18 replies to this topic Post Order

[Velouria]

Come on Marius - you do yours first, and then I will do mine...

[Marius]

Pfft, I got nothing good to say, you know what, we actually went over the wrong damn hill!??!!? Do you remember that long sandy uphill part that took us to the un-marked over grown part were we had to guess were to go?!?!?

[Marius]

The hill we walked over and then tried riding down only to fall every time the road had a moerse ditch in, well that's the reason we were not suppose to ride there, I think we whould have caught that 1st and 2nd guy if not for all the flats and taking wrong turns and all the damn walking, rather tell me about day two!!?!

[Marius]

*If you thought day one was tough - day 2 was a killer - 40 something kilometers, and it took us close on 4 hours. We did have more puncture issues, and got lost once or twice, but it made the first day seem easy.

Were you able to stay with the A bunch? I am impressed, particularly after the hard ride on Saturday*

 

What, don't talk k@k, 40km can't take 4hours!!!! You guys were taking it easy cuz I the Carrot wasd not there to be caught, right!?!?

 

And no, I did not stay with the bunch, I got dropped 40k's into the race, finished with the 3de A-B bunch about 6-7mins after the fists bunch, but hey, I'm sure a lot of them were Elite, I meen I was riding with Hannashi!!!

[Velouria]

Are you sure we took such a bad detour? It sounds like everyone behind us also took the same detour then.

Day 2 went out towards the other side of town - up the old pass to the top of the pass. I quite enjoyed that - the pass wasn't too steep, and we were able to ride up quite nicely. We then entered some Blue Gum trees, for a bit of uphill single track, and then out across a very sandy section and through an orchard, which was covered in thorns. I picked up my first puncture there. A bit more climbing up a steep rocky jeep track, before we got to enjoy a really cool downhill section - must have been about 5kms long - all the way back down to the valley floor.

We could see a chap up ahead, so I put my head down and we road across and past him, only to discover about 5 minutes later that he wasn't in the race, and that we had missed the turn off about 2 kms back.

We now began the second round of climbing, back up the old pass, under the N7 in a VERY low tunnel - my partner was bent in double, and his saddle almost touched the top of the tunnel. Back in the daylight we had more climbing ahead of us - rocky jeeptrack.

We eventually popped out in a wheat field, which we rode through and around. I reckon we left some very interesting looking crop circles. Once we got out of the wheat, it was uphill through an orchard, and onto a tar road for yet more climbing.

This was followed by a fast sandy downhill section. We had to stop to pump my wheel, and hoped we could get to the end in one piece.

We rode some really great single track - newly cut, but nice and flowing, back up to the N7, where again we went through a tunnel to the other side.

From there it was back through the orchard we had climbed through earlier, and the thorny patch, where I punctured again. All that we had left was a quick downhill through the Blue Gum trees and down the old pass to the finish.

Probably not as much walking as Day one, but still quite a bit in some places. And I think we rode more sand than day one.

All in all - quite a good weekend. The MTB gets put away for a bit now, and it is time to enjoy some road riding...

[Marius]

wow, you make it sound so nice...still, if there was more sand than day one I would really be p'ed off big time!!!! I checked, we did about 1350m climbing over that 56km day one, who much more was day two??

[Ratty]

I did the 36km.  Was very close to turning around after 15 minutes.  Going up the hill in the sand with the intense heat was killing me.  Then my savour came, the breeze.  After that I felt fine and continued.  The more the wind picked up, the happier I was.

 

I had a pretty good ride overall.  Had a few falls, one of which I fly a couple of meters through the air and landed in the fynbos.  At least my bike landed on top of me so it wasn't damaged.   I was quite surprised when I came to the finish that I was the first lady in the middle route and got a bottle of bubbly for my trouble :-)

 

What was interesting was that we climbed more in 36km's at Citrusdal then we did in the 40km's at Eselfontein.

 

 

 

[Velouria]

I am still picking the bits of fynbos out of my arms, legs and hands.

I will check the ascent tonight for day 2.

[Velouria]

Getting back to day one - have Harmony given you your win bonus?

I think you owe us a beer or two there.

We stop and give you a bomb.
We catch you again, and give you a pump.
We tow you to the line for 5 or 6 kms - you didn't offer to work once.

And then you out sprint us meters from the line....

I think two beers each should be a starting point.

[Marius]

pfft! I'll say it again,,,you guys were working together for the whole race, I was working by myself, so I was more tierd then you two...and what was up with trying to drop me 3k's to the finish, I would have let you guys win but then you made me got in Max HR, totally un called for!

 

and when you gave me the bomb I also waited for you to pump your tyre but you did not wait for me the second time, there I really needed to make a bee line to catch you guys again, all in all a much better workout than the silly little road event!:-p

Marius2007-09-17 04:45:41

[Velouria]

hehehe...

Although - you did give us something to aim at - and I love nothing better than having a target to aim at....

[Marius]

" a un-aimed arrow will never miss it's target"  jaja, that damn Gaint rider gave me the slip some were, I had him in my sights for quite some time, but lost him after that damn stop to fix my tyre

[Marius]

Oh, Ratty, I think we saw you collect you prize, you the one with the long black hair??

[Velouria]

Is that Ratty? Well done....

[Marius]

I don't know, think so, there was nother girl that collected a prize but she was to young with blond hair I think??

[Ratty]

The girl with the black hair came 2nd.  I was the one with the blonde hair, white cap. 

 

BTW, were you having fun balancing on your bike waiting for Lilo to get through the finish? 

 

Saw you guys at the finish of the road race yesterday as well but didn't get a chance to say hi. 

 

Ratty2007-09-17 10:15:41