live-cycle

Today is a “short stage” only 71km, with a stupid amount of climbing. As we set off at dawn to the sound of High way to Hell blasting across the fields. Let me tell you about climbing, ah but first you need to be aware that Dennis and I had technical problems today. Four punctures with in the first 10km which meant we were officially last and with the cut off time being reduced to 8 hours it was going to be a tough day for us as we only managed 28km in four and a half hours. This coupled with a small amount of mountaineering that would have made Chris Bonnigton proud. Have you ever tried climbing – not riding – 5km up a mountain road made of rocks the size of footballs having to carry your bike? The sweat runs in rivers down your face, your shoes fill with grit and sweat and become like concrete slippers. The sun baking us and the Cape Epic once again resembled a broken defeated army in retreat to some safe distant haven.
On reaching the top we decided that the only thing to do was literally throw ourselves off the top and we did. We hurtled to valley floor over loose rocks and cobbles through dust and sand at speeds reaching 66kpm – Andy Keys, that’s downhill! This was the fastest I have ever been on a mountain bike off road. After finally getting to the tarmac we pushed on and averaged a speed of 40kph for nearly 10km, then more off road and some mountains and we were home with an hour to spare! That is riding with the pressure of failure sitting heavy on your shoulders, somehow you just dig a bit deeper and find some hidden reserves.
Sorry its a bit short but time is tight in the internet cafe

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 6:50 pm and is filed under Paul. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.