Here is my race report. My 1st TB attempt..... Trans Baviaans: Expect the Unexpected......... As a bunch of 1st timers Trans Baviaans was an unknown quantity. Sure, 2 of us have been riding for a few years including the 2012 Epic, but never had we taken on 230km in one ride. 2 of our teammates, Angus and Trev are new to mountain biking although they do have a pedigree in Ultra marathon running with 13 Comrades between them. Preparation for TB was all on track until the unexpected happened. George had an unfortunate crash at the Nissan Cullinan Marathon in which he hurt his right shoulder (again) as well as the ligaments in left thumb. This put his training back a few weeks but George is a tough nut and he soldiered on in spinning classes with his hand in a cast. Meanwhile Trev, Angus and myself put in some good long rides on the weekends. Finally Trans Baviaans arrived, we were as prepared as could be and we were aiming for anything between 14 and 18 hours. This wasn't a race for us, just a long ride to finish and get some experience for future events. Well, expect the unexpected.........with registration done on Friday afternoon we headed down to our Lodge in the Baviaans Kloof. The scenery was breath-taking and on entering the jeep track down to the lodge, my bike, which was on the roof of my Landy, was attacked by an overhanging tree and ripped from its holder. We came to a halt with my bike hanging by the wheel holders off the side of my car. We got the bike back on the roof and proceeded down to the lodge. After checking in and unpacking I inspected my bike to find that one of the spokes in my rear wheel had almost been ripped from the rim and that the wheel was pretty badly buckled. So here we are on the eve of Trans Baviaans, 50km down the Kloof with a pretty badly damaged wheel. So as luck would have it the spoke spanner I had was for a Shimano wheel and not a Stan's so I went to work with a shifting spanner to try and limit the damage and make the wheel useable. Now was a good time for a beer or 10. With the wheel fixed as best I could, but still with a pretty bad buckle, we packed our boxes for checkpoint 2,3 and 4 and did final run through the plan. What we didn't plan for is that our Lodge was only 12V and there was no way of topping up the charge on our lights or computers. it was an interesting start to our TB adventure. Expect the unexpected......... Race Day: Race day arrived, cold, windy and rather miserable but there was some excitement in the team for the day and night ahead. Our support crew Maryna and Jacki were ready with Amarula and OB Sherry. Ready Set Go! We started right form the back of the field, by accident, not design, but quickly found some open space to get into a good rhythm and the 1st target was getting over "The Roof" and into the Nuwekloof Pass. We rode the race from checkpoint to checkpoint and found ourselves starting out with a 15hr pace and slowly but surely increased the pace and a 14hr day was on the cards. Better than any of us expected. The 1st 130km was pretty easy with a negative gradient and easy riding. The Checkpoints went by and the food was excellent, everything from roosterbrood to sosaties and chip rolls. Awesome. The weather for the middle of the day was now nice and pleasant. The real climbing started with a warm-up up and over "Baviaans Back" followed by a "Fangs" which were short sharp and pretty mean. The 2nd half the race had several river crossings which were all rideable and kept our feet cool in day and frozen as the sun began to set.We fitted our lights at CP 3 and made the big climb up MAC in the daylight. As we were exiting CP 3 we had a good laugh when Angus stopped to look a lady competitor diligently drying her feet and putting on nice dry socks. Little did she know that within 50m of exiting the checkpoint we had a deep river crossing. Angus didn't have the heart to tell her.....The views from MAC were just incredible. I have never been in such a vast unspoilt wilderness. The bid CP4 at bergplaas was a hive of activity with all the teams getting prepped for what was set to be a cold wet and windy night. Our 1st checkpoint to meet our Support crew was at Komdomo CP 5 where I proceeded to fall off my bike while standing still in front of the gathered crowds. I seem to be making a habit of that. Anyway, my damaged wheel was holding up well and didn't seem to be causing me any problems and I had adopted the stance of "ride it until it breaks". So far so good. The night ride went on well without incident but soon the wind started to pick up to some really high speeds and with it some rain. CP6 on top of "Never Ender" which was unmanned was really exposed to the elements and the wind was really affecting the pace. The team was still in good shape and George,was hanging tough managing his injuries and the 2 newbies were more than holding their own with the rest of us. The last 20km from CP 7 to the finish were incredibly hard although a shot of Old Brown Sherry and a warm mince jaffle does wonders to lift spirits. The rain was coming in sideways and the wind speed made the rain drops feel like needles on our faces. Again the guys in the team were incredible, just doing what needed to be done to get to the finish and even though I left my sense of humour at the bottom of the "Col de Jefferys Bay" the relief of getting to the finish at Fountains Mall at 20 min past midnight and really made me proud of the guys.Team Hardass Mambas conquered the Trans Baviaans with a flawless ride. What can be said about our support crew who even had hot water bottles for us in the car after the race? You girls were awesome. Thanks ladies. Nothing like friendly smile of a loved on to get you going at the check points. Stage 2: The Sunflower Bar in Jefferys Bay which was home to the team and some friends on the Sunday. They ran out of Beer by mid afternoon, but that's a story for another day! My Stats: Ride Time: 11:50 Total time: 14:20 Ascent: 2946m Average Heart rate 119 bpm
