Grabouw Training Weekend - Andre's Ride Report
Day 1: Friday 28 November
Thursday evening 27 November - Silly season is on us and I have to attend a function. I would have preferred to be and sleep over at Grabouw to relax with fellow cyclists. Stress!!!
Friday morning 28 November at 5:00 - Pack, get bike ready, speed from Cape Town to Grabouw, traffic; will I make it in time? Stress!!! City/Corporate life is written all over me. I am in time and having to wait stresses me up - why hurry and wait for others?
Relax, distress: I'm in nature now!!!
Within minutes after leaving the rendezvous it pours with rain and it is bitterly cold. A few minutes later we are greeted with awesome, fresh, beautiful fynbos. The colours (brought out by the rain), the smell, the calmness changes everything within me and I become one with Mother Nature - I feel good and come into contact with God (I always do even more when experiencing nature/outdoors).
My original partner for the Cape-Epic hurt his back and pulled out. The weekend, apart from meeting fellow Epic riders and training for it, is to meet my new partner, Hendrik Lemmer, and determine whether we can ride together. At least, I think, he's a nice chap; later I find him to be an animal on the bike as well; he'll just have to wait for me and I still have some 3 months to try and catch-up! Welcome to the Miles for Marrow team, Hendrik. All you have to do now is to become a bone marrow donor to assist leukaemia patients. Anyone else out there who is interested, please contact me!
The scenery is beautiful. The terrain, well, it is quite challenging, with a lot of loose gravel, sand, little hills just to increase the heart rate and breathing, turns, streams and fynbos which continuously scratches my legs. We cross a river and although there is a foefie slide which we fix first, most of us opt to find an alternative route as it's a time-consuming process for 20 odd cyclists to cross one by one on the slide.
The group break up and most of us arrive at the Nature Conservation office where we eat our lunch. My Partner brought no lunch and I happily provide and share. What follows after lunch is where the fun starts.
Three cyclists miss the lunch point and ride frantically to catch up with us - a tar road to Kleinmond. We, still far behind, manage to stop too but one continues and we will only see him at Grabouw, much later. Like an organised bunch of cyclists we tackle the some 20kms to our next dirt road turn off. Hendrik and I lead the group and inspire each other, with the wind from behind to push the tempo. Nicholas Qotoyi (a 2003 Trans Alps participant) moves forward and increases the pace - well, I can't fall off on the first day and show weakness, so I hang in, sweat and push up my heart rate. Only later that evening was I going to be accused of being a crazy roady - needless to say the bunch falls apart and people arrive at the turnoff in drips and drabs.
The last third of the day's ride is done on predominantly dirt roads between farms, of which the first few kms is on a steep uphill, and bits of tar road. Everyone does it at his/her own pace - I continue to enjoy being out there and am by now totally relaxed. The farm stall on the way to our sleepover offers wonderful filter coffee and hot bread.
Day 1 ride summary: 103kms; tough with a good workout; very enjoyable.
Late afternoon and evening I take a nap, eat, wipe my bike very briefly, eat, listen to a very interesting talk by Harald Zumpt of Polar, eat and meet very interesting people, some with extreme lives and stories. It's very dark and I sleep like a baby.
Day 2: Saturday 29 November
Day 2, 29 November starts with a lovely breakfast and we all meet at the Grabouw Country Club. Today there are more cyclists who include Fourie and Hannelle Kotze. Today we follow arrows in the sand (which was prepared by the organiser - Cobus Pienaar) through the Grabouw plantation and forest. It's awesome, beautiful, extremely tough with long hectic hills on loose gravel; it's boiling hot and the sun burns my skin (I forgot to put on suntan lotion - Tip for the Epic: include this in your goodie bag and apply). The day is divided in three loops - 1 st : hectic, mountain loop followed lunch. 2 nd : hectic mountain loop. 3 rd : single track (get the picture)? Everyone walks some time or another, except the professionals; Fourie is seen riding up a section where it's generally not humanly possible .... or is it? Some of us miss the arrows on the last section of the second loop and we go round and round until we find a few locals, with a juke box and plenty of wine having a party, who direct us back to the Country Club. Some pack up for the day; some do a bit more, but Partner and I decide we want to do the single track too. After missing the turnoff and adding about 10 km to our ride in the pursuit to find the single track, we conclude that the single track is worth every second. Thanks Cobus, you will be nominated in future to plot the routes.
Day 2 ride summary: 88 km; very tough; sun burned; good workout and awesome. Approximate cumulative climb, per Tim Ferreira, is 1 800 metres (my budget still does not allow for a 720 Polar, but I accept handouts (Polar please take note!))
Lance Stephenson of Cyclelab delivers an excellent presentation on bicycle maintenance and emergency bush repairs. I just hope I will remember everything during the Epic. The rest of the evening we pretty much do what we did the 1 st evening.
Day 3: Sunday 30 November
Day 3, 30 November, consists of day 2's ride in reverse. We all leave from the Country Club. I started to take a different multivitamin pill one day prior to the weekend and this causes met to stop for a leak every so often. Minutes in the ride I move to the back and stop (I'll catch up!!). Not so. I take the left fork - the more obvious route (in my mind) and soon I realize this road only leads to the pump house and a cul-de-sac. By the time I return to the fork the bunch is no where to be seen and it takes me an hour to find a bridge to cross the river, adding about 12 kms to my day's ride. For most of the day I trail the group and climb approximately 1 500 metres. Lance's talk the previous evening proves relevant and my back hydraulics brake packs up - nothing I can do about it. The downhills became scary and my nerves unsettling - I will take spares on the Epic to deal with this. In the mean time my Partner and I meet (he eventually waited for me) and in solidarity to me, he disconnects his back V-brake. To him, going down steep loose gravel hills changes nothing - call him "ysterkas" for short.
It's these types of weekends cycling shops hope, promote and pray for. The hammering these MTBs take is frightening and parts wear and break. Adding all the cyclist repairs needed after this weekend amounts to small fortunes (forks, haudraulic brakes, chains, blades, rims, etc) not for mention the labour costs involved to fix it.
Day 3 ride summary: 66 km; tough; good workout; approximately 1 500 m cumulative climb.
Weekend summary: Brilliant, tough, relaxing (to the mind), good training opportunity and very necessary. Complements to Cobus for his organisation.
Mindset and open questions: Am I out of my depth by entering the Cape Epic ? The answer to this question will be revealed in 3 month's time! In the mean time I'll keep those wheels rolling.
ANDRÉ DU PLESSIS
083 675 3340
Email: andreduplessis@capitecbank.co.za
