Eleven Wise Monkeys

The biggest day of the CPT didn’t finish well.

But it started well!

Starting out at 7am, half an hour earlier than usual, we headed on to the beach for about 6km of wave dodging. The tide was quite high so the sand was pretty soft which made for tough going. Especially when swerving to avoid a wave. Which didn’t always work. Poor bike!

Thumbs up for Water Point 2

Then into the hills. As Henco the race director said, even the contour path was up and down. Hilana had a storming ride – easily the best I have ever seen from her. I on the other hand didn’t. My entire upper body was really sore and it was hard to breath. Things went pear shaped as we caught up to Yolande se Villiers and Johan Labuschagne. Hilana suddenly got a bee in her bonnet and took off. I followed as best as I could. At the last water point I had just filled my bottles when I saw her 150m down the road riding hard. What happened to “not racing”??

I was clearly not as focussed as I should have been and so about 5km later while descending a fairly smooth and innocuous forest track I suddenly found myself flying off the bike and hitting the ground hard with my right knee. I rolled over on to my shoulder as slid to a halt. About 35km/h to zero in slow motion.

Blood streaming down the leg from a couple of holes about the size of R5 coins. And a few really a bad contusions. Which is medico speak for a thumping great bump. Also a hole in the thigh and forearm. I knew immediately that I could not continue. Funny how one just knows. It’s nothing to do with the level of pain, you can just feel when things aren’t working right.

Hilana eventually came back to see what was up and was keen that I should try ride to the end. Not bloody likely!

As luck (??) would have it, a medic wandered down the road within about 5 minutes and patched me up and organised a lift to the medic tent for the doc to put everything back together. So I’ve upped my tally of stitches to 16 in all.

And so my race came to an end when the fat boy screamed.

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.

Well. Here we are by the grace of what’s left of our sense of humour. What a “rest” day. Supposedly the second easiest day of the CPT turned nasty courtesy of the weather. About 20 minutes before the gun the first rain squall came through and set the tone for the day. Fortunately the wind was mostly from behind, blowing us along nicely. Apart, naturally, for the last 20km or so when the wheels came off. And of course the rain stings whichever direction the wind comes from.

The start at Oakdale high – Riversdale

Out of Riversdale up into the mountains along some farm roads with a tricky descent to district road. That descent rated 8 to 10 on the stitches scale. A bit of loose rock on a steep decline behind a struggling motorbike. He made it down but not me. My story is that he was too slow and I’m sticking to it. Thought I got away with it but the handy medic pointed out the blood running down my shin. Didn’t even realize! A quick bit of gauze and a round of Elastoplast with promises to go for stitches later saw me on my way. From a cycling point of view it is a non-injury so good news there! Two gashes in the soft tissue just below the knee, now stitched with about 6-8 in one and 4-6 in the other.

Not this descent!

Now the real problem was some innocuous damage to the bike. In the tumble the hydraulic hose for the fork lock out was damaged, leaking all the fluid. That left the fork in locked out mode. Not a great idea for the superb technical route up into the higher mountains!

Following a rough jeep track – really rough – we climbed up into the most awesome series of ridges, spurs, valleys and kloofs. With the wet weather the fynbos was positively glowing. Impossible to describe the scale of it all. Made us realize how remote we really were. With the rigid fork descended the technical track was more than exciting. And tough on the hands and arms. Forget the legs – massage the hands!

The occasional hill today

And then finally the character building part if the day – 50km or so along rolling – as ever – district roads. Along with the gale force wind it required a bit of vasbyt. 6h24m in all.

How strong was the wind? Well we are not in tents tonight. They were mostly blown down or away while they were being pitched. They are generally pitched by the kids from the school where we overnight and apparently they had a bit of a challenge! So we are safely houses in the classrooms – I believe I am in the grade 7 home room. Lucky to have missed the Maths room!

Weird hats in these parts

Tomorrow is officially the easiest day down to Mosselbay. One snag – we go through the Gondwana nature reserve with 7 free roaming lions?? Apparently we should ride in groups to reduce our chance of being taken by one – statistically at least!! Ot’s wing talked up big time. Hope to let you know how it goes tomorrow night. Gulp.

What can be said of today’s romp through the “little” Karoo? Probably quite a bit if didn’t all blur into one!

At one of the many hilltops we crested today someone commented that it (the view??) was beautiful. But there was just so damn much of it. 128km, 2.5 Table Mountains and a lot of loose stones. At least those only featured from km 80 to 105! Some wit asked if it was 2 stages ridden in error over just one day.

Cough cough – the bunch out of Calitzdorp

Winning time was 5h23m26s. Christoph Suaser and Max Knox of course. They may well have taken the line honors yesterday if the current world marathon champ had not lost his way and mucked about for half and hour or so. We spent 7h35 in the saddle or on our feet. You know what they say – “if you ain’t hiking, you ain’t biking”. Some also found time to take a bath.

I won’t be mentioning the VMO thing in this blog. Er, oops.

The thing that may not be mentioned.

And so the first stage of the race is in the bag. It took quite a bit of effort though, to overpower it and stuff in into the bag. It turned out we brought the wrong bag. Apart from my issues, Hilana had probably her worst day on the bike. She says in, like, ever.

The first two hours (55km) were great – mostly flat and easy riding courtesy of the pro’s who were really chilled before the climbing and the racing started. It was about then that the Hilana’s wheels came off. There was even a hill where, horror of horrors, she actually had to get off and walk. Never mind that everyone was basically walking! Except perhaps for Liana who peddled up a bit and then ran down to push her team mate Hetje. Repeat.

There is nothing small about the Klein Karoo. With the majestic Swartberg to the north and the rolling hills to the coastal plain in the south it is a stunning part of the country. It did strike me as rather odd though that all the jeep tracks that we rode on were built at all. Where were they trying to get to?? And why?? As far as I could tell they just go, kind of around and about.

But from a riding point of view the route was brilliant. Good under rubber and quite safe – no dangerous (or really dangerous) descents.

The Calitzdorp dam is pretty full this year unlike last year. And the vegetation is looking good too. Nice to see after the trouble they have had with water in these parts these past years.

And finally, the finish. We were most relieved to slip under the Bedouin tent to the finish line.

The finish at Calitzdorp

Oh yes – Eric and Ariane. Ariane arrived from Switzerland to race the Pioneer last year. During the race – apparently by the second day according to most accounts – she had hooked up with Eric Kleinhans and they were married a few months later! They are back to defend there honor this year And did so quite well today, taking first place in the mixed and 9th (yes ninth) overall! Kevin and David took the line in 4h12m.

Here’s their story in Ariane’s words:

“Actually it happened by pure chance. I had lost my water bottle during one of the stages and I was becoming very thirsty,” is how Ariane explained the chance meeting that led to their marriage shortly after the Cape Epic.

“That was when everything in the romance department started. I went to visit him in Stellenbosch and we just decided that we were meant for each other.”

What a week. With the start of the Cape Pioneer Trek fast approaching everything fell apart. What is up with stuff, be it bio-mechanics or ordinary old machines, that just know when it would the most inconvenient time to go wrong??

You read about my VMO committing suicide in the previous post. Now, about the bike….

A simple brake bleed request snowballed into replacing the rear wheel and freehub bearings. Ridiculous as they were just renewed about a month ago after the Wild Coast tour. Then, on Friday afternoon at 16h30, as I was collecting the bike we noticed that the shock linkage seemed loose. The pressfit bearings (new a month ago) were loose and sliding around. Probably what did the wheel bearings in. So now the linkage had to be replaced. What are the chances of the right replacement part……

To cut a panic story short – Omnico provided a linkage and it was replaced by 18h00. Good grief.

And our team kit was Only sorted at the eleventh hour as well. The Eleven Wise Monkeys ride again!

Eleven Wise Monkeys – the official 2011 kit

One small snag – Bjorn also made Hilana some shorts. Which she reckons are a little too porn star-ish for her liking. Something about the see through white lycra. But they are not too bad really and look pretty hot on the bike. We are bound to have quite a few teams ride with us! Luckily Bjorn is Hilana’s contact so I can claim innocence.

But after all that we had a safe trip through to Oudshoorn. Have registered, checked in and got everything sorted. What lies ahead tomorrow is 107 km through to Calitzdorp. With the odd hill thrown in – about two and a half Table Mountains worth. This is thanks to Katot Meyer.

Oom Katot. “Route director” or “route planner” doesn’t describe what Katot does every year for this race. Katot has a passion for the area and it’s history. So he finds the most amazing paths through these parts, often following old Voortrekker routes. Or perhaps building a new way through a poort. Himself.

Sadly what Katot feels for the area doesn’t seem to extend to mountain bikers. One gets the distinct feeling that he thinks we are a bunch of wusses that complain too much. Besides, we wear shoes. And can one really trust a man (or woman) that has to cover their flimsy feet when you are not even walking?!

Katot Meyer – bare footed route devil

And so six months of training comes down the this. The final two weeks. The taper. The rise to peak form. The approach to the start chute. This is it!

Lets get real for a moment. For starters, what is the ideal taper? A week in Mauritius? Paying it forward for the race visa meant just that! So, two weeks before the race, I swapped a saddle for a pool lounger.

The pool lounger – Laura also got one

Now I realize that this is not the usual program during the taper phase but I threw myself wholeheartedly into the strange new discipline. Swimming, snorkeling, sailing, speed boating, fishing, paddling, eating and sleeping made up the core of the daily routine. I did also manage an interval session on a glass bottom boat.

One of the tough training days during this unusual taper phase

A young Sports Illustrated model

Having survived the second to last week, the last week loomed. Pool loungers were cast aside and the comfort of a 135 grams of Fizik’s finest carbon fibre butt support was sought. And this is where it went all pear shaped.

The plan – 8-10 hours on the bike.

The reality – 4-6 hours – on the Physio table.

On Sunday a gentle pedal down to the lighthouse at Cape Point with Hilana turned into a journey of discovery. My right VMO was in for a knife fight. After just 20mins it committed suicide, plunging a stiletto blade deep into it’s heart. And for the next 4 hours I could not believe how painful it was. Was this the last hurrah of the arthroscopic surgery to my right knee in May? I knew I should have done those damn rehab exercises!

For those with a technical interest the VMO (Vastus Medialis Obliquus) is that little used muscle running down on the inside front of the thigh. Really wish I’d done those rehab exercises!

I had (have??) a serious problem and I knew it. So I spent more hours on Sarah’s table than on the bike this week. Needles, massage, Transact patches, strapping and, of course, those rehab exercises. And a bit of biking under Sarah’s strict conditions. I did it all this week. But not exactly what was planned.

So it’s Sunday – the race kicks off tomorrow morning and I am not at all confident I will get through even the first stage. But we’ll give it a go and only call it quits if the fat boy screams.