120km over two days. Walk in the park would one think. Not quite.
12 November saw me and another 300+ of riders set off on the 2 day To Hell and Back MTB race in South Africa’s Swartberg mountains. The race involved cycling 60km into the Gamkaskloof valley (also known as ‘The Hell’) where we camped for the night before cycling the same way back the next day. The route consisted of gravel roads apart from a very short jeep track section so nothing too technical but the challenge was the mountain that lay between the starting and finishing points. This had us ascending 1,660m on day one and 1,800m on day two. Neither the distance nor the climbing would normally be that challenging but combining the two and throwing in some tough competitors made for a hard day in the saddle.
The few days leading up to the race was quite eventful including getting engaged, having to break down the apartment’s door the night before the race and some strange crawling insects in bed. The 7:00am start felt a bit early after nearly loosing the fight with the insects but fortunately the start tuned out to be a relaxed affair with the first few kilometres on a paved road with no serious attacks. As soon as we turned off onto the jeep track the serious attacks started and Petrus Malherbe got away. I was happy to ride at my own pace as I thought we would be able to pull Petrus back but little did I know that the rest of my day would be spent trying to limit my time loss. At the start of the Swartberg pass he had 2 minutes on us. At this point I decided to try and cross over but by the time we got to the top after 10km the gap had gone out a little but I managed to get 2 minutes on the rest of the field. The next 30km saw us descent from 1,400m to 500m on gravel roads with some sandy and rocky patches. This included fast grin inducing descents followed by short sharp climbs which managed to wipe that grin of my face quite quickly. On one of the descents I caught up with one of the supporter vehicles and a sort of dual followed where I would drop the vehicle on the descent and it would catchme on the climbs.
At the 52km mark we hit the final climb of the day (500m ascending over 6km). Later I learned that this climb was called Heartbreak hill which made a lot of sense. By this time I had given up on catching Petrus and was concentrating on limiting my time losses and to stay away from the chasing pack which I could see a turn behind me. After a while I caught myself swearing at the hill as every time I turned a corner I could see it snake a bit higher. In the end the view from the top was more than enough reward for the hard slog up. Way down at the bottom I could see the finish area but I didn’t have too much time to admire the view as I still had the chasers hot on my heals. A white knuckled decent followed and I was over the line in just under 2h 40min in second place.
Hamburgers and the lot. Now this is a feeding stop. Photo Ecobound
Picked some tents in the shade, moved the luggage in, washed the bike, showered, ate something and then the wait for Nadene (the fiancé) started. She is still new to cycling (and climbing) as she only started in February and this was her first multi day race. Some more waiting followed interrupted by more food and drink. Luckily I had Willie Oelofse one of my old cycling partners (Cape Epic and Trans Alps) to keep me company. Then after 5 hours Nadene crossed the line. Sunburnt, dusty, sore and tired but at least she had managed to survive Heartbreak hill.
A great evening camping in the ‘bush’ followed. The organisers provided meat and fires and each participant was able to socialise while BBQing. Had the best night’s rest of the whole trip that evening in the tent. No Blackberry reception, no sirens or alarms. Just people telling war stories of the day’s ride.
Day two’s start was a bit different from the previous day as we started with a 5km climb out of the valley. I was determined to try and stay with Petrus as long as possible which I managed to the top of the first climb but then he pulled away. In the process we managed to drop the rest of the field quite early on. Day two played itself out as a repeat of day one – me chasing Petrus on my own and being chased by the rest of the field. In the end I managed to hold on for second placed with a total time of 5h 20min over the two days 10min down on Petrus.
Once again the wait started for Nadene after a long warm shower and packing up my bike for the travel back to London. An exhausted Nadene rolled over the line in a total of 10h 24min. Looked like she rolled around in the dust for a while but turned out she was stuck behind some traffic on the dusty gravel roads. Her first words were: ‘Never again. I love being race support but I’m not doing this again.’ Well as any cyclist knows the mind has a way of forgetting the pain quite quickly and that evening she was asking me how she can get faster. This is somebody I’m planning to spend the rest of my life with. (Preferably the clean and fed one.)