ZAVibes

OK, so this past weekend I spent up in Bela Bela (Warmbaths) for the Century 21 Bela Bela Classic, a 95km cycle road-race. It was my first attempt at it, and wow, what a result! It’s fast and flat and from the start the guys (I started with the first Open Seeded bunch) pushed the pace up to about 40km/h!

With a finish time of 2 hours 18 minutes and an average speed of 41 km/h, this has been my best effort to date!

The next one up for me is also a lekker flat race, called the Carousel Classic. A 152km ass-biter on August 9th, but if I can pull out the same performance, the distance shouldn’t hurt as much!

Now let’s go train…

What a race! I did the Sungardens Carousel Cycle Classic for the first time this morning. It’s a 110km cycle race, starting and finishing at the Sungardens Carousel Cassino, north of Pretoria.

Things got underway a little behind schedule, with our bunch (BL) only starting at 7:51AM. Immediately I was worried, since the guys raced out into the R101 at a blistering 40km/h pace!

Things settled down though and we cruised along at an average of about 37km/h which was definitely a lot more maintainable for the long haul still lying ahead.

The route is a 55km ride to the east, making a U-turn at the end and coming back along the same route, creating the total distance of 110km. Though mostly flat, one has to deal with a little nasty climb to get to the turnaroundpoint, which was situated at the top of a little hill.

Surviving the climb and not being dropped by the leaders in our BL bunch, the pace immediately picked up and the guys (and one very strong-riding girl!) started pushing hard heading back. With only about 25 guys left in the leading group of our starting bunch (the rest got left behind on the nasty climb), things got organised very quickly and we formed a 10-strong paceline, working together really well. The other 15 guys just sat back and hung on to our back wheels, letting us do all the work.

With about 800m to the finish, another guy and I broke away from the rest of the group and pulled a little lead, which we held until the finish. I lost the dash to the line against the other guy, but what a race it was! He came first in our bunch and I was in second place over the line, one second behind him!

My final result for the 110km was a time of 3:00:47 at an overall average speed of 36.56km/h, quite satisfactory for the first time at this race, and this race being the first cycling event after the long winter. The rest of the season looks good!

In two weeks’ time its the Lost City Cycle Classic, a 103km race at Sun City. I’m really looking forward to this one, it being my 6th time participating and with a previous best of 2:53 to beat!

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!

Hi all! Just a quick heads-up about the latest addition to ZAVibes, our own official Cycling Blog! To check it out, visit The Crazy Cyclist where we’ll be discussing lots of cycling related topics:

• Cycle races in the area and personal experiences shared after the event
• Technology Talks
• Training Tips & Techniques
• Cycling News
• Sports Science
• Cycling Humor

and loads more! It’s hot & fresh, so content is still limited, but feel free to pay The Crazy Cyclist a visit and leave some of your own tips, experiences and stories for others to enjoy!