[Event] Eroica South Africa & NOVA Eroica

[Stan Engelbrecht]

 

Nova Eroica race report!

 

 

 

I think the bicycle portraits project was the first time i ever crowdfunded something. It was such a rad project and I totally reasonated with it.

 

So by extension I have always wanted to do this event, but just never got my sh}t together to get there. 

 

Entering was the obvious thing to do, the bike would just need to come later! After some serious N+1 gymnastics, I luckily got to borrow a steel gravel machine that had done a circuit of the peninsula with 25000 people the weekend before. All that needed to be done was find 80's cycling kit, and load the car with camping equipment for a family of four. Friday was HOT, so hot that one of the tyres blew off the rim. After far too much swearing and unseating, a suitable replacement was found at a local lbs late on a friday - different hours during epic weekend!

 

This delay put the next part of the adventure into play. I have normally camped at de Bos in montagu, it's where the rock climbers go. While they are not my exact tribe, we speak a similiar dialect. This time I went with the caravan park, mainly because i'd be riding my bike all day and the kids would probably love the mini supertube they have there. We informed them we'd be late, and eventually got there at 10:15pm. This is late, sure but for a friday night it must happen on occasion. They agreed to let us in, but as it was now lights out and quiet time, we couldn't pitch our tents:eek: . Next time we camp at de bos.

 

 

 

Saturday rolled in, and the dorpie was full of vintage bikeporn. The race village was buzzing with excitement, with most people seemingly oblivious to the exploits they were about to subject them and their machines to. The Nova jumped off between the 135 and 90 vintage editions. Our 155km course had 4 timed strava sections, starting with the ouberg pass. The ouberg pass is one of the top3 passes to ride down in the province*, so it's a decent nudge on the way up.We had a 26rider strong peleton, and at the first little river dip 3km in I upshifted a handful of gears and put the derailleur into the cassette and consequently pieces. LUCKILY i was still close to town, but with the closest real bikeshop in robertson, a 10spd derrailleur was about as rare as stage 0 loadshedding.

 

 

 

I got a lift from the sweep, first to the bike container guy in the township - he hadn't been seen since december. Then to the toy store that sells parts for kids bikes - my last hope. Behind the counter I found a 6/7 spd shimano tourney. R199 and it looked like it might work, a bit. now bike parts like this don't use allan keys but spanners. I tightened it all up and hoped that my day would look up from there as I started the race for a second time, 90 minutes after the first attempt.

 

 

 

I had a workable range of gears, and got going eating away at the pass. Adrenalin flowing i was tapping out a decent pace, although I was feeling a little bit flushed by the time I got to the first waterpoint, which had by now packed up. I did manage to procure water, but was a bit worried that WP2 might not be there by the time I arrived.

 

Eager to hit the first strava section just after this I got up to speed. Round the first bend and I quickly realised that my highest available gear of about 44/30 was not going to work with the state of the engine. Time for another hack, I picked amongst the stones and found one that could slipin between the derailleur cage to extend it up two more cogs. This made the going a bit better, but I also quickly realised that I needed to chill out a bit and stop trying to race back to the field. Just to add to the drama, I didn't seem to have my phone on me anymore. It either had to be in the sweep vehicle, or somewhere in the toy store. I really hoped it was the former!

 

That out the way I did some walking, and when I eventually crested the pass it was one helluva view.This was sort of a decision point, ride on for 110 odd km or turn around, have a 30minutes downhill and pack it in. I went with plan A, and started actually finally ticking off some miles.

Last time I was riding here was 2008 during the freedom challenge, but going the other way. day 17 or something (was considered quick back then!) and I was suffering with a dicky stomach. It was a few days after I had met Prince Albert's bikeguru Johann Rissik for the first time. He passed away earlier this year and was very much in my mind today, riding a steel bike up a karoo pass with a mechanical bodge to keep it going I think he would have approved.

 

I now set my sights for WP2, it was hot and lonely, but the going was good. I was going to have to conserve water but eventually ran out with about 10km to go. I was now seriously suffering, and hadn't seen a bike or a car since halfway up the pass, a good 2 hours now! If the waterpoint wasn't there, I'd probably just sit at the poort and try hitch a ride either way as it would take me closer to the escarpment which then drops down to montagu.

 

There was at least very overdue and welcome rain in these parts last week, and some of it was still around. I came across a roadside ditch with quite a bit of muddy water. I filled up a bottle filtering it through my buff, and took some sips of this warm water that had been sitting there for a bout a week. You know at that point that this water might make you sick, but it's a risk to take! Then I drenched myself top to toe and got going, windchill is amazing to cool you down and the next 10minutes were awesome.

 

Finally there was a vehicle coming the other way. I flagged it down, and it was actually photographers from Eroica. YES, the waterpoint had got word that there was a final rider on the road and were waiting! Even better was that Mishaq's Braai Spot was about 2km closer than where I thought it would be on the map(the actual Poort). I rolled in there and was very very broken. I couldn't even get the wors down, but bananas, grilled aubergines and chilled lemon cordial got me human again.

 

It transpired that the heat was taking it's toll, and the sweep vehicles were picking up quite a few stragglers. I had no issues adding myself to that list and we squeezed my bike into the van along with quite a lot of other essential braai stop paraphenalia! Catching up to other riders from the rear of the field I could see that this was no simple day out on a bike! The other sweep did have my phone, and we passed many riders in the classic 135 and Nova as they got ready to descend the Rooihoogte pass. I felt a little bit cheated here, having earned this downhill only to be driving down it, but was quite happy to be recovering with the aircon on!

 

We made it all the way to WP4, Nic and Poppie's roosterkoek extravaganza. This was on a detour loop about 100km into the ride. many riders were choosing to head straight to town. It was a lekker WP, with a full bar, roosterkoek with buttanut spread(awesome) and a dam to swim in, the 90km Classic riders were there with many war stories!. I rode the closing 20km section and that beer at the festival finish was well earned!

 

Thanks Stan and team, a gem of an event. Totally coming back for this, be it nova or classic. Just might train a bit more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*according to me

 

What a great report, and that crazy repair. Love it. Glad you still got to experience a lot of the event, event though you had bad mechanical. See you next year!