Trans Baviaans

230km on a mtb is far!

One of the most stunning races ever!

Trans Baviaans 2015

I was slightly nervous starting this race – I knew it wasn’t going to be technical but just a long way and having been concentrating on Durban 70.3 for the past couple of months I was feeling a little underprepared for the distance and the climbing!

With the race only starting at 10am we had a very relaxed morning – almost too relaxed! Plus staying 200m from the start meant for no early wake up calls.

The first 100km was pretty fast, with a lot of downhill. Peter was enjoying sitting at the front of our bunch in tt position and I was happy to tuck in behind!

We had a quick stop at checkpoint 2 to fill up bottles. The checkpoints have so much food and fluids on offer you barely need to take any of your own!! And now the climbing began. And the cramping began too!! They don’t call it Mother Of All Climbs for nothing!!

Gravel roads, river crossings, amazing views and a tiny bit of single track made for a beautiful and enjoyable race. I’m very grateful to have seen most of it in daylight.

We were so lucky with the weather. Perfect conditions. I put on a base layer at the top of Bergplaas to keep me warm when the sun set.

I was pretty tired when we finally got to Jeffreys Bay Mall and quite glad to get off my bike after 10.5 hours!

Thank you Peter for pushing/pulling me when my legs were failing! Such an awesome team mate!

A big thanks to Cyclefunatic – my Trek Superfly was awesome! No mechanicals and it handled the terrain brilliantly. And I’m very grateful I can drop it off at the shop covered in mud and it comes back looking like new the same day 🙂

Time: 10:38:26
48th overall
9th mixed team

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