackle it, which I think they found
useful during the race. After I collected my number and the two boxes, in which
I could put clothing and other supplies for control point 1 and 3 and another
one for control point 2, we took the drive to Oue Werf, 12 km outside
Oudtshoorn on the Cango Caves road, where we were staying for the two nights,
or rather Sue for two and me for one only! It so happened that my daughter and
her husband were invited to a wedding on the neighboring farm, so we were
scheduled for some babysitting on Saturday afternoon and evening.
Race briefing was scheduled for 17:00 and there was an
informal invitation for all Freedom Challengers, who participated in the 36ONE,
to be there at 16:45 for a photo, so I asked Sue to take me through to the
start at 16:15. She immediately went back home and agreed to watch me go by Oue
Werf at approximately 18:30. I met quite a number of Freedom Challenge
participants there, but somehow managed to miss out on the photo! The race briefing
was at 17:00 and was as efficient as usual with no real additional information.
The one change for this year was that we were starting in three groups. The
relay teams were due to leave at 18:00; the teams at 18:05 and the solo riders
at 18:10. The relay teams consisted of individual riders doing different
sections of the route, while the teams consisted of riders riding the whole
route together.
The start was punctual as usual and the solo riders got
going at 18:10. The first couple of hundred meters was a natural zone, so
racing only started once we left the tar roads of Oudtshoorn, which was after
approximately 1 km. We managed to ride the first 30 minutes without lights, but
then it got too dark and everybody switch their lights on. By this time we were
on the tar road leading to the Cango Caves. This riding was fairly even a we
were maintaining an average of more than 25 k.p.h. This would stop shortly after we took the
right turn towards Rust en Vrede Falls.
The road up to the turn off to the falls is tar and also reasonably
flat, but it then becomes a gravel road and the gradient increases immediately.
From kilometer 24 to 37 it is a constant climb, with a number of small down
hills. We climbed 308 meters on this stretch. Once you get over the final hill
after kilometer 37, it is all down hill to the De Rust/Oudtshoorn tar road,
where we took a right turn and also had our first water point. 53 kilometers
completed in 2:25. We went down the tar road for 6 kilometer before taking a
left to cross the railway line. Shortly after crossing the railway line, we
took a right turn down a farm track, to link up with the next district road
leading to Dysseldorp. Most of the last 9 kilometers were fairly easy with only
minor little hills to negotiate, but once onto the Dysseldorp road, the
gradient intensified. I caught up with Jack Black, a fellow Freedom Challenger,
on this section. This was until we reached kilometer 63 where we took a left
turn and started the first major climb. The gradient was not that bad, but it
continued for 12 kilometers with not respite! Once over the top we encountered
some variation with both down and up hills until we reached water point 2,
which also was the first control point, after 81 kilometers. It took me 3:45 to
complete the first 81 kilometers, giving an average speed of 21.6 k.p.h. While
stocking up with some food I bumped into Jack Black again and also saw Coen de
Bruin who rode with us from PMB to Moordenaarspoort during the 2014 Freedom
Challenge. I also used this stop to collect my leg warmers, an extra Buff and
additional gloves from box 1, to arm myself for the colder hours of the night.
The leg warmers went onto the legs, the Buff around the neck, the warm gloves
into the front of my windbreaker as it was not that cold, but I did put the inner
gloves on as additional protection. All this took 23 minutes and I was on my
way again.
The next section was very much up and down, but the length
of the hills was manageable. Riding at night is very interesting because on cannot
see what is coming and you tend to follow the lights in front of you. This also
has some interesting twists like going up a hill and seeing the lights disappears,
but one remaining. After a while you realize that the remaining light is not a
light, but a star on the horizon! The other interesting twist is the reflecting
of the lights in front of you in a pool of water only to discover that is
actually is some riders going up the next hill. We passed through water point 3
on this section. The undulations in this section were pretty severe and with
the rain of the previous day, there were a number of pools of water in some of
the drifts. One such pool nearly caught me out when I hit it at speed only to
find that there was some soft mud, which twisted my handles bars. It was by
pure fortune that I managed to maintain control of my bike and did not have a
rather unpleasant connection with mother earth! Passing underneath the road
along the railway line negotiates the crossing of the Oudtshoorn/George road.
This necessitated riding next to the line for a while and then going onto some
farm tracks before linking up with a district road again. This brought us to
water point 4. After a quick stop I was on my way again. This next section to
water point 5 (control point 2), was fairly easy with a fair number of
undulations again, but generally heading down hill. At kilometer 163 we joined
the Mossel Bay/Oudtshoorn tar road. After 12 kilometer we turned left onto the
Highgate road to Volmoed. I managed to get into a good rhythm and was going
hell for leather to reach the halfway point. When I started this section I was
on my own, but caught up with some other guys along the way. As we turned left
I pushed the pace and after a while realized that I dropped the rest of the
guys. I managed to maintain this pace right up to control point 2, which I
reached after 9:56. I therefore achieved an average of about 18 k.p.h. for the
first half of the race. While refreshing here, I bumped into Tonie and Bredell
Roux as well as Coen de Bruin and Jack Black. By this time my Garmin was
beginning to run short on battery power and I had to connect it to my Power
Monkey to recharge it. Unfortunately I left my long cable at home, so I had to
take my Garmin off the handle bar and leave it inside my cycling top while it
charged. During this switchover I managed to stop the timer, with the result
that my time and distance from water point 5 to 6 was not recorded!
I notice, during the previous section that two guys kept on
passing me and then shortly afterwards I would pass them again. This continued
for quite a while, but we never spoke. These same two guys passed me again
shortly after leaving control point 2 and this time I recognized them as the
Roux father and son pair. Once again the passing and re-passing started to
happen. The first part of the route to water point 6 was mostly uphill and the
going was pretty slow. We were about six to eight riders who sort of rode
together. Everybody seems to have different strong and weak points, with the
result that there were lots of passing and re-passing. At 05:26, the red light
on my headlight came on. This meant that I had about another 3 hours of
lighting at the current level. (I always ride with my head light on level 2 as
this gives me about 10 hours of light and it is strong enough for normal night
riding as long as the route is not too technical). The passing with the other
guys continued up to water point 6 which we reached shortly after sunrise,
where I arrived with the Roux’s.
After a quick stock up again, I was on my way. The Roux’s
managed to get the jump on me and was down the road allready by the time I
left. Initially there was a number of hills, which made it difficult to catch
the Roux’s, but once we hit the down hills to the crossing of the Gouritz
River, I quickly reeled them in and even passed them before we reach the river
crossing, but once we started climbing up the other side, they had just too
much “vooma” left for me to keep up with them. At this point my energy levels
was very low. My legs were barely ticking over on the inclines and there was
120 kilometers to go! I reached water point 7 at the foot of Rooiberg, just as
the Roux’s left. The drag up Rooiberg was slow and determined. Slow due to lack
of energy, determined because I was not going to revert to pushing. It took me
close to an hour to complete the 5.65 kilometer climb to the top, ascending 380
meters in the process. Once over the top, it was easy going, but the road
surface was such that I could not use the gravity of the downhill to full
effect. Once in the valley it was just a big grind into Calitzdorp and to make
matters worse, the road was very corrugated. I rolled into control point 2
(water point 8) after approximately 17 hours in the saddle. That meant that it
took me nearly 7 hours to do the 77 kilometers between control point 2 and 3!
An average of 11 k.p.h. Here I bumped into the Roux’s again, for the last time.
I found a nice place to relax, collected some food and proceeded to have a good
rest. I also disposed of my lights and extra clothing in my box transported
here by the race management. I also changed to a different pair of riding
shoes. My stop over here was approximately 29 minutes.
When ì left the legs felt a little better, but the backside
was very tender! Initially I did not want to sit down because it was too
painful, but after a while I got used to it and it became bearable! The section
from Calitzdorp to Kruisriver is very scenic with a fair number of undulations
and a general upward trend ascending from 242 meters to 690 over a distance of
26 kilometers. All of this is reasonable until we get to the last 4 kilometers
where we climb 200 meters before descending to water point 9 at Kruisrivier,
where they seems to farm with flies. I have never in my life come across so
many flies! It nearly is as bad as a plague! I remembered from the previous
races that there are a number of nasty climbs between water point 9 and 10, but
my memory did not serve me well. I thought it was two, but it is three and they
are brutal, especially coming after 310 kilometers and to make matters worse,
when you come over the last one, another one looms in front of you! Fortunately
we took a right away from this in the valley to start the journey home. The
rest of the route up to water point 10 is quite scenic again, running down a
valley next to a stream and with cultivated farmlands along the road,
intersected by the odd hill or two. I was quite pleased to reach water point
10. With only 23 kilometers to the finish, the end really was in sight, but for
a weary body, that is a very long 23 kilometers, especially as the road tends
to go slightly up. Under normal circumstances this incline would not be a
problem, but at this point of the race it was not very pleasant! My joy was
great when I got to the tar road leading to Oudtshoorn with only a couple of
kilometers left.
As I took the last right turn leading to the finish at
Kleinplasie, I saw that my time was on 21:50, with the result that I put
everything into the last kilometer, which was down hill and managed to finish
in 21:52:26! The Roux’s beat me by 24 minutes, but I managed to come in before
all the other Freedom Challengers, with the exception of Chris Fisher, who
finish in just over 17 hours.
Saterdag 04 April 2015
Preparation for the 36ONE
The 36ONE is due to start in Oudtshoorn at 18:00 on Friday 17 April. In preparation for this I decided to schedule a couple of long rides.
The first was on Saturday 21 March. I asked Hennie de Clercq, with whom I will be doing the Trans Baviaans later this year, to join me in a ride from Tulbagh to Bloubergstrand. Hennie invited his friend, Roedolf, along. I asked my daughter, Carine, to go with us, so that she can bring the vehicle back. We all met at my place at 05:30 and set out to Tulbagh where we arrived at 07:00. The starting point was the entrance gates to the farm Mont Pellier, west of Tulbagh. The first couple of kilometres are all up hill and took us over the Oukloof Pass, a pass no longer in use, but which was used by the transporters of the late eighteen hundreds to get from Cape Town over the mountains on their way to Worcester. The first part on the Tulbagh side have been paved, as this is used to get to the radio mast on the hill, but the continuation of the pass is through the "nek" and down the other side to the Berg River valley. The condition of the road deteriorates drastically from where the paved road takes a left turn towards the mast. Initially one can ride the down hill part, but after a while it gets so steep and rocky that we were forced to dismount and push. Towards the end the pass "disappears" and we had to "bundubash" the last 300 meters to the canal. We also lost contact with Roedolf on this stretch! He did catch up with us after a while, complaining about a problem with his wheel. On closer inspection we discovered that he was losing air via a loose valve. After that was tightened, we got going again. We crossed the local irrigation canals and entered a "wind farm". This was not here when I cycled this route in 2013. When we got to the gate, we were told that there were 46 wind turbines and that another 54 is due to go up across the road.
We crossed the tar road, which runs from Gouda to Porterville, and joined the gravel road running towards Riebeeck Kasteel. This took us down the Berg River, which we crossed via an old single lane iron bridge.
The condition of the road was pretty good with some minor undulations. About 10 kilometres before Riebeeck Kasteel, we turned right on another minor gravel road, which took us past the local cement factory and around Riebeek West. We went onto the Riebeeck West-Mooreesburg tar road. After about a kilometre we turned left onto good gravel road leading to Malmesbury. We continued on this for two kilometres and then took another left turn onto the Riebeeck River road going over a small pass and linking up with the Riebeeck Kasteel-Malmesbury road.
We stayed on this tar road for four kilometres and then took a left turn onto a public gravel road. At this point Roedolf decided that he had enough and informed us that he is going to continue straight on towards Malmesbury and that he will get his neighbour to fetch him from there.
Hennie and myself continued via some local public back roads up to the R45 linking Malmesbury with Wellington. We crossed that and continued down some more local public gravel roads for about 10 kilometres. We then went left over some local farms, past a big dam and a 4x4 track to link up with the Paardeberg tar road. At this point Hennie was starting to get a bit frustrated with the long hills we had to traverse! We took a right turn and then left onto the R302 between Malmesbury and Klipheuwel. There was a Spaza Shop along the road, where we hoped to get some cool-drinks, but unfortunately this was closed. Two kilometres down this tar road we turned right towards Windvogel. This took us to the Cape Town Bitterfontein railway line. Here we went left again along the railway line for another 6 kilometres, before turning right to cross it. There were some labours house here where we stocked up with some water. We then took a left towards a farm called Bonnie Doon. About a kilometre after passing the farmhouse, I heard a vehicle hoot. I stopped and looked back to see Hennie talking to somebody in a bakkie. I immediately realised that this was the local farmer and that he probably was not too happy about us cycling across his property! I was right, but as we were just about to leave his property, he reluctantly agreed that we could continue. The next 15 kilometres were over private property, but we were fortunate in that we did not pickup any further problems. I only realised afterwards that this route, which formed part of the Freedom Challenge's Bokkeveld route, is no longer open to the public! After traversing these farms, we joined that old Cape Town-Malmesbury road and took a right turn onto the Botterberg road. The took us to the N7. Fortunately one of my friends knows the owner of Keert De Koe, the next farm we were due to cross and we managed to get his permission to cycle over his farm. We crossed this without incident and took a right onto the old darling tar road before going left again past some sand mines and onto the West Coast road. Here we linked up with the Duynefontein road and cycled to Bloubergstrand via Malmesbury. On this section Hennie got into his stride and cycled away from me to such an extend that he had to wait for me as we entered Bloubergstrand.
In total we cycled 145 km, climbed 1,717 meters and it took us 11:28.
As Sue was going to be out for most of the day, I decided to use 28 March for another 36ONE traning ride. I planned to do Contermanskloof, Hoogekraal, Meerendal, Spes Bona, Leewendans, Klipheuwel, Malanshoogte and then Bloubergstrand. My regular riding partner, Mike Smit decided to join me for the first have and we got going at 06:26. Halfway up Contermanskloof we took the turn
off too Hoogekraal, which I rode in 49:30, just more than one minute off by best time. We took the link to Meerendal via the Contermanskloof corridor. At Meerendal we included the big climb up Dorstberg and ended with the new single which was created for the finish of the Cape Epic. We concluded this part of the ride with a nice coffee at the Meerendal coffee shop. Mike took the road back to Bloubergstrand at the Meerendal exit, while I went left to start the rest of my long ride. By this time I had done 59 kilometres in 4:30, which included the coffee stop. I cycled through Durbanvale and onto Adderley Road, taking the Spes Bona turnoff and onto Phisantekraal township. I went down the gravel road, which leads to Joostenbergvlakte, heading for the Spaza Shop to get a Coke, but unfortunately this was closed. I then tried the nursery and found a 500ml Coke for R15! I followed the tar road running parallel with the N1 betwee Joostenbergvlakte and the R302 tar road linking Bottelary and Klipheuwel. I crossed that and took the gravel road running parallel with the N1 all the way to Klapmuts Just before Klapmuts I turned left on the Eenzaamheid road.
At the T-junction I turned right down the hill on the Agter Paarl road and took the Leeuwendans road left at the bottom of the hill. At the farm I went left on the road linking the Paardeberg/Klipheuwel road. On reaching Klipheuwel, I decided to try the local Spaza Shop for some more Coke. Great was my surpise to get a 1.5 litre Coke for R13! This shows what a ripoff the cafe at the nursery was. I turned right on the Philadelphia road and then left onto Occultdale, which took me through to Addreley Road again. Here I went left and then right again onto the Malanshoogte road. At the four-way stop I went right to take the easy way back to Bloubergstrand. Going through Riverside Industrial area, I picked up a nasty cut of about 1.5 cm in my rear tyre. After a bit of a struggle, I did manage to plug and it held fine all the way home.
Total riding time 10:12; distance 152.14 km; total ascent 2,062 metres.
The first was on Saturday 21 March. I asked Hennie de Clercq, with whom I will be doing the Trans Baviaans later this year, to join me in a ride from Tulbagh to Bloubergstrand. Hennie invited his friend, Roedolf, along. I asked my daughter, Carine, to go with us, so that she can bring the vehicle back. We all met at my place at 05:30 and set out to Tulbagh where we arrived at 07:00. The starting point was the entrance gates to the farm Mont Pellier, west of Tulbagh. The first couple of kilometres are all up hill and took us over the Oukloof Pass, a pass no longer in use, but which was used by the transporters of the late eighteen hundreds to get from Cape Town over the mountains on their way to Worcester. The first part on the Tulbagh side have been paved, as this is used to get to the radio mast on the hill, but the continuation of the pass is through the "nek" and down the other side to the Berg River valley. The condition of the road deteriorates drastically from where the paved road takes a left turn towards the mast. Initially one can ride the down hill part, but after a while it gets so steep and rocky that we were forced to dismount and push. Towards the end the pass "disappears" and we had to "bundubash" the last 300 meters to the canal. We also lost contact with Roedolf on this stretch! He did catch up with us after a while, complaining about a problem with his wheel. On closer inspection we discovered that he was losing air via a loose valve. After that was tightened, we got going again. We crossed the local irrigation canals and entered a "wind farm". This was not here when I cycled this route in 2013. When we got to the gate, we were told that there were 46 wind turbines and that another 54 is due to go up across the road.
Hennie and myself continued via some local public back roads up to the R45 linking Malmesbury with Wellington. We crossed that and continued down some more local public gravel roads for about 10 kilometres. We then went left over some local farms, past a big dam and a 4x4 track to link up with the Paardeberg tar road. At this point Hennie was starting to get a bit frustrated with the long hills we had to traverse! We took a right turn and then left onto the R302 between Malmesbury and Klipheuwel. There was a Spaza Shop along the road, where we hoped to get some cool-drinks, but unfortunately this was closed. Two kilometres down this tar road we turned right towards Windvogel. This took us to the Cape Town Bitterfontein railway line. Here we went left again along the railway line for another 6 kilometres, before turning right to cross it. There were some labours house here where we stocked up with some water. We then took a left towards a farm called Bonnie Doon. About a kilometre after passing the farmhouse, I heard a vehicle hoot. I stopped and looked back to see Hennie talking to somebody in a bakkie. I immediately realised that this was the local farmer and that he probably was not too happy about us cycling across his property! I was right, but as we were just about to leave his property, he reluctantly agreed that we could continue. The next 15 kilometres were over private property, but we were fortunate in that we did not pickup any further problems. I only realised afterwards that this route, which formed part of the Freedom Challenge's Bokkeveld route, is no longer open to the public! After traversing these farms, we joined that old Cape Town-Malmesbury road and took a right turn onto the Botterberg road. The took us to the N7. Fortunately one of my friends knows the owner of Keert De Koe, the next farm we were due to cross and we managed to get his permission to cycle over his farm. We crossed this without incident and took a right onto the old darling tar road before going left again past some sand mines and onto the West Coast road. Here we linked up with the Duynefontein road and cycled to Bloubergstrand via Malmesbury. On this section Hennie got into his stride and cycled away from me to such an extend that he had to wait for me as we entered Bloubergstrand.
In total we cycled 145 km, climbed 1,717 meters and it took us 11:28.
As Sue was going to be out for most of the day, I decided to use 28 March for another 36ONE traning ride. I planned to do Contermanskloof, Hoogekraal, Meerendal, Spes Bona, Leewendans, Klipheuwel, Malanshoogte and then Bloubergstrand. My regular riding partner, Mike Smit decided to join me for the first have and we got going at 06:26. Halfway up Contermanskloof we took the turn
off too Hoogekraal, which I rode in 49:30, just more than one minute off by best time. We took the link to Meerendal via the Contermanskloof corridor. At Meerendal we included the big climb up Dorstberg and ended with the new single which was created for the finish of the Cape Epic. We concluded this part of the ride with a nice coffee at the Meerendal coffee shop. Mike took the road back to Bloubergstrand at the Meerendal exit, while I went left to start the rest of my long ride. By this time I had done 59 kilometres in 4:30, which included the coffee stop. I cycled through Durbanvale and onto Adderley Road, taking the Spes Bona turnoff and onto Phisantekraal township. I went down the gravel road, which leads to Joostenbergvlakte, heading for the Spaza Shop to get a Coke, but unfortunately this was closed. I then tried the nursery and found a 500ml Coke for R15! I followed the tar road running parallel with the N1 betwee Joostenbergvlakte and the R302 tar road linking Bottelary and Klipheuwel. I crossed that and took the gravel road running parallel with the N1 all the way to Klapmuts Just before Klapmuts I turned left on the Eenzaamheid road.
Total riding time 10:12; distance 152.14 km; total ascent 2,062 metres.
Sondag 08 Maart 2015
Cape Town Cycle Tour
Sonday 8 March 2015.
Time for the Cape Town Cycle Tour. The race Adré was training for when he was so tragically killed on 20 January 2015.
Due to some devastating fires in the Western Cape during week leading up to the tour, some of the routes became unsafe and the 109 km race was reduced to 47 km! A number of us decided to start in a lower group so that we can ride together in memory of Adré, so my start time was changed from 6:47 to 7:58. I joined up with Schalk and Johan from State Street and Danie and his friend Renier. Willie van Heerden, who studied with Adre also stared in that group, but we missed one another in the chaos of the start. The same happened to Jayson, also worked with Adré, and his wife
Danie, Renier and myself cycled in from Table View. It was a nice gentle ride and it took us about 1 hour to cover the 22 kilometres. It was quite a struggle to get to the starting shoot, but we did managed it in the end and arrived there at about 07:35. We were fortunate enough to find Schalk and Johan quite quickly.
We got going at 07:58. The pace was fairly sedate and it took us 3 minutes to cover the first 500 meters! We reached Hospital bend after 17 minutes while ensuring that everybody stays in contact. Danie was doing quite well riding his single speed. Johan and Renier were on borrowed bikes and Schalk and Grant were on mountain bike. I was riding my 25th Tour on the same bicycle! We did pick up some speed on the downhill and made good progress until we got to Wynberg Hill. Here the group spilt up quite badly, but we agreed to wait for everybody at the top of the hill. We did not have to wait too long for everybody to get to the top and than had the enjoyment of racing down the Blue Rout to the turning point after 23 kilometres. After a brief wait, everybody was together again and we set off on the return journey. It was quite difficult to keep the group together and at Ladies Mile Drive the front goys stopped again to wait for the "rearguard"! After quite a lengthy wait, we decided to continue and wait at the top of Wynberg Hill. The group managed to regather again after a wait of about 10 minutes. The "rearguard" having stopped for some Cokes along the way. We managed to stay together down the hill, up Paradise Road and past Newlands Forest, but then we somehow lost contact. Danie, Renier and myself (the front guys), agreed to enjoy the ride up Hospital Hill and regather at the top. We stopped at the top of the hill and waited and waited and waited! After another 10 minute wait, we decided that we must have missed them or that they had some other problem and continued with our ride. The ride down Nelson Mandela Boulevard and through the City Centre was quite nice and we finally arrived at the finish after 2:25. I, illegally, rode with Adré's timing chip on my left leg and managed to get him to complete his 21st Tour. The interesting fact is that although his time was the same as mine, he finished 3 positions in front of me. I know that it is against the rules to ride with someone else's chip, but as this year's Tour was such a casual affair and considering the circumstances of Adré's death, I though that it was worth the risk! The "rear guard" eventually came in at 2:52, a whole 27 minutes after us. Our total riding time was only about 1:55!
So that is the end of a chapter. Next year I can, hopefully, do a proper tour again and make it 26 with the same bicycle!
Time for the Cape Town Cycle Tour. The race Adré was training for when he was so tragically killed on 20 January 2015.
Due to some devastating fires in the Western Cape during week leading up to the tour, some of the routes became unsafe and the 109 km race was reduced to 47 km! A number of us decided to start in a lower group so that we can ride together in memory of Adré, so my start time was changed from 6:47 to 7:58. I joined up with Schalk and Johan from State Street and Danie and his friend Renier. Willie van Heerden, who studied with Adre also stared in that group, but we missed one another in the chaos of the start. The same happened to Jayson, also worked with Adré, and his wife
Danie, Renier and myself cycled in from Table View. It was a nice gentle ride and it took us about 1 hour to cover the 22 kilometres. It was quite a struggle to get to the starting shoot, but we did managed it in the end and arrived there at about 07:35. We were fortunate enough to find Schalk and Johan quite quickly.
We got going at 07:58. The pace was fairly sedate and it took us 3 minutes to cover the first 500 meters! We reached Hospital bend after 17 minutes while ensuring that everybody stays in contact. Danie was doing quite well riding his single speed. Johan and Renier were on borrowed bikes and Schalk and Grant were on mountain bike. I was riding my 25th Tour on the same bicycle! We did pick up some speed on the downhill and made good progress until we got to Wynberg Hill. Here the group spilt up quite badly, but we agreed to wait for everybody at the top of the hill. We did not have to wait too long for everybody to get to the top and than had the enjoyment of racing down the Blue Rout to the turning point after 23 kilometres. After a brief wait, everybody was together again and we set off on the return journey. It was quite difficult to keep the group together and at Ladies Mile Drive the front goys stopped again to wait for the "rearguard"! After quite a lengthy wait, we decided to continue and wait at the top of Wynberg Hill. The group managed to regather again after a wait of about 10 minutes. The "rearguard" having stopped for some Cokes along the way. We managed to stay together down the hill, up Paradise Road and past Newlands Forest, but then we somehow lost contact. Danie, Renier and myself (the front guys), agreed to enjoy the ride up Hospital Hill and regather at the top. We stopped at the top of the hill and waited and waited and waited! After another 10 minute wait, we decided that we must have missed them or that they had some other problem and continued with our ride. The ride down Nelson Mandela Boulevard and through the City Centre was quite nice and we finally arrived at the finish after 2:25. I, illegally, rode with Adré's timing chip on my left leg and managed to get him to complete his 21st Tour. The interesting fact is that although his time was the same as mine, he finished 3 positions in front of me. I know that it is against the rules to ride with someone else's chip, but as this year's Tour was such a casual affair and considering the circumstances of Adré's death, I though that it was worth the risk! The "rear guard" eventually came in at 2:52, a whole 27 minutes after us. Our total riding time was only about 1:55!
So that is the end of a chapter. Next year I can, hopefully, do a proper tour again and make it 26 with the same bicycle!
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