So after a good hour in the bath with my son Keegan, having bubble war, I’m chilling watching Igor and Bolt. It’s called recovery for me while using the DVD player to entertain Keegs. I can’t really describe how tough today was, yes the elites may post faster times but with vets the racing's insane and there’s just attacks after attacks.Today started with a 1.8km climb at an average of 5.5%, the tempo from the start was high. I initially set the pace up Krugersdorp to get rid of any wheel suckers and tried softening up some of my competitors legs; after all I was a man going to war on my own. After the Krugersdorp hill a few riders tried to go off the front and get something going, but all in vain. A long descend took us towards the Cradle, with lots of drags and a few kicks. Cyclelab represented by Johan & David Labuschagne together with Koos were making the racing very hard, each one were having a shot at getting away. I think David or Johan finally got away with Donovan Jackson (Club 100 / Last week’s winner at the Hyper) just before the turn on the N14 heading out towards Diepsloot. This was a tough section with lots of drags and a slight head wind. At the time I was guessing the break wouldn’t succeed. The chase was lead by Werner Moolman (Mr. Price), Phillip Fourie (TCS), Harmony, Garmin and some other teams (Not sure of their names). The chase always kept the leaders in sight. We hit the turnaround at Diepsloot and with the wind at our backs the pace picked up quite a bit and the escapees were getting reeled in very quickly. They were finally caught going up the drag past Petro port; together with most of the juniors who were a bit of a pain but were quickly sorted out by the old men. Here I hit a bad patch and the body was responding to nothing, kept my composure and rhythm and pulled back in to the group, slowly. At this point lots of dead wheels were given and I had to work hard to close the gap. It all came down to a bunch sprint with Johan Labuschagne taking the win.
It was a race dominated by Cyclelab and Club 100 who were applying all the pressure and always giving it a go. On the day the best man won and congrats to Johan on the win. A good day for Cyclelab but not just in the vets 30+ group, they cleaned up by winning elites, vets 30+, 40+ and 50+. A special shout out to 2 good mates, Bruce Diesel and Andrew McLean who TT’ed the whole race to stay away and take 1st (Bruce) and 2nd (Andrew), sterling performance chaps!
All in all not a good day for me on the bike, legs were okay but not great and feels like I have a bit of flu coming along. Guess a bit of nursing and back to the drawing board to see where things can improve.
Congrats to everyone who finished a tough course.
Later.
Vets 30+ Results:
1. Johan Labuschagne
2. Phillip Fourie
3. Jeffrey Kriel
4. Jac – Louis van Wyk
5. Justin Erasmus
