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| Pre Argus ride looking down Chapmen's Peak |
10th March 2013
Lining up on the start line for the 4th
time it was hard not to feel nervous with such a great atmosphere, music
playing and people dancing despite the fact the sun was just coming up. With such little road racing in my
legs, the possibility that I still hadn’t fully recovered from last weeks
efforts, as well as the fact we were off with the fast 30 plus men I was
preparing for a hard 3 hours. I
was right. The first climb out of
town I was struggling, I looked down to see my heart rate was still low but me
legs were screaming. Luckily we turned into the wind and sat mid way back in
the group the pace eased off.
The race first split as we turned in
land. I started at the front and
crested the top off the back!
Luckily not too far back though and I hung onto the wheels in front to
get back to the main group. With
the wind behind now I had no gears at all left and had to concentrate fully on
staying within millimeters of the strong men pulling us back. That effort woke my legs up a bit and
up Chapmen’s Peak, after a very near collision with a tandem, I rode a little
better and while not in the front group was pretty confident of descending back
into the group. It’s true that if
you climb bad you learn to descend well, the desperation to get back to the
group always makes you take more risks and by the bottom we were back to the
leaders again.
The last climb I had to ride my own
pace. At the bottom for me it
would be a flat out sprint just to stay in the group such was my shocking leg
speed so I rode it mountain bike style and by the top had pulled back a small
group of biggish men who again descended back to the main bunch which was now a
lot smaller.
The good thing about racing with the fast
30 plus men was that the finish was the least chaotic I have known. It was easy to position yourself
through Camps Bay and towards the end I knew out of the 6 of us girls left I
would finish 6th in a bunch sprint if we all lined out on the
road. With that in mind I moved
right to the front, 3rd or 4th wheel back risking an
early sprint but also avoiding getting blocked in or having to come round
anyone. Two men had a small break
in front about 10 meters or so and I watched as one just flew straight up in the
air. My guess is he clipped the
wheel of the guy in front. I
managed to dodge it but heard a huge bang behind as someone went straight into
him. The pace eased up then and as
we turned into the finish straight the men started sprinting past me. In top gear I couldn’t get on a wheel
and when Annriette and Cherise came past I think I’d been sprinting for 500m
already. Near the line with a
strong tail wind I had no gears left and had to sit down as Jennie edged past
me. I came in 4th and
while I was disappointed to miss the podium for the first time in 4 years I was
happy with the girls who got up there.
It was very sad to hear the crash involved
Sharon Laws who was taken straight to hospital with a compression fracture on
her spine and broken ribs and collarbone.
It was a freak accident, which could have happened to anyone but with
the Epic coming its extra painful for her after all the preparation for
it.
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| Me and Phil Liggett |
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