Knowing I was unfit it was good to race over there with no
pressure on performing but picking up some skills from the top riders
there. I followed that with a week
at the Tour de Timor, a last minute one again but helped build up more
endurance for the Pioneer.
This year Team Asrin consisted of a three teams in the three
main categories each with the podium as an aim. In the men’s Austrian Herman Persteiner paired up with James
Reed, Nizaam paired with Hungarian rider Barbara Benko and I paired with Alice
Pirard from Belgium. As well as
riders we had a great backup team: JP, the mechanic, Angela
and Kurt, the masseurs and helpers and new to the team, Zac, a chef as well as
two helpers there to set up camp, drive and wash our kit. It may be a hard race but if it was anything like last year we were spoilt rotten once off our bikes!!
The prologue
15.3km Buffelsdrift
We just managed to ride a lap the evening before having travelled
from Cape Town as a whole team.
This year we went the opposite way to start and I led us out apparently
pretty hard. Alice has been racing
XC World Cups this year so I thought I’d set a steadier pace in the front and
let her lead through the single track.
I blew massively as soon as we hit the first climb on the single track
and had to back right off. I seem
to be able to keep one pace but once I go above that I blow and need to back
down for a long time to recover.
Alice looked like she was cruising and crossed the line saying how much
she enjoyed it whereas I was interviewed with a very croaky voice from breathing so hard!! We didn’t do too badly missing out on a
podium by a few seconds. The stage was won by Robyn de Groot and Jennie
Stenerhag.
 |
| Before the race starts |
Stage One
100km Oudtshoorn to Calitzdorp
Leaving the comfort of a hotel we rode down to the start for
7.30. The start was very fast and
again I battled to push that hard.
We soon settled into a good pace though and caught up the lead girls who
we stayed with most of the day.
Alice was super strong and I held onto her wheel a lot. She also descends confidently and
straight away I could trust her line.
She had to change her wheel at the tech zone as the free wheel wasn’t
working then I punctured soon after on a rocky descent which we managed to plug and bomb and not
loose too much time but by then we lost sight of the lead ladies and came into
the finish 2nd after a good fast last 15km slightly down hill on the
road.
Stage Two
85.9km Calitzdorp – Swartberg Summit
Every team going for the top finish today will certainly
have woken with butterflies as the top of the Swartberg Pass offered R125 000
to the first men’s and woman’s team.
We raced the stage as any other, there was a lot of climbs and long road
sections to get through before the pass started. The first half of the race we had Jennie and Robyn in
sights, I had my usual first hour of biting the bars but certainly felt better
than yesterday. Alice though was
quietly battling with stomach cramps and slowly we lost sight of the other two
and rode our own race. There was a
new section added onto the stage that was pretty slow going terrain but despite
Alice clearly feeling very rough we didn’t slow much at all and kept a positive
spin on things, we held onto 2nd position and didn’t lose a massive
amount of time. The big prize went to two very deserving riders but we would
fight on for the overall. In the
men’s race Herman attacked everyone and got away up the climb with the idea
been that James would sit in and come round in the final sprint. Unfortunately James went as hard as he
could but blew, Herman crossed the line unaware and 4 minutes ahead of James
landing them with a 30 minute penalty.
 |
| Massage in style only with Team Asrin |
Stage Three
107km Prince Albert to De Rust
We rolled away from the start with a strong tail wind and
blue skies. The tail wind mean’t a very fast pace and soon the race was
cracking up. Once the race spilt we were with the other girls and mixed
teams. Off that road we had a flat
sandy section. I was too far back
in the group and was constantly having to slow and accelerate to keep on, not
the way to ride through sand at all and I was more than happy to see the first
water point and the climbs looming ahead.
My racing on the steep technical climbs in Brek Epic had certainly paid
off and I can ride a lot more than in previous years and as Alice is also good
on the steep climbs we pulled away from Theresa and Esther with Robyn and
Jennie on our wheels by the bottom.
From then on we rode together, happy to be in a good sized
group as the wind was howling and making it hard going. We all stopped at the last water point,
and it made me laugh how we all dive in for different things. Alice grabbed the 32Gi chews, Jennie
was happy to find marshmallow fish and I was over the moon to find koeksister,
a year has passed since my last indulgence in these sweet treats!! That gave me
the sugar kick I needed to focus on the most fun single track section so far in
the race and I emerged on the road at the bottom on a high. From there we flew down towards the
finish and knew we faced a sprint to the line with Jennie and Robyn. My memory is so bad I couldn’t remember
the finish at all and swung round the last bends leading the four of us. The two pink jerseys upped and left us.
I don’t think I posses a single fast twitch muscle fibre at the moment and we
had to settle for second, still a great day out and extending our gap on third The
afternoon was made up of eating and resting, the best thing about stage
races! Zac had made us some
delicious chicken lunch and I later caught up with good mate Leana in the tent
and ate pancakes and drank tea.
 |
| One of Zac's many delicious lunches |
Stage Four
109km De Rust – George
The queen stage lay ahead and with it the worst forecast of
the week. Waking up at 5 I heard
the rain belting down on the camper van and was thankful not to be in the tent. Everyone gets up early in Team Asrin so
I am always out last and opened the camper to find everyone huddled around
eating Zac’s porridge and scrambled eggs and Nizaam’s coffee machine was in full
swing. He has also been boiling up
water so I have my much needed cup of tea and rusk. I spent the extra time that is normally used packing up bags
from the tent to stress about my choice of layers for the day, climbing out of
the Kammanasie the temperature was 10 degrees lower we were told and if it rains
it can feel colder still. I opted
for the Helly Hansen long sleeve thermal in the end with my waterproof jacket
stuffed in my pockets and thicker gloves. Once into the reserve we
got in a group with 2 mixed teams and the leading girls and as we hit the steep
climb at the end I weaved through so we were ahead and was pleased that Alice
was right on my wheel. By the top
we were out of sight of the others and they didn’t catch us on the
descent. After that we were in and
out of river crossings. We had
both settled into a perfect pace and after the long hike bike section, and a
tricky, rocky descent in pouring rain we apparently had 4 minutes on the other
girls at the first feed. The rest
of the stage we had no clue where anyone else was but I could tell we were
having a strong day, both sharing the work load on the open trails and neither
of us even flinched when the heavens opened and we were drowned . After 5 hours we were both feeling
good, we both admitted we had no idea how long that feeling would last but as
we neared the dam in George and still could see no pink jerseys we started to
realise we were going to win the stage.
The ‘mountain’ (tiny drag in reality) out of the dam hurt a lot but soon
we were on the muddy field and through the finish. We were elated about the stage win then 17 minutes later we
realised we were in pink, the others having had a day of mechanicals.
Unfortunately Barbara had a bad day and had to pull out with
pains in her heart. She was
checked over and later given the ok to ride the rest of the race still with
their number boards so at least they can still be involved in the race.
Stage Five
71km George – Herold
At dinner last night we were given two bits of information that
made everyone cheer following one of the hardest days in Pioneer history. The first was that today would be
shortened to 51km, the whole starting loop of single track round the dam having
been removed because of the mud.
The second was that we would only start at 9.15am in order for the crew
to get the next camp ready. It was
a shame to miss the single track as the trails are excellent round the dam but
with rain having fallen most of the day and evening they would have been such a
mess and no fun at all.
So at 9.15 we rolled out of George in our pink jerseys. The
race was neutralised until the bottom of Montagu Pass then we were off. Alice and I climbed on our own and over
the top were chased down by the next group including Cherise Stander and
Candice Neethling. The route
turned onto a jeep track with a side wind where we felt the effort of yesterday
catch up and we were both relieved to turn up into the hills again near the
end. Candice and Cherise were
flying and they dropped us both on one of the descents. We didn’t have the legs to chase them
back and instead rode our own pace to the finish. Theresa and Esther were close on our heels but we extended
our lead overall as Jennie was battling with flu and scared us all by passing
out at the finish line.
With another later start tomorrow things were a little more
relaxed in camp and after the presentation I joined in round the camp fire
wrapped in 7 layers with Nizaam, Kurt, Angela, JP and Zac, eating Cadburies
Bubbly and laughing about anything and everything. It was on of those race memories that will stay with me a
long time.
Stage Six
Herold – Oudtshoorn
The final stage and I had mixed feelings on the start
line. Another stage race almost
over, no more afternoons and evenings socialising with friends and guilt free
eating, no more racing along with Alice and sharing the highs and lows, the
adrenalin of surviving a rocky descent and the burning lactic of the first
hours racing. No more excitement
at what food Zac would have waiting for us back at the camp or box of goodies
Angela always had at the feed and no more excellent massage that got rid of the
massive knots in our legs and back.
On the other hand we held the pink jersey and only had to get through
one more day without incident to win.
The day did thankfully go by without any problems. We had a good start, got in a fast
moving group along with Cherise and
Candice again and flew along the duel jeep track and out on the open
road. With 30km to go we turned
off the road onto the rough jeep track trails round the Chandelier Game and
Ostrich Farm. Here the other girls
put in an attack down hill. I
followed for a short time before backing off, only a bad fall or serious
mechanical could loose us the leaders jersey and while a stage win on the final
run into Oudtshoorn would have been the cherry on the cake we were happy to
settle for just the cake. We
passed under the finish arms in the air and I tried and failed to spray
champagne around.
Our Asrin team mates managed to jump up into 4th
on GC only 1 minute off the podium despite the 30 minute penalty they got. Nizaam and Barbara also got some good
racing in winning stage 5 and getting on the podium in the prologue.
Final results
Men:
1st Simon Stiebjahn/Tim Bohme – Team Bulls 22.08
2nd Philip Buys/Matthys Beukes – Scott Factory
Racing 22.17
3rd Johann Rabie/Gawie Combrinck EAI South Africa
22.49
4th James Reid/Herman Persteiner Asrin Cycling
22.50
Woman:
1st Catherine Williamson/Alice Pirard – Asrin
Cycling 25.59
2nd Jennie Stenerhag/Robyn de Groot – Biogen
Toyota Cape Brewing Co 26.43
3rd Theresa Ralph/ Esther Suss – Meerendal
Wheeler 26.57
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