Got my Cape Epic Race DVD in the post today and watched it over dinner. The coverage of the race at the front was excellent, and I think it may have triggered some training motivation somewhere inside of me. Watching the action has definitely got me thinking about needing to get fit again, and getting out on the mountain bike some more.

It’s been a bit of a bummer without a proper training partner since Kevin decided to take winter off, but now that the racing season is in full swing again I feel the urge to get out again and clock up some big hours. Its been a bit stressful at work lately - we’ve been extremely busy - so the training has suffered a bit and have had quite a few weeks with not quite enough training hours. Hopefully I can shake that habit now and get some miles in my legs again

Although I was pre-entered for the 55km route, after an evening of rain and still feeling sore from Wednesday’s tandem torture-session, I decided to chicken out and do the short 30km Lourensford MTB route.

I went out at a moderate pace only and found a comfortable rhythm that didn’t involve too much risk, and let me enjoy the scenery a bit. It was very muddy and very slippery. The quietness of the countryside was punctuated by the occasional “Whaaahiiiii” as successive riders lost grip with Mother Earth. Fortunately I was not one of them and I managed to keep the rubber bits pointed downwards.

30kms ended up taking only 2 hours, which was a perfect way to loosen up my legs, which were still a bit tight from Killarney. Its been a long time since I did an easy race and it was really enjoyable

Day 1 of the race was grotty. The first hour-and-a-half went great and we were lying in the top 25. Then I had a small crash that took about 20 minutes to recover from. Except I never really recovered and felt horrible for the rest of the day and we came in only 44th position. I was hoping that day 1 was an anomaly and day 2 would go better, however I went through the same thing during day 2, except worse. I grovelled through the latter half of the race - I’ve never felt so lousy on a bike. My legs were tight, knees were sore and even my ankle was sore.

Strategy for day 3 was to take it easy and allow my body to get over whatever was afflicting it. But my ankle felt worse and worse and my legs felt like big lumps of lead. The final water point was only 2kms from the race village at Riversdale before it went out on a final loop of 20kms. I decided that the direct route home would be kinder to my body and pulled out.

Nicole came to fetch me in Riversdale the following day, and I sat waiting on my own at the Riversdale high school feeling very sorry for myself. All of this training and preparation, just to ride 3 days. Not what I’d planned, and nothing I could do about it.

Kevin paired up with a new partner for stage 4, but Lady Luck was also to get the better of him as he had a whole night without sleep and then got sick in the morning. He pulled out at the first water stop of stage 4 feeling very weak. Luckily though he recovered during the course of the day and was able to start stage 5 and finish all the subsequent stages.

Right now neither of us are feeling very much like we’d like to do Epic ‘06. A change of scenery is needed - maybe our next stage race challenge will take us to TransAlps or TransRockies. We’ll see next year.

Have a look at our race pics.

Picked up my Zen yesterday, spent a little while pumping and poking to get the suspension set up, and hit the trails for the first time today. I have been converted. I am now a reborn full-susser. Hallelujah!! Dropped almost a minute off our standard lap time, all thanks to a quicker descent with the oh-so-comfy 4 inches of 5th Element Air travel.

Dumped my bike with the friendly guys at Bike Hut for an extreme makeover. When I get her back she should look like a Mountain Cycle Zen, with Manitou Skareb Platinum fork.

Kevin should be taking delivery of his Litespeed Sewanee tomorrow too, so we’ll both be fully suspended.

Just had a great weekend up in Grabouw doing laps of the Lebanon forest. Cobus Pienaar put together another great weekend that included lots of riding, as well as a skills workshop and nutrition lectures. It was great to meet some of our fellow Epic competitors too, and I have to say that we look a bit fitter than some of them - there’s still a long way to go though. Also interesting was the fact that Kevin and I were the only of 3 people out of the 20 present, still on hardtails. One day we’ll upgrade (note to self: win lotto)!

We’re in!!! We’ve secured an entry for ‘05, and its all systems go! We’ll be racing in the colours of Alcolin Bostik again, and its time to get our training kickstarted. Early reports of the route indicate a lot more singletrack and proper mountain biking, and a lot less long gravel road sections. Also the distance looks to be a bit further. We are not afraid!!

I have come to the slow realisation that I’m never going to get that race report out… just too much shit happening work-wise, so no time to do it. And by now I can’t remember half of it anyways (they say the mind is the first thing to go ). Not sure what’s happening with the official race photos - the Cape Epic crew are really quiet about it.