Reeds 99er

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 too much - so no excuses there.

The pace was furious as we rode out of Durbanville onto the Klipheuwel road towards Paarl. With a slight wind at the back we were going at about 45km/h which is way faster than I'm used to. One of the 1st lessons I learnt the hard way in my short roadie career was to always try to keep up with the front half of the group (because you don't want to be caught napping at the back of a big group when the front half suddenly breaks away).

About 20kms into the race I realised we already dropped half our group which meant I was now at the back of the "what-was-left-of-A-peleton". I also realised that I was tiring way to fast - 2nd lesson - "It's no use trying to keep up with the front half of a fast group if you barely trained the 2 months prior to the race."

25kms into the race I was dropped for the first time... But for some reason the group slowed down turning onto the R44 towards Paarl and I managed to catch up again.

30kms into the race, turn of towards Paardeberg. I was holding on desperately and actually did not particularly care anymore whether the group dropped me or not.

35km. Still holding on. Just. By now the legs are jelly and I silently start begging the group to drop me.

40km. Group went fast up a hill. I also went up the hill, but not fast.

99er A Group riding up a hill near Paardeberg - notice me? Copyright - Capcha Photography

The strange thing about being dropped it's that it kind of happens in slow motion, one minute you are in the group, the next minute the rest of the group are 50m ahead of you and the next minute they are 100m ahead , and everything happens while you are pedalling you're heart out. The group is so tantalising close to you, one big effort and you could be back in the comfort of the group. But no, legs not interested in one big effort anymore, so there I was, my own little group of 1.

After being dropped I settled into a more manageable pace, happy to hook onto the next group that passes by. I was twice passed by other groups, the rest of group A close to Klipheuwel and then the front of Group B on the Old Malmesbury road, but my bolt was shot, so each time I hooked on but was dropped again fairly quickly to be back on my own after a few km's.

After a flattish 100kms, the 99er has a nasty sting at the tail for the last 8km. First the infamous Vissershok climb, not that long but surely the steepest climb on tar in the Peninsula and then just when you think the worst is over the race ends on the top of another climb called Odendaal road in Aurora. 

Vissershok Climb Copyright Courney Dyoll Yentruoc Lloyf 

Took it slowly the last few km's as I felt the familiar twang in my legs of cramps starting to form. The legs were talking to me "No funny business!! Just take it easy, you are warned...."

Finished with a time of 3h27, ending up 58th out of 80 riders in group A. So there were at least 12 other riders who also learnt Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 on the day. A tough but good training ride for me, and confirmation that my Argus preparations are way behind!