Autopsy of a bike race - To Hell & (not) Back

[DJR]

@ Slowbee

 

When do you plan to do the Swartberg training?

[DJR]

No 3:

 

We easily cruised along the downhill tar road from the start with about 200 other riders. When I started the first little uphill about a kilometre from the beginning, I realized that something was amiss. At first it just felt like my legs were stiff and slow. I wasn’t too concerned because I normally take a little while to warm up, and it was pretty chilly. Beattbox was kind enough to wait for me, but soon it became obvious that he was much quicker up the climbs and after about 5 kilometres he did the first stop to let me catch up. Even before we were on the approach road to the pass, I started worrying about the 55 kilometres still left to The Hell. Self-doubt has no place in your head when you are riding a bicycle into those mountains!

 

One of our fellow riders came past and I overheard him reminding his somewhat overweight buddy of how to eat an elephant! One bite at a time! It was good advice! I started eating that climb one bite at a time. It is about 900 metres of climbing to the top of the Swartberg Pass, but the problem is that from the South it starts out gradually and then gets steeper towards the top. I did my best to look at the scenery and to hear the little stream at Fonteintjie (the best drinking water on earth). At Skelmdraai, about half way up, where the real tough climbing started, I began staring down at my front wheel and just kept the granny gear turning, one, two, three, four, bite, chew, swallow……. My heart rate was now pretty much pegged at maximum, but still my legs couldn’t get me and the bike going above walking pace. Breathing deeply made no difference. So, warming up was clearly not the problem, I was now more than warm, I was feeling decidedly burnt. Boegoekloof came and went at the pace of a Leopard Tortoise (locally called a Bergskilpad, or mountain tortoise) without me smelling the medicinal herbs. By the time I finally got to The Top, Beattbox had been off his bike for so long that he was getting cold from the wait and the chilly breeze. Looking down, I could still see a handful of riders crawling up the road behind me, but not many.

 

I was over the first and biggest hurdle of the day, but I also knew that it was only about a quarter of the distance that now laid behind me……there would be much more sweat and tears ahead. Eat the elephant bit by bit! On the first downhill, on the Northern side of the pass, my front brake started feeling spongy and before long I could pull it right up to the handle bar…..that was when I finally understood that it was going to be a very rough day for me. There was no longer any doubt – it was going to hurt! But what could I do, other than to soldier on and hope that I would get stronger towards the end of the long ride, like I usually do. At water point one, at the twenty kilometre mark, I simply rode past without even stopping, because tough guys do stuff like that. Besides, I have already eaten about a third of the elephant and I was trying to convince myself that I could do the rest of it? The terrain was now relatively flat with only gradual uphills and downhills but the road got decidedly rougher with eroded sandy and rocky bits where ones forearms took a pounding. My heart rate stayed higher than normal and I simply could not sustain any decent pace. Going slowly gave me the chance to notice the most amazing swathe of red flowering wild Proteas that covered the mountain slopes on both sides of the road. The beauty, unfortunately, did not manage to drive the pain away!

 

Beattbox kept watching over his shoulder and I think this was when even he got worried that we might not get there before winter set in.

[DJR]

Climbing from the Oudtshoorn side is just one ever steepening slog offering no respite, but the view of the Matjiesfontein farmland in the valley below is beautiful.

[Matchstix]

From swartberg pass

[Slowbee]

ek wil sommer nou die fiets vat en gaan ry ! 

[eddy]

ek wil sommer nou die fiets vat en gaan ry !

 

Ek kom saam !!!

[Uni]

I wanna say just hurry up and tell your story, but like eating the elephant I'll wait for for the bite sizes *sigh*

[DJR]

Beattbox waiting for me at The Top. Always cold there, always wind blowing. The kind of place you take a quick picture and then get going again.

[eddy]

Admin chairing the moderator's meeting on the Southern side ..

[Matchstix]

There hasn't been a proper HOT hell in a while, the one where you get 38 degrees at 9:30 on heartbreak hill

[eddy]

And down the other side. ..

[eddy]

There hasn't been a proper HOT hell in a while, the one where you get 38 degrees at 9:30 on heartbreak hill

I hit 39.7 degrees at 10:15 in December going up the South Side.

 

I left PA at 04:45 the next to escape the heat and still hit 40 degrees before I got to Kruis Rivier.

 

I hated every minute and loved every hour.

[Matchstix]

My coldest day on the bike has been on THAB(2002)

[DJR]

My coldest day on the bike has been on THAB(2002)

I don't know what the temperature was when this pic was taken, but going down, the wind chill felt like I was riding a blast freezer. It was in July, 3 years ago I think. 

[xamnam]

Loving this adventure

 

Done it on an adventure bike plenty of times and even then it's tough.

 

Will try it on my bicycle this winter.

[Pikey]

Ok I'm in hook line & sinker,patiently waiting for the next installment ????????????. I feel like a kid waiting for the next chapter ????

This is on my list of to do races...