Wines2Whales - Day 1 - Lourensford to Oak Valley


The Wines2Whales MTB Race is the Western Cape's answer to the Sani2C. 3 days of fun mtb'ing starting at Lourensford near Somerset West (the Wines), crossing the Hottentots Holland mountains into the picturesque Elgin valley and finally finishing at the beach near Onrus (this is where the whales come in). My teammate for this adventure was Dewald de Goede, my ex-neighbour from the previous complex we lived & a very handy cyclist to boot.

Registration was on Thursday evening at the historic Lourensford Wine Estate. The weather for Day 1 looked promising, in contrast to the W2W Adventure that was held the previous weekend which started in monsoon-like weather (which wreaked havoc on bicycle mechanical parts and prematurely ended a number of competitors races.)
Registration at Lourensford Wine Estate

Looks like the rain will stay away!
After registration it was back to home for some last minute packing and figuring out how to fit 2 29ers into & onto a Palio! Friday morning it was an early drive back to Lourensford, while most of the Peninsula was getting ready for work we were getting ready for a day of mtb'ing! Weather was cool and the wind stayed away, perfect conditions for cycling. 
The Start at Lourensford
Day 1 of the W2W is the toughest of the 3 days, 76km of cycling with about 1,700m of climbing which includes a tough compulsary 2km portage section over the historic Gantouw pass. The benefit of having a racing snake for a partner is a good seeding, and the benefit of a good seeding is an early start, hopefully ahead of the slower riders causing bottlenecks at singletrack sections.
Team Racemiere ready to go!
The race start off with a long 5km climb up the Lourensford mountains, which spreads out the field nicely, we started at the back of the group but passed a number of our fellow riders on the climb. This was followed by some quick downhills, some pine forests and quick rides along contour roads as we traversed Lourensford.

After Lourensford we crossed over onto the back of Vergelegen farm (rocky and rutted!), some tricky singletrack at Schapenberg and then up alongside the railroad onto the Gantouw pass.

The historic Gantouw pass was used by farmers in previous centuries to cross the Hottentots Hollands mountains, how they managed to get their ox wagons up  the steep & narrow pass is beyond my comprehension. The pass is a 2km compulsary portage section, not sure why they bothered to make it compulsary because its impossible to ride anyway! On a hot day the climb up the pass can be murderous, but luckily the cool weather made the section easier to conquer.
Gantouw conquered - check out the view!
After the long walk it was a relief to get back on the bike, next up was some rugged singletrack through the rocks & boulders at the backside of the mountain. Whenever you spotted a photographer, you had reason to worry because it meant a potential wipe-out was up ahead on the trails - as illustrated by the drop-off below.

Soon we passed into the Grabouw Pine Forests for the highlight of the day, endless fast flowing singletrack among the pine trees.

All to soon, the singletrack ended on the gravel road that took us round the Eikenhof dam, now it was a fast & furious race along the open gravel roads, a final quick singletrack section and then onto the finish line at Oak Valley Race Village.

Our finishing time was 4h45m, a good time, almost but not quite good enough to keep us in Group C, so for Day 2 we were dropped down to Group D.

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