Office National Saves the Day - Weekend Warrior

[Nobody]

Havent been on the bike in a while so decided to do the Weekend Warrior in Grabouw with a mate.

 

 

On arrival the parking marshals sent us to a parking area outside of the country club fence when there was clearly plenty parking space inside. No problem after a quick scout we moved vehicle inside, closer to tent.

At registration could sort of see some frustration. The entry fee did not include the CSA day Licence x 2 So for a family of three you need to pull out another R210. Registration could have gone smoother but was told start is delayed by 15 mins. No problem, can unpack, setup and squeeze in a beer. Then the loud speaker was announcing beers for sale and a further delay and beers for sale (Dam pricey beers). After sitting around almost an hour longer than expected we were off, into the hot midday sun. The trail was the usual Grabouw routes where you should never get comfortable. The orange and green stickers worked okay most of the time but plenty of unexpected sharp turns so had to keep head up. The 50km then joined the 10km head on, on single track, I kid you not. Polite parent and kids moved but must have been horrible doing it as there were quite a few riders.

The first loop was enjoyable however the "water tables" sucked big time. They had tiny cups for you to drink from and only water\blue energade. Second loop is where it got dangerous. Long stretches next to rail line with just bush either side and very close to a location. After this was a lot of slogging and many of us expecting a water table. Eventually after dried lips, tongue stuck to roof of mouth I arrived at the Office National water table. They had everything and especially welcome in my condition was ice cold coke. They werent even part of the event but volunteering their time. Many riders were saved by this table, the organisers then had a small table later but I dont think I would have made it.

 

Disappointing that we were told there would be a fire to braai but nothing. Then when looking for water to fill back pack could choose between some borehole water or purchase a 250ml bottle for R20. I went with borehole.

 

Day 2 started off with a very nice uphills. But took me 2 hours to do 16km so bailed on the 25km route. I think the route was over technical for a "family" ride.

Thanks to all the entrants, all of you made it a fun weekend, hope the organisers do a post mortem and sort out the issues, you could see a lot of effort went into the setup but little things in my opinion made it a mediocre event. 4\10 and that because there were some cool people there and office national saving me from a very dry death.