So day 2 of the Tour de Heritage weekend. Yesterday was the prologue which consisted of 106km's of what I reckon was a way to easy route. I mean come on... like Hekpoort? Who actually struggled? No one, I thought so. Anyway... Today's stage was a 97km route starting at Maropeng that was pretty flat. I felt like quitting after riding the route as a pre race warm up. Just for interest sake... My warm up took me 1 hour and 58 minutes, which was like 20 minutes faster than the elites. Now do you understand why I think it's so easy. Anyway... At the start I had Scott Richardson (Microsoft Team Manager) approach me. He asked me to please drop down to one of the Open groups cause his guys were hurting from the pain I dished out the day before at the Dis-Chem. I was like OK how much you got dude? He gave me a copy of Windows XP with SP2 and I was like sure I'll drop down and just as I left to join with the open groups he wanted me to sign his shirt... so I was like ugh... OK... So deal done. I started with the A group which was followed by a pre race concert sponsored by Micheal Jackson from New Horizons. Great show... Eeeooow! Sing a long now: All I wanna say is that they don't really care about us...OK I'll stop now and put my white socks, black pants and shiny black shoes away and take off my white glove. BRB... OK I'm back... So the following team started in the A group from TCS... Spinnekop, Levi, epoh, Coenie and of course in all teams there's a weak link... and yup that was me. The race got underway and the pace was seriously fast, first 8km's was covered in 11 minutes at an average speed of 45kph and a gradient coming in at a staggering -2.1%. Like how tough is that ? I would rather do the TDF twice than start a race like this. We got to the first little bump just after 16 km's and I heard a Eeooow! I was like WTF was that? Looked up and guess what? Jackson was attacking. So now I knew his secret war cry. Every Eeooow! meant he was attacking. The attack was covered quickly and that was the first split in the A bunch. The group consisted of about 25 riders maybe less and all the TCS riders were there including the weakest link me. Reached the 18km mark and I was knackered... balls in the throat and my lungs were getting caught in my spokes, but I had my poker face on that Lance one (BikeMax ignore) and the guys thought I was still fresh. I hit the point of no return and got dropped. Like how the hell am I supposed to stick with these okes after doing a blistering pre-race warm up. I got dropped or rather I was tired at this point so I decided to hook up with one of the elite lady riders...Michelle. Thought it would be easier to sit on her wheel until the end but I was wrong. So... I'm cruising along nicely setting a good pace for the BOSS and taking orders from the BOSS (Michelle) when I hear this vrrrrrr...from behind. I take a quick peak to the back and SMACK... Blue eye ... Michelle: You better focus and stop looking around... I'm like gulp...YES BOSS... So still cruising along and still hearing this vrrrrrr...from behind. Again, quick peak to the back and duck, haha missed me... SPLAT! Look to the front...Darn bird poop on me handle bars! ARghh... finally this vrrrrrr pulls up next to me and yeah it's photographer dude again . So now I'm on edge, first orders from the boss, secondly bird poop on me handle bars and now photographer dude prowling and doing his rounds again. So I'm thinking how's this chap... Do you actually know actually know who I am? People, well actually blind chics pay for photo's and you getting them free/gratis. I pull in front of this snazzy van bringing it to a complete stop. I'm thinking it's now or never... Today photographer dudes fingers are paste! As I walk over to the drivers door... race radio comes on...it's BOSS...Agh... Bad timing. BOSS needed help. She's lost. Now this is a the thing with BOSS. Whenever she rides out in this region she takes wrong turns and gets lost. So there photographer dude lives to snap pictures for another day...I'll be back . After searching for BOSS for 2 hours I finally find her and off we go, back on race route and cruising along. Hitting one of the major climbs of the day... 1.1km's at 6.5%, I see epoh...I mean Sonic who looked like he was on EPO pulling the leaders of the B bunch up. I'm thinking dude, do you ever pay attention to the road signs? It says MAX SPEED 100kph and you choose to ignore? Why? What makes you or separates you from the rest? So I ask him to slow down and he blames the okes behind him? I have a quick look at the okes behind him and think to myself, if there's anything that needs to slow down it would be the way they breathing! You were dishing out the pain and you looked seriously good and fresh and very strong. As Sonic passed I got a wiff of woman?s deo (Dove I think it was) , so I'm thinking why IanJ does this...abuses Sonic and makes him wear the same Deo as dad...it's just wrong...but I suppose that's the Jone's for you. Anyway... About 35km's to the end one of the VETS that we passed earlier who got dropped from the VB group... Joins up with us. IanJ... I check his race number and it say's AL...Hmmm...Fishy?!?! I could have sworn it was VB146 earlier when we passed him. Must of had a spare some where and he then tells me he started in BL?!?! , Anyway...I didn't let that bug me but that Dove deo got to me a tad. Cruised a long nicely with one of the great icons of cycling IanJ and I just wanna say a BIG BIG thank you to IanJ for riding with us and basically setting a nice pace for us and pulling us home . The sprint finish was close but at the end Michelle took it followed by IanJ followed by me 15 seconds back. Next time IanJ just pick the pace up a tad OK? All in all it was a good day to catch a TAN... Look at the scenery, count the ants, and set new records for holding my breath while climbing. A good day for the TCS team especially. Winning the mixed tandems again and catching a VA rider (Copman) that was taking Andrew McLean on in some part's of the race. A 2nd for Levi , 3rd for Coenie , 4th for Spinnekop in the A bunch and a 1ST! for Sonic in the B bunch . Amoryn for hanging in there and fighting back after a puncture , Michelle for giving it her all on a not so great day and mostly dudet who is a rider that gives more than 101% ... sorry 101% Tomorrow it's stage 3 (80+ km's) in the Tour de Heritage weekend and with me being way down on GC... I think tomorrow's the day for me to make up the lost time . GC as follows: 1. Jaco 4hrs 30 mins 2. Spinnekop +1 3. epoh +1:30 4. Sonic +1:33 5. IanJ +3:21 6. Levi +3:22 7. Coenie +3:23 8. Copman +4:56 9. Rene +4:56 10. Amoryn +4:57 11. dudet +4:58 12. Michelle +4:59 13. Jason +1 day 23hrs 44minutes Thanks and well done to everyone on completing the races this weekend! Thanks to Cruxie for all the support and the Nando's and just making the races/day more and more enjoyable! EK moet nou Survivor gaan kyk! Peace out! Jason2006-09-24 11:21:15
