What can you say about a 261km, 19h57min 3566m ascent ride through surprisingly remote but very beautiful countryside? Maybe join me next time and experience the real reason why we ride our bikes! Not to race, but to experience. It was tough, I was dead tired in the end, my wheels came off with about 10km to go, but I hung in there and completed it. Maybe it was not the best thing to do while busy with a training programme for the
Sabie Experience, but would I do it again? Tomorrow!
We were lucky. We had lots of cloud cover to keep us cool, and dodged most of the thunderstorms. As we crested Normandien Pass it was actually cold. Talking off a serious start to a LONG ride, 800meters of climbing in 15 km!
Our support crew (my two daughters, Liezl and Andrea) were spectacular and kept us hydrated and fed (actually I over did it with a huge hamburger that did not digest well and messed with my hydration plan). They stuck with us and waited at all the way points without getting lost. The stayed awake and escorted us on the one stretch of unavoidable tar at 01h00 in the morning without complaint. THANKS!
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| Carboloading the night before |
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| Marike - Cousin from where we started |
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| And away they go! |
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| Taking a breather on top of Normandien Pass |
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| Free-State - Actually anything but flat. |
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| We were VERY lucky and missed a lot of thunderstorms that were passing us. |
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| Pretty |
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| Dam Pretty |
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| Dam Tired. Another 7hrs to go! |
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| Cousin Helena. Our destination - finally! |
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