I could have sworn I had a cat in the car this morning as I headed towards Oudtshoorn. The 2012 edition of the Cape Pioneer Trek lay ahead – what promises to be another awesome event and sees me returning for the fourth year running. And that must be a recommendation. 7 days of MTB racing through the Karoo covering about 550km starts tomorrow.

Having had a reputation for out epic-ing the Cape Epic, Carel and Henco of Dryland have had a change of tack – make the race more accessible to the average rider. Or at least don’t scare the Lycra bibs off them anyway. The plan is to keep quality of the riding, but to reduce the average time taken per stage to about 6 hours instead of the previous 8 hours. I’ll be more informed if they have succeeded over the next few days, and I’ll be sure to let you know.

This year the event is extended from 6 to 7 days to include a 19km prologue on the Sunday. Registration and the prologue is at Buffelsfontein game farm and lodge 10km out of town. A pretty amazing venue and looks to be a great setting for the prologue and Grandé Depàrté

Starting on Monday morning we head off to Calitzdorp and then on Tuesday some excitement for the front markers – R100,000.00 prize money for the stage! You could also quite easily call it the King Of the Mountains prize as the finish line is at the top of the Swartberg pass. At Roughly 12km and 1000m there’s going to be a lot of tired bodies taking the neutral descent down to Prince Albert for the next overnight.

Then off through the Great Karoo to the Little Karoo via Meiringspoort and the picturesque setting around the NG church – sorry, kerk – in the village of de Rust and the following day sees us winding across to the Louvain farm at the base of the ever ominous Outeniqua range.

The penultimate stage follows the old van Zyls Voortrekker pass over the Outeniqua – familiar ground but with a rough rocky descent down to the forestry roads and then on into George. The finale is back in Oudtshoorn having taken on Montague Pass and possibly the “big toe” of the Kamanassie range.

Nervous riders pour over the route info.

So what about the cat in the car I mentioned? Well, I am riding with Emily Clarke this year. Emily hails from White River (google it if you must) and is a studying Logopedics (google that too while you are about it) at UCT. Although Emily has been competitive and in the podium in the shorter disciplines this is her first stage race so the nervous anticipation is running high. As always, that, plus the challenge of getting some assignments done has taken it’s toll and poor Em seems to be coming down with a cold or sinusitis of sorts. A couple of Panado followed by two Advils and a bit of motion sickness meant that she spent most of the trip with her eyes closed cat napping. At one point she sneezed three times in quick succession. And that was when I suspected there to be a real cat in the car. The most delicate and quiet sneezes I think I have ever heard! Bless you.