My 1st 100 miler!

We were meant to do a ride from London to Cheddar Gorge with Strongher (a movement Marianne Vos and a whole string of other pros launched, their aim is to get more women to ride bikes) but unfortunately that ride got cancelled. 

Claire and I decided that we still wanted to ride, but that we didn't want to take on such a big ride by ourselves. 

I've only cycled to Brighton with the Heart Foundation back in the day on my first MTB with slicks that were too small for the actual wheels. Claire had an awesome route that she did with her club a few weeks ago so we decided we will do London Brighton and back to London instead. 

I left my house at 6:55 and met Claire in Leatherhead from where we cycled to join the route just before the back climb up to Box Hill. 

We cycled down to Betchworth, crossed the A25 towards Newdigate, Faygate and through the ever so quaint  Rusper. 

The route followed quite country lanes and it was honestly such a beautiful ride, we missed the bigger towns. We saw village names such as Bucks Head and Colgate. 

Stuffing my face with potatoes off course!

The route only got busier as we approached Devil's Dyke and as we dropped into Brighton.

At the top of Devil's Dyke

I have felt great all the way through and it was important for me to keep eating to make sure that I didn't run out of energy. 

We didn't stop for the normal fish & chips at the sea as it looked like a storm was brewing and we knew we still had some hard work to do. 

We stopped to fill up our water bottles at a pub in Shoreham-by-Sea,  a visit to the ladies and bought a sandwich from the Co-op. 

I was fueled by my trusty salty buttered potatoes for most of the route. They are the absolute bomb! 

As soon as we past Shoreham we were back on quite country roads passing through sweet Steyning. 

The route back was hard work, the whole route actually. It was never really flat, it was always going up or going down, generally very lumpy. 

Claire and I each took our turn on the front and whenever I wanted to slow down a little, this voice from behind haunted me... "Get a wiggle on TC!" 

It was good to have the encouragement from behind as if I was on my own I would've just given up to freewheel a bit. 

We stopped a few more times as fatigue started to kick in. We were so delighted once we got back to Newdigate as we knew from there we only had to get to Dorking before it was the last stretch to Leatherhead. 

My favourite part was coming back towards Dorking from Newdigate along a long flattish drag. It was awesome just to go for it. 

Once we arrived in Leatherhead we headed towards the nearest tea shop and treated ourselved with cream teas! 

Celebrating in true British fasion with a cup of tea, scones, jam & cream

I had an absolute ball and it was for sure my best day on my road bike so far. 

My lower body was tired after the ride, but I felt great considering the distance we covered. I have felt a lot worst after cycling before, so I think it could be one of two things, I either didn't ride hard enough or I am fitter than I thought at the moment. I don't care which one of the two it is though, as it was just so nice to cycle along beautiful QUITE roads with great company! 

Ps. I think I rode myself thin. ;-)

My activity if you wanted to check our route out. Don't follow my way to Leatherhead though as I followed my nose

https://www.strava.com/activities/613155548

A road cycling dilemma

This morning I was meant to go on a ladies ride that Rapha organised. I haven't been on my road ride for a while and noticed that I had a slow puncture. 

If you don't keep your finger on the pulse in terms of maintaining your bike and using your kit regularly you will end up like I did this morning; trying to eat breakfast whilst searching for a slow puncture, found it, used old fashioned glue patches to patch it, then I went to my room to fetch my lights as I'm halfway down the stairs I remember my sunglasses. 

Finally outside with my fixed wheel I go to the garage to collect my bike. I always battle squeezing the wheel back in through the brake pads, wasting more time, then I pump up my back tyre and finally ready to go, but realising there is no chance that I'll make it to Esher for 9:00. 

Back into the house again noticing that I didn't take my helmet! 

What to do now? I'm not making that ride, I'm awake, dressed and ready to ride. Do I try and find a ride buddy or do I just ride on my own? 

Decision made: I'll ride on my own. 

I went up Cottenham Park Drive along Wimbledon Common, down to Putney and through Roehampton entering the park via the dreaded and well known Priory lane. 

As I came near to the park I realised... mmm London Dynamo rides Saturday mornings in the park. Not ideal. 

I started my lap regardless. 

The first group of about 12 riders past me in silence. 

The second group caught me as I was almost at the top of Dark Hill, the 4th rider was the first to say allo to me. One more morning and that is it. At the top they regrouped, I was holding their pace and that is where my dilemma occurred...

They were chainganging it... for those who don't know, two rows of riders ride next to each other and they rotate anti-clockwise to each take a turn at the front. This is a beautiful thing to see when it is executed well like they were doing it. 

Where does this leave me? 

I can easily keep the pace and join their chaingang OR I can overtake them just to upset them and myself as I'll well out of my comfort zone and not be able to hold their pace on my own? 

I have favourite sections in the park where I like to open up a bit if I'm possible. 

I sat about 2 meters behind their chaingang. We went down Dark Hill. I stayed behind their last rider and didn't overtake him, he caught up with them, I dropped off a little bit, but then caught up with them on their way back to Roehampton Gate. 

Next problem, cars are coming from the front, their group is splitting up, I'm on the outside... The friendly ride captain tell me to jump on his wheel which I did. Suddenly I'm in their chaingang. I'm well capable of being their, but somehow they don't really know what to do with me as now I've messed up their perfectly organised formation. 

We turned the corner at Roehampton Gate and I was on the outside near the front, I wasn't sure if I should pull over to the left to drop back to the back again or what I should do.... So I accelerated a little so that I'm in front of them and not part of their formation. I took a left up to the Ballet School and they went straight on towards Sawyers Hill. 

I don't like riding on my own, so it was quite nice to be in the mix and realise that I was able to keep up with them. 

I cruised along towards Ham Gate as I took a left turn to go down the dip at Ham towards Kingston Gate (one of my favourite sections of the park).  I saw two groups of Dynamos coming down from Pembroke Lodge. I really hoped that it wasn't them and that it was the fast group. 

I kept on riding and as we got to Dark Hill again, their they catch me again, some of them commented here you are again at which I didn't reply as I could feel that I haven't really been riding on my roadbike lately and was paying the price for it. Needless to say they came past me, dropped me and carried on, I took a right and left the park through Ladderstile Gate. 

I am really glad that I've been for a ride, but can't help to think what would've been the right thing to do? 

My options were: 

1. I should've asked if I could join their chaingang 
2. They could've offered that I join
3. Should I have stopped to give them some space so that I didn't get caught in their mix of things again? 
4. I could've over taken them, but that would just be arrogant as then they'll hunt me down and all I wanted was a chilled ride in the park. 

Maybe if I felt different today I would've asked, but I didn't. :-)

Ps. See with mountain biking we would've just talked to each other or waited a little bit to give a gap... 

Pss. Why didn't I think to do that, surely that the principle would've paid off on the road as well. Next time! 

Pedal to Paris 2015

Last year David gave me no choice but to do Pedal to Paris with him after being involved with arranging & designing our team shirts. This year I didn't have much choice but to not do it with him again.

The Royal British Legion organises all accommodation, routes, route closures, transport and logistics to offer you maximum enjoyment whilst riding your bike.

Day 1 - Greenwich Park to Dover Ferry Port

The view from Greenwich reminded me again how much I love London!

After a short rider briefing you set off in a group. The ride to get out of London is as expected quite slow and must be very frustrating for the drivers.

I started at the back and realised that I've lost David & Gus really quickly. I then tried to play catch up in my search to find then. After about 45km we had our first stop at the Royal British Legion Industries Village in Aylesford. I arrived with only a few people hanging about. Being me I immediately felt deserted thinking they just carried on without me. :-( After a visit to the ladies I went outside and suddenly there were heaps of cyclist including my side-kicks. Apparently they had a comfort break saw me going past, called after me, wanted to chase after me, but got stopped by a ride captain to regroup. I was delighted to have my company back. We swore a truce to stay together till the end from there onwards.

The last few times I went out on my road bike my coccyx got really sore. I thought it was because of a hard rear tyre & no suspension. Well the opposite was true, it was a rear tyre that lost air slowly.

We were just in the mix after lunch when the inevitable happened, rear tyre puncture! I pulled over, David with me, put my hand in the air, service van stopped asked me how many gears, classic TC answer, maybe 9 or 10... No I mean 10!

Back wheel changed and off we went, David & I that is! :) Gus long forgotten the truce. We were now right at the back! David put the hammer down and all I had to do was sit in his back wheel as he powered on. We were picking up people the whole time. Eventually I took a few turns at the front. We eventually caught Gus where he was drafting behind 3 ladies!

He looked a bit pooped and I force fed him one of my treasured salty potatoes! Apparently he was just fine, but obliged anyway. David cracked on, almost left me behind, I managed to catch him again, but we lost Gus in the process. So much for our sworn truce. J We stopped for our well-deserved much needed lunch bang on 1 pm!

We had only 30km left to Dover with Dover Hill our biggest obstacle. David and I rode along with Steve Sherry from Royal British Legion Industries (note they are different from RBL). I realised that Steve has been on our Christmas card list for the past few years and that last year I’ve mistaken RBL & RBLI for the same place and phoned up RBL with confidence to ask for Steve’s address. Finally the penny dropped.

Negotiating the fly-over leading into Dover hill was much harder than Dover Hill itself, the road surface are very uneven and your legs just feel a bit ughh! Dover Hill was not as bad as I remembered it from last year which I am very thankful for.  We celebrated conquering the hill with the traditional beer at the very conveniently placed pub. From there it is a long fun descent into Dover where we board the ferry.

White Cliffs of Dover

Day 2  - Calais to Abbeville

The day started with a ceremony at Calais before we headed to our normal coffee shop waiting for the groups to start. There was a bit of confusement as to which group started at 9:45 as the booklet were incorrect. I confirmed via the ride captains that the fast group were starting at 9:45 and the intermediate group started at 10:00. Mark & David were still questioning me, “Tharina if we are in the fast group…?” I couldn’t help but laugh at that as I wish I had the guts to per accidentally sign us up for the fast group, but then my P45 would quite possible be on my desk as soon as I get back to London, so better not to risk it. Hehe.

I find it weird how I can remember and visualize mountain biking routes, but when it gets to road cycling, I just go blank. The guys reminded me of the Tower climb, all I could remember about it, is that I didn’t really like it… This year it seemed to be a lot better than last year. I think I have to thank the Wales Epic from two weeks before Pedal to Paris for getting me in shape. I felt really strong and were mixing it up going up the short steep climbs! One of the outriders was brilliant, he has this really old playlist on his motorbike and as soon as we hit a hill he rides alongside us turning up the music and the ride basically becomes a moving spinning class! My best memory of this was going up a hill on the beat of U2’s, Beautiful Day! Merci Monsieur!

To the English eating potatoes during exercise is almost as weird as being offered a chicken and egg baguette for lunch in France! I firmly believe in potatoes, the Cape Epic does it, so it must be right! I snacked on my pre-boiled salty potatoes every day and had only one left by the end of Day 4. Salty potatoes are the rocket fuel for champions. :)

Riding buddy for the day, Chris Gray

I rode most of the day with Chris Gray apart from when he dropped me on the long slow climbs!

We regrouped at the last drinks stop of the day before entering our final destination as one big group. We were cycling along flat farmlands and to my delight they were harvesting fresh potatoes. Now listen, you can take me away from the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of me! I was in my element! The smell of fresh soil along with being totally amazed at this potato harvester! The plants were all gone, this thing was digging it out, rolling it over some rollers to get rid of most of the soil, then moving it into a drum before being ferried out via a conveyor belt into a wagon! Amazing!!! The reason for my amazement was the whole process, I love a process and also in SA, there is no such technology that I know off yet. This was a one man job, in SA this would be a 10 man job over the course of a week or 2! 

Back to cycling… We were riding along at quite a nice pace in one big group, not as much stop starting as last year and almost in Abbeville when I got my second puncture, this time it was my front wheel! Phuutt, hand up, van pulled in, wheel change & back I go. We were at the back again… One of the ride captains pulled in front of me, whilst a motorbike pulled in front of him and Chris jumped on my back wheel. We were given a freehand at chasing back to the pack! Man this was great! This was the most fun we had all day!!! It wasn’t for long before we caught up and had to settle down to a very tame pace. :(

I had a great day and loved it even though there were times that I would’ve loved to be able to go faster!

At dinner I was sitting next to one of the ride captains and we were discussing the day etc. I mentioned that I was battling on the two long hills. He then asked, “Did you walk up it?” (insert a frowning face) I wasn’t quite sure what to answer as I didn’t quite expect to be asked that question. Knowing that all my riding partners were looking at me in anticipation of my answer to him I was under pressure to have a good come back… So I thought the only way to answer him instead of giving him a complete scalding is to answer with a question, "Would you like to ask that again?” END of story!

Day 3 – Abbeville to Beauvais

I remembered this day as my favourite day last year. I rode most of the day with Paul & Tim. We had a great ride captain, Danny who allowed us to play a bit leaving a nice gap between us and the pace car. This helps as it doesn’t have an immediate effect on the peloton when the pace car slows down, the ripple effect of breaking is a lot less.

Apparently I was very moany and for some reason I can’t remember much about Day 3, that must be the reason!

Just before lunch we picked up a bit of speed and were back in our outdoor spinning class with Mr Motorbike and his sound track. I needed that!

Today we were treated with a ham baguette and an amazing French tartlet! Wow – they do taste as good as they look.

After lunch however we were back onto the tail of the pace car and were just pulled along some flat lands. I was counting down the km’s to the street party in Auchy as I was starting to feel pins and needles in my right lower back area. On one of the hills one of the other girls came past me, I jumped on her wheel, she pulled us to the top where I took over on the flat bit and pulled us back to the pace car – that team work was fun-fun-fun!  

I went to the masseuse as soon as we arrived and he literally clicked my back in and manipulated it a bit, I was so relieved.

One thing I’m still not used to or will ever get used to is the amount of panic in the peloton at the sight of gravel. As soon as the first one shouts the dreaded word gravel, the echoes of gravel, gravel, gravel becomes louder as the panic grows! The thing with gravel is that you just slow down a little bit, don’t change your line & keep on pedalling…

We regrouped and cruised together to Beauvais where we had an evening ceremony. Unfortunately we were surrounded with dark black clouds and we couldn’t out sprint the rain.

The mayor of Beauvais invited us for champagne in the Town Hall which was very nice!

Tim joined us for dinner and whilst not saying much during our ride all of my observations (moaning) were thrown out there for us all to laugh at… Schucks I did moan a lot today, the poor man!

David, Gus, Mark, Lil, TC & Steve

Day 4 – Beauvais to Paris!!!

I’m not sure why, but the night before the last day we are all a bit like children who didn’t want to go to sleep! This morning was a slow start for me, getting ready to double the time it normally does!

There was a nice presentation of a yellow jersey to the top fundraiser of the event. Rob was awarded with it and decided to ride in the intermediate group for the day, he had a bunch of friends around him riding for him on the hills and keeping him in the group. It was lovely to see how they worked together. That is what makes cycling so special!

The peloton started out in silence as fatigue definitely kicked in. People were using hand signs rather than shouting hole etc!

It was a much harder day than what I remembered from before. It started out with a steady long climb which thankfully was much better than last year, I was quite surprised and thankful that my legs didn’t disappoint me. The first half was quite undulating surprising us with lots of short steep climbs! I got to cycle with Gus a bit and as it was the last day the pace car had a sense of urgency to get us at our lunch stop in time, so it was a bit like shut up & pedal to get there, but it was good.

Chris started the day not feeling great! Mark & Steve were looking after him before lunch. After lunch David, myself & Gus took over, riding with him in his hour of need. Pacing him, feeding him & encouraging him.  

We stopped about 4km from the Arc d’Triomphe to regroup. It worked really well this year and as expected it was truly special to arrive together in a big group and in one piece after 4 days and 460km on our bikes!

Our moment of glory

With my favorite Scotsmen, David and his best friend Gus!

Made it! 

Final Observations

It has been a great experience yet again on and off the bike. This blog is too long already to try and fit in everything so I tried to keep it top level, but unfortunately I write as much as I talk. We were a much smaller team, but it was great as we got to spend more time with each other and we all looked after each other whether making sure we were awake in the morning, holding a seat at the table, buying drinks, carrying a bag, offering a back wheel, seeing the Medics on behalf of someone else, getting a plaster for bruised peep-peeps. You name it, we did it! Thank you all for all the fun we had and looking after me.

I’ve been amazed by everybody who rides it regardless of their ability, size, type of bike or the type of clothing they wear, it just proves that anybody who puts their mind to something can do it! One of the ladies on our team, Davina started riding in April 2015 only a mere 5 months ago and she completed it. I feel inspired by her guts! 

Our team is planning to get back together on 11 October to ride the Boxhill Sportive and I know some people have been so keen and have signed up already for next year.

 The best gear to take along apart from the essentials

• Arm warmers - The comfort of pulling them up and down without having to stop is invaluable

• Gillet - The best way to regulate your core temperature without over heating with the extra material of sleeves and also much easier to take off whilst riding, not that I have perfected that on my road bike yet.

More photos via these links: 

https://www.facebook.com/TangoCycling

Routes can be found on Garmin Connect or Strava

https://www.strava.com/athletes/182654

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activities


To sponsor us click on the link beow: 

https://www.justgiving.com/TCridestoParisagain

Team Manpower 2015

My 1st go at wrapping handlebar tape!

I bought my roadbike from my housemate second hand so I had no choice in the colour. My bike is very white which looks beautiful but it is hard to keep the bar tape white and clean.

 

I replaced the very uncomfortable white saddle with a slick looking lightweight Specialized Ruby at the end of last year and have now finally made the plunge to buy new BLACK bar tape Gerhard van Niekerk recommended to me.

 

Those of you that know me will know that I have the best intentions for taking on bike DIY, but they don't always work out as they should. Opening the brakefluid caliper instead of calibrating my brakes on my MTB , replacing my jockey wheels, but tightening them too much so the chain kept on bouncing around to mention only a few of my mishaps. 

 

I've been procrastinating this job for over a month. My biggest concern was how would I know where to divide the tape so that I have an equal amount for each side... Duh... I only realised once I opened the box that the manufacturer's did that for me! 2 rolls containing bar ends, a handy extra little piece for the hood and some tape to cover up the end was all rolled together. No mess, no fuss basically, all I had to do was roll the tape.

 

With a simple search on Mr Google, I found this very helpful step-by-step written and video guide on how to do it. Thank you Road Cycling UK for the great instructions.

 

Can I also just say that because I know myself too well, I made sure that I read and watched this before I start edas I really didn't want to mess up this job.

 

http://roadcyclinguk.com/how-to/maintenance/video-how-to-wrap-handlebar-tape.html#k83g8yjgxh5cOD5S.97

 

All the ingredients for the task at hand... oh and electrical tape.

 

Remove old bar tape first

Ta-dah right hand side done perfectly the first time!

Mmm spot the difference...

My friend came over for tea whilst I was doing the left handside so I did the 2nd side a little bit quicker. All looked fine until I came back from Waitrose, I noticed 2 bubbles. So I unwrapped everything again, did it really tightly and then ended up with perfectly wrapped handlebars only to then realise somehow I twisted the tape as I came over the hood onto the straight part and now had perfectly wrapped handlebars, but they looked slightly different.

The BIG question was, would I be able to cope with the difference?

Well the next photo is the answer to that very important question!

The answer is NO, NO I couldn't deal with it.

So I had to unwrap the tape for the third and final time again to correct it. I think it was a case of not wanting to deal with comments from the perfectionistic roadies I know. (I won't name and shame them, they know who they are.)

TC Tips for wrapping your own handlebars:

1. It is a simple task, but can take longer than anticipated
2. Get all your 'ingredients' ready before you start
3. Don't rush it, keep concentrating
4. Make sure you leave an overhang at the ends, I found this one of the more tricky parts, the first one in particular was hard to wangle in again

I'm well chuffed that I managed to do it even though it was a faff. I rode with it yesterday and it was all good!

Pedal to Paris - 2014

As my grandmother always said... NEVER say NEVER as NEVER is a very long time. Many of you would know that I was rather vocal about my dislike of road cycling etc, but I've always had a tendency to suffer under peer pressure or maybe FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) will be a more fair comment.

At our Christmas Party back in December 2013, David  told me that I WILL be riding Pedal to Paris this year and that I will also be involved in the organisation of it, including the design and creation of 600 shirts in five different designs. I didn't have much choice other than to oblige and agree.

Our company, Manpower, has been involved with the Royal British Legion (RBL) for a number of years and have sponsored all 300 riders shirts again this year. Our team was 56 people strong and the biggest since Mark Cahill & James Levey rode their first Pedal to Paris.  



Team Manpower

RBL provide practical, emotional and financial support to all members of the British Armed Forces past and present, and their families. 

This year’s ride was the 19th ride organised by RBL from London to Paris and was particularly special as it is the commemoration of 100 years since the outbreak of WW1, and the ride included visits to War Memorials along the way, whilst the route passed through battlefields and WW1 and WW2 cemeteries, culminating in a spectacular finish at the Arc de Triomphe.

As a team we pledged to to raise £48 000 but exceeded that and are currently over £70 000 already! Over £25 000 was raised through generous corporate sponsorships including Pera Training, IQ Navigator, Sky, Steljes, Trailfinders, Lex Autolease, Broadbean & Career Transition Partnership. If you would like to contribute to this great cause you can do so via http://www.justgiving.com/companyteams/TeamManpower2014. 



Getting ready - Kit provided by Le Marq

Co-ordinating 5 different shirts with 3 different purposes was a challenge at times but great experience. At some point it did feel that riding 445km would be easier than arranging 600 shirts. Everything arrived on time and looked fantastic!

My training plan didn't really turn out as I planned as I got a cold in July. Thankfully I did a MTB-race in the Dolomites in June & I was hoping that the training I did for that would pull me through. I did one training ride with my friend Steph & bonked one kilometre to go from home & we only rode 87km, confidence levels were low and I really didn't know what to expect. David however had been to many spin classes coming in & out of the office gleefully asking me what I have been up to. On which I replied with either no training, or that I did an off-road triathlon 2 weeks before the event.

In all honesty I didn't have many expectations as it was road cycling which is not my first love, so I can truthfully say that I have been pleasantly surprised by everything. Firstly I would've never considered doing four days of road cycling and secondly I never knew that I would be able to do this. I have only once ridden 120km before, let alone 4 consecutive days of that distance. 



Day 3 - Fun fun fun!

Highlights:

1. Day 1 - jumping onto Gus' wheel early on and staying on it till the lunch stop
2. Day 3 - most fun I've ever had on a road bike, working together & pacing as a team with David, Adrian, Will, Gus, Gary, Antony & Hugo who also looked after me as if they were my brothers/fathers on & off the bike
3. Also teaching Hugo how to do drafting
4. On & Off the bike team work & banter
5. Turning right onto the Arc d' Triomph and sprinting to the end of four days of amazing road riding
6. Meeting other people from across the ManpowerGroup made me feel proud to be part of the company


Lows:
- Stopping & Starting all the time on Day 2

Team Manpower road cycling legend
 & ride captain,
James Levey with whom
I got to work with on the shirts

Favourite quote/moment:
- You stole my wifi (pronounced weee-feee) - Gus Watt

Things I learnt about road cycling: 

You can also read this as, "Things I learnt about James Levey :-)"

1. Everyone should off course have 4 pair of gloves, a pair for each day
2. Wet wipes are better than any bike wash
3. To give your chamois a hand wash is not hygienic enough
4. You need to wash your water bottles out with warm water every evening

* Whether we all took that on board is a different matter :-)

I got to do three of the things I love most in life; organise, riding 'a' bike & meeting people. I can only thank David for not giving me an option to do the ride or not. I feel a huge sense of achievement and am even looking forward to do more road riding with my new acquainted friends.

Thank you to RBL for organising this great event, the closed roads, mechanics & physios contributed to a very memorable experience.

Strava:
Day 1 - London Greenwich to Dover
http://www.strava.com/activities/189760788
Day 2 - Calais to Abbeville
http://www.strava.com/activities/190238060
Day 3 - Abbeville - Beauvois
http://www.strava.com/activities/190717359
Day 4 - Beauvois - Paris
http://www.strava.com/activities/191276460

http://www.strava.com/clubs/manpowerpedals

David & Gus cycling through one of the WW1 battlefields

We all made it!

Thanks for pushing my road cycling boundaries!

Final remembrance ceremony at the Arc d' Triomphe




Catherine & Claire - hopefully we will be soon hitting some Strava leaderboards together in the Surrey Hills ;-)

More photos can be found on this link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.851747484843213.1073741873.587996214551676&type=1&l=d6cdc27887

Liege-Bastogne-Liege

I was a last minute replacement to go along to Liege-Bastogne-Liege even though Gerhard van Niekerk tried to persuade me to join for a very long time. 

Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the oldest classic and this year was the 99th edition.

We left London on Friday afternoon, 5 bikes on the roof of the car and an epic bag full of epic food.

I would recommend the Eurotunnel to anybody wanting to cross the channel. It is so easy to get on, they are flexible on letting you go on earlier trains and before you know it you are literally in France.

The guys were doing the long route of 160km and decided to start at 8am on Saturday. So Steph and I joined them to the start. We entered and off we went.

This was my 2nd road race, but my first on my road bike.

We started off going through some of the back roads of the city to the official start of the course. Mind you, we only found out afterwards where the official start was and funnily enough, I felt fine up to the official start. :-) From there on I was suffering to the end and very grateful to sit in Steph's slip. Steph & I are hoping to do the Epic in the future, so this was our 'first' step closer to the Epic. Gerhard is already on the look out for our perfect bikes, hopefully it will fit our not-so-perfect-budget.  

We got treated with some syrup waffles at the water point/feed zone, honey cake, sachets of honey etc. I didn't eat any of this, but put it in my back pocket as it looked really interesting. We were so cold at this point as we took some clothes off after the first climb and just had to carry on like that. I was however chuffed that they cut the bananas and oranges #epicstyle.

After the water point we reached the first 'official' climb of the day for which I was mentally prepared. La Redoute, it was steep and quite an accomplishment to get to the top.

All the hills were very well sign posted with a start and finish sign. At the start they gave you the steepest gradient and the average gradient and the distance of the climb, so I just looked for the finish sign of each climb.

St Nicholas was the last hill, this one was a killer, it was never ending and continuing bend after bend.

I thought downhill to the finish line, but no they put in another long gradual climb before the routed us back to the Finish. Steph had a nearby accident when a car stopped right in front of her unexpectedly. I saw it happening, her back wheel was in the air and I thought she was going to fall in front of an oncoming vehicle, but thankfully she managed to stay on her bike and the driver continued driving off, both of them unscathed. Very grateful.

The Finish was quite an anti-climax, nobody cheering, getting there on our own. But we got a medal, TWO t-shirts and some squirt lube.

This is where my party started. We got a coke to put back some sugar, frites and a round of Leffe beer. I'm not a big beer fan, but I promise Belgium beer tastes like nectar on your tongue in Belgium. I had a lekker system going. Every time one of us finished, we sent them to get their t-shirts whilst we got another round of beers and frites with mayonaise.

Gerhard Bonthuys absolutely smashed the course and came in 20 minutes before we expected him, Simon followed him an hour later and Gerhard van Niekerk about 15 minutes later. He had lots of mechanicals, a broken freewheel and also a few punctures and did well to finish the race.

Gerhard Bonthuys, TC, Steph, Gerhard van Niekerk & Simon

On Sunday we found a patisserie where we bought an amazing tart, mango jam, tiny meringues filled with cream and fresh bread. We definitely amused the ladies in the bakery. We called onto Bonty to do all the translating for us as he is naturally gifted in that way. We also managed to find a supermarket where we stocked up on ham, cheese, Belgian chocolate and some of us on salami. :)

Steph worked out where we needed to drive to, to be able to watch the pros. We actually saw them en route as we drove over one of the big bridges. We ended up in Houffalize. I was very excited about this as they held a XC-World Cup in Houffalize last year. I got excited every time I saw a mountain bike.

We had an awesome picnic as we waited on the pros to come past us. We were even in time for the marketing caravan and managed to catch a few sweets and whistles.




Road paint - #graffiti



Go Andy!
Photo: Simon Osborne



Picnic

The peloton, at this stage Movistar was on the front

Making it look like a walk in the part

We started our return journey to London after they went past us and when they had an hour of racing left we asked a random motorcyclist for directions to a pub. He gave us vague directions but we found de Vollepot and watched the last 40km on TV. It was a privilege as we knew where on the route they were and were able to remember the roads, the inclines and the downhills. Dan Martin from Garmin Sharp won the race after Rodriguez tried to attack on the final hill. Belgian favourite Philip Gilbert came 7th.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/22241871

It was great being part of a different kind of event (road racing) on a different continent. Popping over to Europe from London is so easy and great, I just want to plan the next trip already. It was great being away with good friends for good cycling and enjoying good food and company.

Highlights:
1. Beer & Frites afterward our ride
2. Watching the cycling in Houffalize, the whole atmosphere and anticipation

Quotes of the weekend:

Wit koek maak nie vet nie. White cake does not make you fat

Does it look like a skip a meal?