99er: a nice hilly cycle race to use as part of my Ironman training. I cruised along for the first half of the race in the bunch quite enjoying myself. My start group A caught the % group, which contained the racing ladies, on the R44 heading towards Wellington, so we were a large bunch when we turned onto the 2nd Voor-Paardeberg Road. It amazed me how some crazy riders seemed to value their race higher than their lives and thought they could ride on the right side of the white line into the oncoming traffic and force the cars and lorries onto the grass verge.
We turned onto the Malmesbury Road heading back towards Durbanville and suddenly my back wheel didnt feel right. Agh a puncture! It seemed to take me forever to change it! It was a lonely 36km back to the finish, but I guess I was lucky to ride the 2km gravel section on my own – apparently there were some hectic crashes here in my bunch. I’m also very glad I didnt use my precious Enve wheels – the gravel would have wrecked them!
I’m sure I could have got a top placing had I not punctured but I suppose it was better to puncture today than at IM!