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Ok, had some trouble understanding how this blogging works, but Dan put his magic touch on it and I can save my blogs. If I get inspired I will place a report of my first race as well, but in my memory it is still a blur of people stopping, walking or falling in front of you at the same time a speed demon is overtaking you. Let me just say that this first race felt like chaos, although the goodie bag and medal was good and I felt really proud

of finishing it.

On Saturday the 5th of April I did my second mountainbike race in the luscious settings of the Lourensford Estate in Somerset west. The race was organised by the same organisers as the Cape Epic and the finish of the Cape Epic would be there as well. Together with a 10km trailrun, so they were sure of plenty of audience to witness the finish of the Epic.

Some side information: the Cape Epic is a 8-day stage race where you ride in a team of 2 approx 996 km mainly uphill. One of the toughest events in moutainbiking with lots of international riders.

So, there I was, for my meager 22 km race, but hey, you have to start somewhere! In total 200 woman and 512 men would do this distance as well, so we ended with four start groups. Luckily I was in the first group, who started after the groups who were doing the 55km race.

According to my inside informer, this was a fairly flat race, with only one large hill in the beginning. Well, her definition of flat, turns out to be different to mine!

After 2 kilometres in the race, we did encounter this long, nanny gear-worthy hill she warned me about, but after that it would be fairly flat. Coming from The Netherlands I still struggle with climbing, but this time got halfway, before I got off my bike to walk a bit. I managed to do the hill in two parts, so am pretty proud of myself. After then it flattened out a bit, only to come around a corner for more climbing.

I know I can do hills, it's just that my mind isn't entirely convinced that I should try to do this specific one... So I ended up with walking some of the hills. Which actually still nags me, even now. After 10 km still felt fine, stopped only once for a slightly longer break to take an energy gel, spotted a photographer, so rode in front of a bunch of moaning guys uphill. Yeah, this pic came out very nice, I think I will order it from his site.

There was only one waterpoint after approx. 11 km. Took a sportsdrink there and saw this glorious, slightly downhill stretch of road. Yippie, I think it was at least 2 km long, so I made quite good speed going down there. But wait, what is this guy doing in the middle of the road, flat on his face, yikes. This road suddenly turned nasty on you with a sudden long patch of lose sand. That's why there was a group standing there making pictures! Luckily I managed to keep my cool and survived the sand without falling.

The last half was actually still nasty with unexpected corners, but amazing views over the mountains, riding along apple trees and vineyards, but doable. When I passed the finish line I actually had plenty of energy left, so learned that I must push myself more.

My bike held pretty good, I had the chain coming off only a few times, had one chainsuck, which took at least 7 mins to fix, grr, oh and now and then it simply refused to change gears.

With this race you received no goodie bag and a beeropener as a medal. We all agreed that that sucked if you're on a wine estate. The route was not flat, there was no singletrack, which always is more fun, but I was out there, had a good time and will sure put in more training for a next race.

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Comments (2)

stumpy_dan said:

	... I felt like it was a cartoon episode from the Wacky races reading this. Great Blog and fun to read.. I liked this line... you have a great sense of humour (and it brought back many memories .. I know I can do hills, it's just that my mind isn't entirely convinced that I should try to do this specific one.. Classic!
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April 10, 2008
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Nicky Taniwha said:

	... thanks Dan, am starting to blush here
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April 11, 2008
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