Well a cold rainy weather conditions greeted us this morning- stage 7 in Oak Valley. Today’s stage was beautiful, but hard.
Most riders are relieved that tomorrow will be the final stage of this year’s epic adventure and are looking forward to returning home with their finisher jerseys and medals, a treasured possession for all.
We rode over 99km and 2 160 of climbing. The short sharp hills early on really burnt with five minutes up and 15 seconds down making riders work hard. At this point after 12km, Kav was hurting and the words came out something like this ”shit dude, you going to have to leave me”. A dark moment, but we managed to pick up the emotions and I had a plan to break things down. We would ride water point to water point (33,68,80km) and just see how Kav felt t at each water point. After the descent past Houwhoek Inn riders passed Botriver onto some fast gravel roads through the farmland gave our legs some relief and sprits picked up.
The main obstacle of the day up to Lebanon Highlands Plantation, rocks and loose ground forced them to get off their bikes in the steep areas. This was super tough as the sand was once again boggie and energie sapping-killer
Dassenberg proved difficult due to its sandy surface as well as level of complexity. Not long in kilometers, this climb took even the most experienced participants more than half an hour to master. After crossing over to Houteq, it was singletrack heading into Lebanon for some of the most coveted trails in the Cape. More short, steep climbs stood in the way of a final stretch of swooping paths to the finish line , our momentum gained near the end and we where rolling at a decent pace to reach the finish line. Yes, this was a hard day for some after 7 days of ridding
Today we were in the saddle for 7:18 hrs,
Day 6- 123km
Hay All,
So another long hard day in the saddle, we started out feeling bit nervous knowing the route had over 2600m climbing including a 7km climb then over the “craters of the moon” with rocks and bogie sand patches which sapped your energy like no one had ever experienced before. The route had everything today with sand, single track , rockie climbs and semi desert moon like conditions. At one point we where onto the highest point overlooking so amazing terrain (not that many where taking in the surroundings).
Believe this was Kav's best day in the saddle and maintained a steady pace over the hard terrain. Kav only rode into a vineyard pole once which was pretty funny and went over the bars of the bike on the single-track within 500m of the finish line. Whenever your partner comes off the bike, your nerves twitch and that feeling of O s#*^% is he alright, is the this the end of our race? But all was good just a few minor sock hole a touch of blood, nothing major. However once off the bike Kav’s pain began. Screams of pain bellowed out from the shower as he tore off his bum plasters, to leave two raw holes on his cheeks.
Two more days to go, many teams are feeling the same pain. But am sure that we will persevere and be receiving our medals at Lourensford.
