Further to my previous post New MTB Trails about testing part of the route for the Wines2Whales three day MTB stage race from somerset West to Hermanus, I can tell you that their website has just gone live and can be seen at: www.wines2whales.co.za
Personally I'd love to do it but my wife would have a serious sense of humour failure if I did so maybe next year for me.
I've had a cracking few rides so far this week and have now done 13½ hours of my 16½ hour week but more of that in my Weekly Summary at the end of the week.
Today I did my usual Wednesday morning ride with Petie from the bike shop only this morning was a little bit special. Petie had been asked to test ride part of the a new route for the 'Wine to Whale' mountain bike stage race from Somerset West to Hermanus. This is a new race on the calander with entries opening soon (sadly the website is not online yet).
As part of this ride we had one-off access to Morgenster winery which is normally forbidden territory. We also rode onto Mount Rozier, Journey's End, Wedderwill and onto the Sir Lowry's Pass servitude road before going into Mola Mola's estate to ride the single track in there, much of which is brand new. BIG thanks must go to Morgenster for allowing us access this morning, it really was great! Also, the single track at Mola Mola is brilliant and we'll definitely be back as this will make the usual Sir Lowry's ride much more interesting.
One added bonus of all this is that much of what we rode this morning is also part of the Cape Epic route and will be part of the last day after crossing over the wagon trail on the Hottentots Holland mountains.
The Race Register has gone live on the Cape Epic website, so now we can see who we're up against. We're listed as Bizweni Bundu Bashers, but hope to change the name if and when we get a sponsor. If you're interested in sponsoring us click here for more info.
There is no point in posting a full weekly summary as I've only ridden once this week as I've been taking it easy after the DC and resting a bit prior to Die Burger on Sunday. Die Burger is the last qualifier in the Western Cape for the Cape Argus in March and I really want to crack a good time so as to get into as good a starting group as possible.
So this week I only rode once (as said) which was a brilliant MTB ride around Lebanon with my regular crowd from Helderberg Cycles. The ride was quite pacey for 3 hours covering a tad under 50k's with 1005 metres of climbing. All in all a lot of fun!
Important Notice: Road Conditions
All roads were reopened in the Overberg Area after last week’s heavy rains. Despite damage to the road surface in some areas, the event can go ahead as planned. A small detour in the Bonnievale area might be necessary. Team captains will be informed of any changes at registration.
So, according to the DC website, the event is definitely on with only a minor detour looking likely.
The bad news is that one of our team members has dropped out so we're down to 8 riders which leaves very little room for error on the day. Most teams are comprised of 12 riders (max) with the first 6 finishers making up the team's official time. Obviously the more team members the more likely it is that the team will finish with a decent time. Given our small team, we'll have to reconsider our target of 7 hours which is a real shame. Still, there's always next year.
A general email was sent out late on Friday by the Cycle Tour about the route of the Double Century following the black South-Easter during the week. The main bit of the email reads as follows:
"The Overberg region has been battered by storms over the past few days and as you may have seen in the news - roads and bridges have been washed away and other areas seriously damaged. The Coronation Double Century route has been seriously affected by these storms. We are however working on an alternative route option in the event that the conditions of the roads on the original route do not improve over the next few days."
Hopefully things will be sorted in time for the ride.
Things are shaping up nicely as we begin our proper training program for the Epic. We're both using the Polar Training Programme which fits nicely into an Excel spreadsheet. The programme is over a 16 week period so we've tailored it to start and finish earlier than Polar recommend so that we can have a longer taper period at the end. We've managed to get hold of another training programme and are planning to use the taper period as it looks like a lot of fun.
In the midst of all this, I've just signed up for two more races. Firstly I'll be riding in the Akkedis MTB Challenge in Villiersdorp on the 25th of this month. I've also entered Die Burger Fiets-Toer which is a 98km road race. My main reason for entering this is that it's a seeding event for the Argus. I probably shouldn't enter the Argus next year because of the Epic, but I just can't say "no".
Whilst entering the Akkedis I was browsing their website and came across the following photos under their 'Team Africa' link. The photos were taken in Mozambique in 2006 and each tells a great story. It's all too easy to poke fun at these kind of photos but I don't want to here. Rather, as a cyclist I think it's worth celebrating these pictures. Living in a land where the car is king it's refreshing to see that in some cultures the humble bike still rules the roads. The caption on the web page says (in Afrikaans): 'n Fiets kan duidelik vir baie meer as net gewoon ry gebruik word! Which roughly translates as: a bicycle can be used for more than just a common ride! See more here.
