Having spent the night gorging myself on all the right food stuffs and continually snacking on nuts & dried fruit as well as drinking more recovery and electrolyte rich drinks than I care to remember (I never seemed to stop weeing) we were set for a great day. Stage 4 was billed as the 'easy day' but in truth it just favoured the roadies and sprinters. We held our own but it didn't play to any of our strengths. Stage 5 on the other hand was our best day by far! We loved every minute of it and eventually crossed the finish line with huge grins on our faces. We'd worked out a good nutrition plan for me and we were religious im ensuring we had drained our water bottles by each water point. On top of that we were uber religious about eating on the hour every hour and it really paid off! Stage 5 felt like we'd finally started mountain biking properly and we were loving it.
The highlight of the Stage (for me) was seeing Hansekop in the distance as we climed out of Botrivier. As soon as we saw our old friend (I've ridden to the top of Hansekop twice) we knew we were 'home' and the rest of the Epic was to be ridden in our own back yard.
The single track coming into Oak Valley was brilliant.
Look at the slack on the chain!
We both had a huge amount of fun on this Stage but the singletrack was the icing on a very sweet cake!
Having a blast!
Paul's family were out in force at Oak Valley and it was great to see them, especially as ey had brought burgers and beer. This was also the end of our time in the tented village as the next two nights were spent at home in our own beds. Blessed relief especially as it poured one night.
Mountain biking as a workout.
2 months ago
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