ZAVibes

Yesterday I participated for a fifth time in this 103km race. The weather was perfect, I tapered as planned, I seeded in the A-bunch, my bike even received a new back tyre and some tyre liners - leaving nothing to chance. Last year I managed a personal best at this race with a time of 2 hours 53 minutes and the real challenge was to see if I could hang on in the A-bunch all the way to the finish.

Right from the start, the pace was relentless. After the first 13km our average speed was 40km/h! Then, it happened! A friggin’ puncture! New tyre, new tyre liners and still I managed to be so unlucky!

There went the A-bunch, with me stuck to the side of the road for a few minutes to sort out the flat tyre. As I got back on the bike, the leaders of the B-bunch hadn’t cought up yet, so I got going under my own steam, but keeping the pace conservative, since I knew that the B-bunch would catch me in a few minutes.

A couple of kilometers later, the B-bunch came racing along and I fell into the front of the pack, staying there for the rest of the race and just enjoying the day out. Hopes of bettering my personal best time diminished, so I just focused on the enjoyment of the race - the bunch riding, the jokes between the guys and the silence and suffering whenever we had to ascend some climbs.

At about 20 kilometers to go, the pace started to pick up ever so slightly, but at around 6 km’s from the finish, things started to become a bit hectic. Guys started to move around in the bunch, beginning to line up for the sprint at the finish. Average speed at this point was about 45km/h.

With less than a kilometer to go, the attack came and we all threw the hammer down and raced to the finish. I got boxed in a bit behind a couple of guys and crossed the line in around 10th place. Our speed at the sprint was 50km/h and was quite a rush!

But would you know, even with the puncture and the inevitable falling-off from the A-bunch, I still managed to shave 3 minutes off my previous best! Final time was 2 hours 50 minutes! Not bad, all things considered!

OK, so if 103 km of cycling isn’t enough, after going through the finish and picking up my medal, I headed back out onto the route, going upstream to look for two of my friends who were still out on the route. I caught up with them about 12 km from the finish, made a U-turn and fell in with them and cycled back to the finish, providing some motivation to them. I ended the day with 130 km of cycling under the belt. Not bad for an old toppie like me.

In three weeks’ time I’ll be doing the Dome 2 Dome race, the toughest race in Johannesburg! With a total distance of 116 km and a profile which resembles the 94.7 cycle race, this event is the beast to beat! Training starts tomorrow!

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