The Amazing Adventures of an Average Actuarial Cyclist

The Reeds 99er  is the 3rd largest road race in the Western Cape (after the Cape Argus and Burger Cycle Tour ). Since the race is hosted in Durbanville it's also a home race for me as well as an ideal opportunity  to gauge how far behind schedule my training for the Argus (taking place 4 weeks after the 99er) really is. The wise men and woman of the seeding committee generously placed me in group A (obviously nobody informed them of my lack of training in December and January). Had common sense prevailed I would have dropped back a group or 2 at the starting chutes to race at a slightly more "manageable" pace but vanity triumphed... So there I was setting off with the rest of group A at 6h11 Saturday morning. Just as we started heavy rain started falling which is quite a bizarre occurrence for February in the Western Cape, it kept raining for most of the race but at least it wasn't cold so besides the sometimes slippery road it didn't bother me to

Date: Saturday 2 February 2013 Venue: Bridge House School, Franschhoek Distance: 53km Total Climb: 1050m The Franschhoek Lions / Porcupine mtb race was to be my debut race for 2013 and the first mtb race since the Hell&Back in November 2012. Timeline for the day was roughly as follows: 6:30 AM - I rocked up at the (impressive) school grounds of the Bridge House School  feeling very under-prepared. A lazy December holiday and 3 weeks of non-activity in January due to Sanlam's year-end-results deadline took their toll. Just to emphasize my unpreparedness I left my timing chip at home and was still without my "Official PPA MTB board". This meant (A) no official timing & (B) no seeding and starting at the back with the newbies and non-PPA members. ( In hindsight both very fortunate oversights ) I should also mention that its always a good idea at the start of a mtb race to check that your front shock is not locked. ( In hindsight a not