Sooo... The Lost City: My race report Well the day didn't start off to well and I remember giving a few HUB members some gas about the deo they were using. Now it's my turn . Michelle forgot to pack my deo so I had no other choice but to use hers . But yeah I didn't tell you chaps . Anyway... got to Sun City, did a quick warm up and rode off to the starting pen. I felt a bit uncomfortable... all these guys were sniffing me out and they were like licking their lips, so I though it must be the KIT as this was my first serious race in TCS colours...and we all know how the chics and certain okes dig the kit. Decided to have a easy day today so starting with the elites guys was ideal because the last race with the Open A's was hectic. Crossed over the championchip mat and the average speed was already like 50kph . The first 35km's or so was like so easy... Let me draw a quick picture here, it's like racing ewep uphill, you have him in your pocket before the climb even start's, that's how easy it was ... but then again the average gradient for the first 35km's was like minus 10%. Anyway... back to racing. The first hot spot was coming up and I was ready for it (R300 I think it was). Microsoft, Team CSC/CVT, Hi-Q Supercycling, Exel and The Sharks Cycling team were watching my every move and when I was going to attack. I had my poker face on (That Lance one) and my attack was there but in other ways... I was busy having a heart attack the way these okes were racing, first this team attacks and then this one and then that one and so on and so on... I was like listen chaps, it's my birthday for f%^&k sakes take it easy on me. We almost hit a BULL after all this heart attack threshold testing stuff... this thing came out of no where and just started running across the road. Luckily we had a chap in the peloton who was either stupid or I dunno but he did a stirling job when he decided to take this BULL on and to make it worse it was in the wind!, so a few checks... - Peloton attacking - HUGE mofo BULL (Most probably on heat and a little edgee) - Wind - And cyclist with RED kit if I'm not mistaken. (Very clever) All this and he decides to take a BULL on. Like dude, what's your heart on? Mine's like 50% over MAX and his playing with BULLS in the wind wearing red while the peloton attacks. That's tougher than riding the TDF I reckon. Respect no brain dude! Anyway as we hit the first left... I was like phoning 082152 and pressing 3 for the weather. I actually wanted to ask if it's possible that the wind can blow from the North, West, East and South at the same time. No answer just a recorded voice message, kinda like when you dial 10111. The pace was still high and everyone was on their team radio's asking their managers if they have dropped me already or that's what it looked like . Surprise surprise, I was still hanging in there and all this while carrying 8 bottles for Barend and Spinnekop and 2 of my own. This stretch was boring and nothing really to talk about. Ended up chatting with Spinnekop and admiring the beautiful land. You look to the left/right and see BUSH for like 30000km's and the odd bird poop here and there. After this stretch we hit right and started heading for the 3 long drags of the day. This was about 60km's into the race and the place where I popped off cause we had Jacques Fullard seeing how fast he could ride in to the wind and do some damage... It wasn't really damage, I was just getting bored and tired and decided to slow down a bit and chase back later to make the ride a little more interesting and make this training ride a little tougher than others. Yeah right... Some chaps joined me in this pop off group including Peter Lee Jefferies who was pacing himself up the hill back in to the group with the help of a TAXI . Now this is the second time I see this guy do this. The funny thing is... we still caught him when he finally decided to let go of the taxi and when we met up with him there was about 5 of us doing the team time trial thing. Obviously Peter skipping a few turns!!! and when we hit the last drag of the day he was finished and myself and another chap that was also motor pacing and holding on to cars in the Nola decided to ride off with Peter Lee shouting in the distance "ARE YOU GUYS RACING EACH OTHER UP THE HILL OR WHAT? WAIT FOR ME BOO HOO BOO HOO" . Sorry Peter but I dunno what's up with you? Why don't you just ride the route in your car? Anyway... We hit the final left turn of the race with about 25km's to go and guess what... The same chap that was taking pictures at the Benoni world champs was there again. I was thinking like dude...You getting more free pics... WTF...pay already!! I have like Paris and Maria Sharapova e-mailing me wanting pics and now you get them for free. I had to focus on the race but I had to teach this photo chap a lesson...but...I was wearing my new kit and then I thought, photo chaps blood from me putting his fingers through my spokes cannot be good on the kit... So I left it and decided that he can live another day... Shaun Leach from Potchefstroom who wore a size 38 pants around each quad! was the man I was working with to the end. You should of seen this okes quads... I was trying to look around him and all that I could see is QUAD! Ullrich's quad looks like Rasmussen's compared to this okes! With the wind behind our back for once, we paced eachother to the end and with 5km's to go Shaun punctured! Lucky me... Imagine sprinting with this oke for a place (Cause remember every place counts), It's like dressing in a poodle outfit and jumping in to a pack of American Pitbulls hoping to not get raped! It just ain't gonna happen. I was left to solo the last 5km's. All in all it was a good race and I felt ok and very satisfied with a fast training ride! I was also very impressed with the deo that I was using... I'm actually looking into the woman deo thing while racing. PM for further information. Met a lot of people from the hub... Chilli, Bee, myself, Michelle, Ewep, Epoh, myself again, Stiffy again..., Man with no name, Spider, IanJ, Sonic and myself again. Pictures to follow... Jason2006-08-28 10:13:15
