Cape Epic - Stage 1

So today we had 113km and 2800hm metres.

We were fortunate enough to be in the 2nd pen with our time yesterday and even beside Sally Bigham in a pro team.  Wish we had he support like them.  Mechanics with warm up rollers and all the spares you could imagine.

The Gun went at 7am for the start and it was fast and furious.  So much for a Neutral 7km behind the cars.  Lots of small crashes and a lot of lock ups when the road got narrow and the bikes just did not fit. fortunately Myself and Fannie made it unscathed.

We hit the first dirt road 10km with sun straight in our eyes and dust everywhere.  Helicopter buzzing us about 5 meters above us for the show,  however I think we had visibility of about 3 metres.

I struggled up the first climb for a bit, the second which was steeper and rougher I was not so bad on. It was nice them calling out our names at the top over the PA and then I heard ,Malcolm "Your wife wants to give you a message - Go Malcolm and Fanie, Go"  We settled into a good rhythm which meant Fanie leading and me at the back...the terrain was very varied and we went through everything from rough ,rocky and mountainous, to bush and farmland.

Somewhere before the water point two I had my first puncture.  We plugged it and bombed it and we were back on the road within a minute two.

Passed through water point two and grabbed new bottles and lubed the bikes.  We hooked up with the leading mixed team.  The technique with them was when it pointed up the woman grabs the mans pocket for the boost up.  Unfortunately that holds up who's behind.  We pulled out as it was 5-10% to slow for me.  Of course then I did the dumb thing went a bit fast and straight off line into a rock.

Queue the 2nd puncture of the day.  It was raining  and mud and grit everywhere and we could not find the puncture.  Swearing and cursing it was down very low just above the edge of the rim.  We lost maybe 3-4 mins with this one.

From here on uneventful run to the finish.  We spent the rest of the ride passing other riders till the finish.

We were 12th in class and 63rd overall for the stage.

We moved up to 14th in class and 66th overall.