Following the Pioneer I stayed in Stellenbosch, recovering
then preparing for one last race of the year. Riding was steady to start with
lots of Lycra time but mostly sat in kit drinking coffee than actually turning
the pedals. I then did some
tougher more intense rides to prepare of the onslaught to come.
Pre race nerves kicked in as me and my partner, Robyn de
Groot registered and got our kit and bikes ready for the early start. Robyn was riding a brand new bike
having discovered a crack in her frame only a few days ago and with shorter
cranks she had a few nerves of her own.
We stayed in Somerset Lodge, also with the rest of the Asrin team; ideal
as we could ride down to the start next morning.
Teaming up for W2W as Biogen Toyota/Asrin had been in the
plans for a long time and I was both excited and nervous riding with the
current National Champion, one thing I knew for sure was it was going to be a
hard three days keeping up with her and battling with other top woman’s teams:
Jennie Stenerhag and Candice
Neethling as well as Theresa Ralph and Jeannie Dreyer.
Stage One: Lourensford – Oak Valley Wine Estate, 72km
As the horn went off at 7am I knew I was in for a painful
day after about 30 seconds. My breathing was crazy and my legs full
of lactic. The 5km climb
thankfully became a little more gradual and with a few pushes from Robyn we
could see Jennie and Candise not far in front. That was however the last we saw of them all day.
I did think I’d feel better after an
hour but I didn’t, my legs were aching the whole way but Robyn helped by taking the wind all day. The route had
a real mixture of long and short climbs, the compulsory portage over the
historical Gantouw ox-wagon pass and some mostly downhill single track to
finish off with. It’s a few years
since I last raced W2Ws and I was surprised to see so many new trails. I did feel a little better after the
portage, probably because there was more downhill but I was very pleased to see
the finish after 72km of pain!! I
was surprised Jennie and Candise were only one and half minutes in front
considering we hadn’t seen them all day and so at the least the race was still
on. I just prayed that my legs
would return tomorrow. I spent the rest of the day relaxing
and doing anything possible to improve tomorrow including a very good massage
and an ice bath. We were happy
enough to camp, there was so much effort gone into the race village everything
we needed was there as well as plenty of fresh tasty food from Fruit and Veg
Market. The social side of camping
can also massively increase your enjoyment of this event to and there was a big
lounge to lie around in and chat to like-minded cyclists.
Stage Two: Elgin Valley, 67km
Despite our tents directly outside the toilets and under a
big spot light all night I slept solidly and was ready for the 5am alarm. Pulling on warm kit I’d stored in the
sleeping bag also eased the whole getting up in the cold. I made sure I had a better warm up than
yesterday with some efforts thrown in to and though I sounded like a dying
horse the first 10km we kept in contact with the leading girls. Over the dragging fields that followed
the first flowing single track we pulled away and as the day went on I started
feeling better and better. The
single track was amazing, so well groomed and flowing and with new brakes on
following problems I’d had yesterday I was riding so much better. We never eased up, the constant twists
and climbs was like riding a criterium but today was a good suffering, my legs
and lungs hurt but it wasn’t the lactic dull constant pain of yesterday. Even cresting the King and Queen of the
Mountain Climb I jokily asked if we could have a rest knowing neither of us
would even be tempted.
Robyn was
super motivating as well; she rode in front forcing me to put in all my effort
on the climbs before a short rest bite on the tops as she took the wind. I did offer to sit in front but she was
doing such a great job I was very happy when she said she was feeling good
still. We crossed the line 1st
and instantly had some cold wet towels over our shoulders, a great idea by the organizers. Jennie and Candise were close behind
but we had managed to sneak into the lead by a mere 48 seconds. Tomorrow was going to be another
intense day!!! I repeated the
first day, eat, massage, ice bath, socialize and relax and without an afternoon
snooze found I slept solid again from about 9pm.
Stage three: Oak valley – Onrus, 74km
The last day once again brought perfect conditions with blue
skies and little wind. Breakfast was
forced down as I was feeling very nervous. I knew we started again with a short climb and we knew with
that time gap we couldn’t risk loosing the other girls at the start. I told Robyn to stay by me in case she
had to give me a shove but thankfully she didn’t have to. We rode in a big bunch after a few
initial splits on the first single tracks, the other girls following us for a
while down the open road. At
some point they dropped off while we still had the benefit of the group to ride
in. That had mixed blessings. While we were pulled along we also had
to accelerate hard out of every corner and used a lot of energy, then in the
single track we hit log jams causing hard surges afterwards. I felt even better today and the work
Robyn had put in the last few days to get us to the finish as quick as possible
caught up with her and she said she was pretty tired. That’s the great thing about racing in a team though;
I was able to at last take some wind and feel like I was contributing to our
ride a little more!
The course was tough going, though we were obviously heading
down to the sea we still had some tough climbs to get over and both downed some
much-needed coke at the final feed before the final 3km climb. Over that the views down to Walker Bay
were amazing and we started to relax a little, we hadn’t seen the other girls
for a while and I descended carefully, we could very quickly lose the race with
one flat tire or crash. I
appreciated every last bit of the single track to the ocean, heading back to
the English winter there won’t be a lot of riding off road and I really did
enjoy every bit. The last few km’s
over the PERI bridge and along the sea front with the crowds out cheering made
the day even better and we finally sat up a few hundred meters from the line to
soak in as much as possible. Our
gap was narrow; the girls finished a few teams after us. Having seen us on then
last climb their motivation had increased and they had set about chasing us
in. In third was Yolandi du Toit
and Anriette Schoemen, Theresa having had to pull out with a torn hamstring.
With the draw of equal prize money it was a very exciting
race for the woman. I have never
done a race with such a narrow margin between first and second and I hope for
the organizers, followers and sponsors it was equally as exciting. Wines2Whales exceeded Robyn’s expectations
as a first timer and I was equally as surprised about how much an already great
race could improve so much. There
has been so much time and thought put into creating unique single tracks,
amazingly designed bridges, challenging climbs and technical descents and all
linked into three hard but very rewarding and manageable days. A lot of events could learn from the
race village: a relaxing lounge open to all next to a very deluxe FBN lounge,
excellent and big quantities of good fresh nutritious food, ice bath
facilities, plenty of toilets and showers so no queues, boardwalks in case it
had been muddy, and a well laid out bar and Spur burger van for those not so
interested in the racing end of things.
Massive thank you to the organizers for inviting me and
Robyn, to JP and the crew at Tech Zone for the extra effort, to Meg and the
team for two excellent massages and help with all our baggage, to Squirt Lube
for three days of smooth running chains as always and Continental for my
favorite X King tires as well as Asrin and Cyclefunatics of Durbanville for all
your support though the year and my Specialized Epic 29er, I was extra proud to
win on your doorstep!
