Knysna Seriously Strong 200 Stage 1

Stage 1: Serously Wet and Muddy
All indications were that this was going to be a really wet one. With Knysna getting over 100mm of rain in the 4 days prior to the event, we were prepping for mud and lots of it. The start of stage 1 was at the Elephant park just before Plett. We were treated to sighting of these majestic beasts about 3 km into the race. As we left the elephant park, we got the first wake-up of the day with some very rutted and muddy riding conditions on our way to the forrest roads. At about 15km we started the first of the 3 major climbs of the day. At 25 km's we got a brief respite. By now we were truly in the indigenous forests navigating our way waist deep through what was little streams a week ago. Today they were strong rivers. We had to assist some of the lady riders around us as they couldn't manage to port their bikes without being washed away. The roads were rivers too. We were switching sides every 50 meters or so in an attempt to find a line that was not too muddy. Every mud puddle was like playing Russian roulette. After being stuck behind some indecisive riders for a while we decided to do the brave thing and take the lead. Some were barely 10 cm deep, others our hubs and BB's were submerged with water. Mental note: call William to book a BB, headset and hub service next week.
At 30 km we stopped at the first water point. It had fruit, energy drinks and water. We lubes our chains, filled the bottles and were off with the rest of our group. We were climbing some steep single track sections when I had temporarily lost my small blade. I got off and jogged the ups and rode the downs for a few km's until we hit the dirt roads again. Thankfully my small blade came too again and we were merrily reunited for sections on the second monster climb from 35 to 40km's. My legs were burning and my partner was steadily pulling away, an occurrence that became familiar over the last few months, but this time I could respond and stick with him.
The last big climb tested our resolve, but we managed to put some time in on the chasing bunch. The mood was less friendly than 20 km's ago, so when we pulled into the second water point at 55km, we kept it tidy and were off soon on a fast downhill section where we opened the gap again. We were off onto a nice section of single track with a deep ditch on the one side and a sheer drop on the other. At this point my partner started to cramp up and was running his bike next to me while I was riding. Another few undulations took us to another technical rutted downhill section. We used this to our advantage and soon we were on the tarred roads in Knysna working our way to Thesen Island for the finish. We kept the pace up, was mindful of not going full gas as tomorrow would be similarly challenging. We finished the day 16'th overall, to our surprise. With some big names on the startling we probably punched above our weight today, so let's hope that the penalty is not too severe tomorrow.