I started in AL for this race and all I can say is that it was brutal from the get go. Around the 15km mark I accidentally pushed a fellow cyclist off the road, I couldnt see that the road actually closed in and I held my line and gave him no room, i apologised profusely but he had his game face on and well I guess we carry on. He later caught up to me again and i apologised once again but with no response - ok then carry on mate. About 25km into the race the first accident happened and I had just enough time to avoid colliding with a fellow cyclist on the floor as well as a well timed bunny hop hahaha - hope they ok tho. Due to that accident it put a few of us under pressure to make grounds with the leading batch so a hard effort was needed and i felt blown after that. The wind did not play in our favour and the cross wind was just brutal. There were 2-4 guys that were extremely erratic in the peloton and I was glad that we managed to get rid of two of them around the halfway mark. The right turn after suikerbos up that steep climb a guy cut right across my front wheel and well i im not sure how i did not hit the deck but yeah that was not fun. Coming down to the petrol station a slight lapse of concentration from my side and a delay in accelerating saw me finally fall of the leading batch and did a few of us pay dearly for that, when we turned left to go towards carnival the wind was ready in full force to destroy every ounce of what was left in the legs, we were a group of about 5 guys that tirelessly grinded to get back and finally 2h57 we saw the blue mats - there was some serious bromance going on when we got to the line lol, we suffered together and graciously past the finish line together. That was defo harder than amashova, the attacks in A hurt so so so much. It was honestly just purely brutal but so lekker. 947 is my next one. Ride on.
