8pm Thursday 25th April 2013
Busy day today, we ventured back
into Johannesburg for sign on, the journey itself was pretty interesting, Tim didn’t
particularly enjoy negotiating the chaotic rush hour traffic in our palatial
campervan. Once we arrived at the Fire & Ice Hotel we did several laps of
the block trying to find a suitably big parking space, eventually we gave up
and resorted to pleading with the security guard outside the hotel to let us
park up right in front of the entrance, VIP parking, sweet!
Registration was in full swing
with the 5* hotel full of eager cyclists and bikes were propped up all around
the reception area. Registration complete, freebie bag collected, Dan’s and the
campervans accreditation collected. It was then time to drive to the race start
to rekey the start of day 1. On arrival though we thought best not to leave the
campervan in the middle of a field next to a busy main road unattended in a
slightly dodgy area.
We drove back to the campsite to
find a herd of dears vacating our parking space, they quickly fled though as we
got closer. We ended up riding from the campsite, we found a good route to
start with along gravel roads but couldn’t turn it into a loop so had to ride
back along the way we’d ridden out on. All the same 22 degrees, no clouds in the
sky, it was a fun ride and opened up the legs before we start stage 1 of
Joberg2c tomorrow.
A couple of days ago we found a
little kitten meowing in a bush close to where we’d parked at the campsite,
this afternoon the kitten visited us. The words “what harm can it do” when Dan
asked Tim whether they should give the kitten some milk turns now ring in our
ears. Well let me tell you this little cutie turned out to be a right pain! It
rejected the milk but made us its best friend, constant meowing quickly turned
into an annoyance and as this evening approached we realised we’d have to
vacate our camping space! This wasn’t so easy though when the kitten had crept
inside the campervans wheel rim and was ready to hold on like a hamster in a
hamster wheel! We tried everything we could but it wouldn’t budge so the next
step was to roll the van down the hill, a quarter rotation of the wheel and
this thing was still hanging on, we were in fits of laughter. We didn’t want to
hard the little kitten but couldn’t leave it in there as it was going to keep
us awake all night. Eventually we did escape from the crazy meowing kitten,
don’t worry though the kitten will be fine without us.
Last night we heard a pack of
wolves howling nearby, I wonder what animals we’ll hear tonight, hopefully not
the little meowing kitten.
1.30pm Friday 26 April 2013 - Stage 1
Stage 1 done and dusted, today
was neutralised so we just cruised around the 116kms sitting in the lead group,
enjoying the awesome feed zones, looking out for animals, and admiring the
stunning scenery. A 5.30am start was required to down breakfast and make the
journey to the start venue, Dan our mechanic particularly enjoyed the early
wake up, something he’ll have to get used to unfortunately as each stage now
starts at 7am. On the start line the television helicopter pilot showed us his
skills flying sideways at speed just above the start line arch.
The opening singletrack trail was
a good taste of what will follow in the next few days, the trail was loose and
rocky, there were 2 line choices which split and the top and didn’t rejoin
until the bottom of the hill 4 kilometres later! The rest of the day was flat
fireroads or double track trails through nature reserves and around the Vaal
Dam.
The feed zones out on course were
pretty amusing, everything from tasty pastries and pancakes, to meat cooked on
the bbq! Today there was time to enjoy these sweet treats, tomorrow I doubt the
lead group will be so sociable. We met plenty of people today out on the
course, everyone was really friendly and there was always someone to have a
chat with. The organisers are great as well, Wappo and Kelly are really making
us feel welcome.
After about 70kms we had to cross
a big river so rather than taking us across a bridge we had to dismount our bikes
and climb aboard dragon boats, once 3 dragon boats were full with roughly 15
participants in each we had a little race across the river which was pretty
good fun.
We ended up leaving the final
feed zone earlier that most and ended up in a group of 6 at the front, although
today doesn’t count towards the overall classification it was pretty special to
roll into the finish town with the locals lining the road and cheering, the TV
helicopter hovering over us, and the commentator announcing our names. Hopefully
we can repeat or get somewhere close to this in the next 8 days of real racing.
More scrumptious food followed at
lunch time in the huge food hall, apparently for dinner we are getting the best
steak we’ve ever eaten, sounds good to me!
Itec Connect who’ve sponsored us
for this race have been awesome so far, really helpful and supper motivating,
hopefully we can pay them back with some good racing.
