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Wines 2 Whales - 2013


Francois Pienaar

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Much nicer day on the bike. Fantastic route. Still muddy but sunshine and not a single drop of rain. Race village still a muddy mess but everybody in great spirits and having litres of beer and wine. New bridges on Paul Cluver are stunning. Not technical. Great bikepark opening soon there (we did 6k of the route). Much less techs on route. All the good riders that lost time yesterday came through today. I had a hard time with my injuries and did my standard 3 step-offs. Not as crunching as yesterday though. Will be demoted to B ( Just outside top 60). Those guys that withdrew must try to ride Tmrw - I think I heard JK say they will allow that. It will be hot and hard. Lekka!

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Incredible stage today. The race village was a wet muddy mess still but most of the route dried out pretty well considering how wet it was yesterday. As soon as you got into the shade though it was very wet and slippery.

 

Started at the front again and a reasonably large group of about 5 teams formed. 2 solo riders set the pace for a while and between them, myself and my partner no one did any work at the front. Eventually the 2 solo riders made a break and we went with for as long as we could. We split away from the bunch though so we just worked on pulling a gap. The route was a mix of rolling hills and awesome single track.

 

We led as the first team for the rest of the stage catching one of the solo riders near the end.

 

The last 20km was very badly marked. The guys hadn't finished putting the boards up it seemed. With 1km to go we followed the lead motorbike on completely the wrong road for 3km. 2nd through to 4th did the same thing. We eventually turned around and headed for the finishing line to see that other teams had already finished. After leading the whole day and to loose like that was terrible. Race control corrected our times along with the other 3 teams that were directed the wrong way. So we got the stage win but to not cross the line first is a real bummer. We have the overall lead now as well. We lead by 57 seconds. Tomorrow we push again!

 

post-41053-0-54146700-1383407897_thumb.jpg

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Incredible stage today. The race village was a wet muddy mess still but most of the route dried out pretty well considering how wet it was yesterday. As soon as you got into the shade though it was very wet and slippery.

 

Started at the front again and a reasonably large group of about 5 teams formed. 2 solo riders set the pace for a while and between them, myself and my partner no one did any work at the front. Eventually the 2 solo riders made a break and we went with for as long as we could. We split away from the bunch though so we just worked on pulling a gap. The route was a mix of rolling hills and awesome single track.

 

We led as the first team for the rest of the stage catching one of the solo riders near the end.

 

The last 20km was very badly marked. The guys hadn't finished putting the boards up it seemed. With 1km to go we followed the lead motorbike on completely the wrong road for 3km. 2nd through to 4th did the same thing. We eventually turned around and headed for the finishing line to see that other teams had already finished. After leading the whole day and to loose like that was terrible. Race control corrected our times along with the other 3 teams that were directed the wrong way. So we got the stage win but to not cross the line first is a real bummer. We have the overall lead now as well. We lead by 57 seconds. Tomorrow we push again!

 

post-41053-0-54146700-1383407897_thumb.jpg

 

Ride the race next year - you'll have lots of people in front of you to show you the way!

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Yes, what's news? Must have been a super day out there, looking at the weather! Everybody bushed?

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Yes, what's news? Must have been a super day out there, looking at the weather! Everybody bushed?

 

I think NitroDoni41 might have finished top of the pile - so probably a big party going on :thumbup:

Regardless of which way the result went, well ridden.

 

Can't wait for tomorrow when I get to hit the trails. :drool:

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The race village was rather muddy when we left today. I hope they manage to do something for the next 2 events. Be prepared for some mud those who are going. Route was absolutely amazing today. Loved every second of it.

 

The route will be much better on Monday and Tuesday in terms of mud. It looks likely to be very warm. Mud predicted for Wednesday with rain showers.

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Just back at home in Pretoria. Fantastic day out on a MTB. Amazing the amount of work that goes into this!!! As an example: the route had to be changed at the last minute due to a beekeeper placing his bees next to the route - still had fantastic track. How much of this sublime stuff do they have down there? The last ten 10k or so is now also great flowing singletrack going into Onrus. Lekker hard day with a fair share of challenges. Good luck to those that follow this week.

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We just got into the first 10% GC. Bruised but happy. My partner now needs someone faster to join him!

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Gaan niemand anders kommentaar lewer oor hul ondervinding die afgelope naweek nie?

Wat kan ons die naweek verwag, was dit erger as verwag/laasjaar?

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