Stellenbosch Cycle Tour 2016

2011 Burger Cycle Tour up "old" Helz
My first Burger Cycle Tour was back in 2011 on a mountain bike with slicks, starting off with a climb over the old Helshoogte Pass. 6 years later this is now my 5th attempt, the race is now called the Stellenbosch Cycle Tour and the old Helshoogte Pass has been replaced by the new Helshoogte Pass, other than that everything is still exactly the same.

This would be my first serious attempt at this race since the 2013 race. STCT 2014 was a go-slow due to illness and STCT 2015 was a no-go due to illness. Luckily this time round I was healthy but for the first time since 2013 I was not seeded with the elite ladies. I  had to drop back to 1A - I had a bit of to work to do to move up in the seedings again! With me in the starting chute was Bernie Stopforth, one of the best climbers of our BP Kenridge Training group.

With the Helshoogte climb right at the start of the race this is one of the few races I make the effort to properly warm-up before the start, nothing like losing your group in the first kilometer of the race to spoil your day!

Bernie & I chasing after the girls up "new" Helz
We were off at 6h05, exactly one minute after the elite lady bunch (%) which is not nearly a big enough gap when determined 1A chasers are behind %! About 20 of us broke away from the rest of 1A bunch on the Helshoogte climb, the stronger climbers caught % halfway up Helshoogte while the rest of us caught % bunch at the Wemmershoek turn-off..

We were only 20km into the race but in my mind my day was won. I now had a 1 minute advantage on % bunch and I only had to wheel-suck and finish within sight of the others to beat everyone in % (and most of 1A). So I was happy to just sit in the bunch and be alert to a possible break-away.

Likeliest place for a break-away was the long climb out of Wellington to Windmeul on the R44 but unlike 2013 the pace in the group up the climb was manageable and very few riders dropped off, same on the Lievland and Remhoogte climbs close to Stellenbosch. I was still sitting with the group when we turned sharp left into Stellenbosch at the Cloetesville traffic lights and managed to finish within sight of the sprint, meaning that for once in my life I beat everyone in % (although I had to share that honour with a few other 1A riders).



My finishing time was 2h31m, 133th place out of 4000 riders. Most likely the best result I can ever hope to achieve for this race. The result gave my seeding a nice bump and I will be starting in @ bunch in the Argus, good enough to make another proper Sub-3 attempt!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Sub-3 Argus - Part 1 - Assembling the pieces of the puzzle

Image
Its March and time for the BIG one - The Argus Cycle Tour . Since going for an Argus victory is the exclusive domain of the pro-cyclists, most casual cyclists target a specific time, a Sub-5, a Sub-4, Sub 3h30 etc. Cycling magazines devote pages of advice on how to obtain that elusive "Sub-x" time. The big target for amateur cyclists however is the "Sub-3", it's the amateur cyclist equivalent of running the 4-minute mile, not quite impossible but very hard to pull off and instant "street-cred" in cycling conversations to those who manage it. To put it in perspective, in 2013 & 2014 the winning times was about 2h40, meaning that you had to finish within 20 minutes of the leading riders and within the first 500 positions out of the 35,000 entrants. The deciding factor in achieving a Sub-3 Argus is your seeding, in 2013 only a  B seeding or better would do, in 2012 & 2014 a few riders in group C also made it but virtually nobody below those
Read more

CTCT 2017 -The puppet that never got the chance to grow into a real live boy

Image
2014 Cape Argus I managed my first sub-3. 2015 Argus was halved due to raging fires and everyone got sub-3's 2016 Argus, now the Cape Town Cycle Tour (CTCT) I fell ill the night before the race and could not ride. 2017 CTCT was now supposed to be my first attempt at a proper sub-3 in 4 years. After the Attakwas early in January I managed to keep on training and keep doing races, my seeding looked good after the Stellenbosch Cycle Tour so everything was falling in place for a proper sub-3 assault. Then in the lead-up to the big day things started going wrong... First there were reports of fires in Hout Bay Then rumours started spreading about social unrest along the route at Masiphumelele near Kommetjie. Then the night before the race organisers sent us the following text message: Things weren't looking good but the Sunday morning I arrived in Cape Town ready to handle whatever the conditions, fires and protesters throw at me.  Initially th
Read more

Sani2C - Day 2 - Umkomaas Valley

Image
Sani2C Day 2 - the heaven & hell stage and the reason the Sani2C is famous. A long 100km stage, starting with a stunning single track descent into the Umkomaas valley, the track then crosses the valley  taking the riders over the Umkomaas river and out the other side with a monster climb back up the mountains. Our good ride on day 1 meant we were bumped up from Group J to Group E for day 2, meaning the slower riders were now behind us and not in front of us when bombing down on the long downhill single track sections. Day 2 started early and Group E were off at 8h00. The first few kilometers took us into a fun dual track section through pine plantations, suddenly the trees opened up and words can't adequately describe the scenery that unfolded before us. A beautiful valley with a big river snaking kilometers below us, and we were descending right down the "walls" of the valley! The beautiful Umkomaas valley at sunrise What follows is about 30km of t
Read more