Day 2 of the Wines2Whales is known as the "fun" day of the event. Only 68km with no major climbs and loads and loads of singletrack in the mtb heaven of Oak Valley.
I wouldn't claim to be the most proficient technical rider so talks of big drop-offs, singletrack sections named after snakes like Mamba and Boomslang had me a bit worried! Its fine when you ride in the middle of the field because there will always be some bloke around with worse technical skills, so if you feel a bit out of your depth you just fall in line behind him and let him take the pressure. However the closer you get to the sharp end of the field the less place there are to hide, you have to throw caution to the wind and gun down the singletrack as fast as possible as not to hold up anyone behind you.
We set off from the Oak Valley Race Village at pace, the open gravel roads makes for fast riding, maybe too fast because after a few kilometers there was a sharp drop-off with a tight turn at the bottom. Turning at the bottom by front wheel just refused to grip and just slided out beneath me. My right hip & knee took most of the impact. Despite being a bit bloodied I wasn't really hurt, it was mostly my confidence that took a knock. Suddenly my bike wasn't my trusted partner anymore, it felt more like an enemy, a wild horse slyly waiting to throw me off at the first sign of weakness!
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| This is what happens when you run out of talent on a downhill! |
We hit the first sections of singletrack and again I had a close call, turning tightly onto a narrow bridge crossing a mountain stream, my front wheel again slided out under me and I almost took a 3 meter drop off from the bridge into the stream below. That little mishap took care of the last bit of confidence I had left, so I decided to take the singletrack sections slower, let faster riders past and made Dewald wait patiently at the end of each singletrack section. A girl who passed me just after a singletrack section told me I ride like a roadie - not the type of encouragement I needed at that stage!
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| Dewald leading the way |
We crossed over into the Paul Cluver auditorium for what promised to be the highlight of the day, two high bridges called Raka and PPA Swing, preceded by some dual track. Again, my luck deserted me, didn't see the sign and chose the wrong track and ended up on Luislang ie the chicken run, I must have been the only rider on that day that chose the chicken run. Even worse, Dewald who was ahead of me didn't see me take the chicken run and we got completely seperated. Took a frantic phone call and a long time looking around to find each other again, just not my day!
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| The bridge I will get to ride next time... |
After some more singletrack, and yet more singletrack we had a quick & fast descent on some more singletrack featuring some wide fast berms. Hearing a quicker rider behind me, I gave track, only to be passed by Farmer Glen himself (the famous organiser of Sani2C), I tried to stay on his wheel but the old guy was way too quick for me!
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| Riding a wide berm - (not Farmer Glen behind me) |
The stage continued along some tricky uphill technical singletrack at Thandi which some complained about but I quite enjoyed, then an interesting meander through the pack stores of Kromco and ended off with a final fast singletrack section at Oak Valley. Was glad to see the race village at Oak Valley, time for the roadie to lick my wounds, pick my ego of the ground and prepare for the final day.
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| Oak Valley |
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