Leaving a thankfully dry and wind still Albertinia we headed out into the far outposts of the Western Cape toward Mosselbay. At least they still get KFM here not Radio Algoa! Bunch riding at the start if these stages is always a nervy time. Mountain bikers are not well practiced at this, the roads are rough and prone to constrictions and the handlebars just sooo wide. A touch here or there and riders go down like nine pins. Unlike the crash at the start yesterday, today was thankfully incident free. At least at the start.

At about 50km I was in front of our small group as I entered the descent that we were warned about. Narrow, steep, extremely loose big pebbles and a deep gully on the left. Hilana behind with a decent gap. Nix following, with a decent gap. Tony followed. Typical boy stuff – he overtook Nix (his fiancé). “There’s only one line”, she shouted. “There’s always more than one line” he shouted back overtaking Hilana. As he came up behind me I was slowing for the gully. He went left and right into the gully coming down hard on his left side. Sounded more like a car crash! With the adrenaline flowing he continued. Shortly after, up a steep hill the poor guy came to an unplanned stop, couldn’t unclip and came down heavily on the same side. Surprisingly he continued again across the mostly district road that followed.

About 10km from the end we came to the coast. What a spectacular view with waves crashing wildly against the shore. We turned onto the coastal hiking trail, much of which was rideable. It was here that Tony realised how bad his injury was. He was unable to ride the technical stuff as it requires quite a bit of upper body effort. The X-rays later confirmed three broken ribs and one cracked. Philosophically, Tony said that After 13 stage races with no issues something was bound to happen sometime. Mmm, how does one know when your time had come??

Earlier, the route led across the Gouritz river to an large island (wet feet). Awesome scenery but the main vegetation on the island is devils thorns. About 10 to 15 in each tyre but luckily no leaks – amazing stuff sealant! At least we could walk across the river with our bikes.

See – told ya!

We had a better day ourselves. My VMO injury seems to have faded and Hilana was feeling more her usual self. In fact we led Christoph Sauser (multiple world champion) and Max for much of the day and were only caught within the last 10km. His multiple punctures from the island and many, many stops to pump the rear wheel might have assisted our cause, but I like to think not. We rode for about 5h10m for the 97km.

Even world champions run out of bombs!

There are 11 countries represented in the field at the CPT. At dinner tonight we heard that the 2nd place mixed team (from Switzerland) had a narrow escape with some mountain zebra in the game reserve. In what is now known to be typical ungulate behavior, the animals raced alongside the riders and then bolted across the road. Right in front of them. At supper they told of the experience in Africa with nervous laughter.

A real zebra crossing

Big day ahead tomorrow. 127km and three Table Mountains (3035m) climbing.