Yesterday was, for me at least, one of the hardest days I’ve done on a bike. Feeling OK for 30k of a 115k stage isn’t really enough – 85k with my brain boiling in 40-plus degree heat had me in the box in a big way. And it’s never nice knowing that you’re holding your team-mate back, as group after dispiriting group came up, came past and then proceeded to ride into the distance.
So it was with some relief that I heard the race director say at the briefing “this is an easy day”, particularly with temperatures about 10 degrees lower than yesterday – blessed relief. However, as that famous quote from Greg Lemond hints, an “easy” day is just likely to mean that everyone goes faster. And sure enough, that’s what happened on Stage 2 of the ABSA Cape Epic. Team Bulls rattled off 122k in a frankly disturbing 4:21. Today included a lot more ‘district road’, i.e. dirt road, fairly smooth, and quite a lot of fast doubletrack; as opposed to the miles of rough tracks yesterday. Also, where yesterday had us off our bikes at fairly regular intervals, pushing up 25% plus grades on loose sand and rock, today was spent in the saddle all the way, mostly in decent-sized groups riding through and off, with no massive climbs.
While team-mate Mike and I know a lot about each other’s riding from last year, a new year brings different fitness levels. Mike claimed beforehand that “I’m not as fit as last year”. Well, I’d like to call him on that right now. We got ourselves into a decent group after the usual ‘neutral’ start on tarmac out of Robertson. After a few k, we found ourselves in our group for the day, containing such luminaries as women’s leaders, last year’s world champ Esther Suess and Brit (and future world champ? hope so) Sally Bigham. Also a pair of strong Poles, some erratic Spanish, fellow Brits (and engines) Ben Thomas and Josh Ibbett. In short, just where we wanted to be.
So about that business of calling Mike on his pre-race fitness assessment… Well, it was a decent group, but as with any biggish group the pace can ebb and flow a bit. Mostly I had my head down in grovel mode, just trying to hold the wheel in front; whenever I was finding it particularly challenging to do so, I’d look up and who would be on the front, drilling it along? Yep, Mike ‘Motorbike’ Blewitt, monstering along up there with people gasping in his wake.
The Robertson finishing straight - a pleasing sight!
It worked well though – a considerably better ride than yesterday, certainly from me, but also for our pairing as the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com Team. 27th in category, 32nd overall, and 33 minutes down on the stage winners. Queen stage tomorrow, at 147k and 2900m of climbing, with the biggest climb waiting until around the 100k mark to kick in. Apart from 24hr races, it’ll be the longest distance I’ve ever raced in a single day on a mountain bike. It wouldn’t be a bad total on a road bike… Oh, and there’s the small matter of the four days that are still to come once we get to the finish tomorrow.
At the front of the race it was a sprint finish in the Mens. The Team Bulls Dream Team of Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm were declared the winners. Suess and Bigham took the womens win. All results can be seen online