It’s quite simple really. The basics. Screw up on the basics an you can expect the consequences.

The basics of bike riding:

And so it came to be that in the 30th minute of the third hour the edge of the cliff was reached. Cartoon like my legs flailed in empty space. Reaching for an energy gel I reached out toward the edge, fingernails clawing in the dust. Would it be enough? Would I grab hold or drop like the proverbial stone into the void?

Emily freezing in the start line

It rained a bit last night. Quite a bit actually. Enough to wreck the single track out of Louvain. In the cold of the morning we heard that (a) the single track was to be cut from the route and (b) the start would be delayed by an hour. With our bags already loaded in the truck we faced an hour of shivering. Fortunately I holed up in the tent so it wasn’t too bad. And then, just before the delayed start Emily and I found a brazier (a whole 44 gallon drum with a fire going) to warm us.

Without the first bit of the route we headed out of Louvain and directly up Duivelskop following the old Voortrekker route. Soon the chills of the morning were behind us and the hard work started. Once over the top another Pioneer classic – a rough rocky descent (really rough – I even saw Emily walking down a 2m stretch!) down to the Bergplaas forestry area as a high speed dash down through the pine trees.

Helping Emily out of Bergplaas up a stiff climb started the process of my collapse. Hard charging into the wind and then not one, but two passes toward George sealed my fate. After the second I just didn’t recover as I would have expected. Them it hit me – 2h30m and all I had taken in was 350ml of Gu drink and 200ml of Coke. What an amateur! I quickly downed an energy gel and hoped it would do the trick.

Some pine forest single track through Saasveld forestry passed in a sort of daze. The last 7km into George didn’t though. We were still riding hard but each pedal strike felt like it should be my last. If Emily hadn’t been going so well I would have just called it quits and wombled in. But after all the hard work I just kept churning away with Emily right on my wheel.

Eventually all bad things come to an end and I was able to sink into a chair with my head on another – much to the consternation of the lady nearby! “Are you ok”? she asked. Oh yes, I just like sitting like this. A lot!

Here ended the lesson…