The day started off just outside Totti's eatery on the Reenendal road, south-west of Knysna. The clear skies meant a drop in temperature and with riding the trails around Millwood before, I knew that there would be climbing from the gun. We started behind a pace vehicle and as we entered the Goudveld forest gates the leading teams dropped us like a bad habit. I was finding my legs, but about half way up the climb I needed a respite from the 18% gradient and wanted to drop onto my small blade to spin the legs out. I lost the small blade before even starting the day. I tried in vain to ride the steep gradient on the middle ring, but had to dismount and put the chain over manually, loosing time and momentum. This was going to be a long day, but this was not the time to feel sorry for yourself.
At the Daleen Mathee memorial we entered a hiking trail. By now we were at least 15 teams down on where we ended yesterday, so we had to be content to wait behind less confident riders in the single track. It soon turned into a mud bath and we were forced to walk the remaining 3 kms of the single track. The next 13 km's were ups and more ups. Gradients varied from 9% to 28% and I was getting increasingly frustrated by not having a full suite of gears to do the work in. By now I was becoming quite good at unclipping my right foot and tapping the chain over onto the small blade while pedalling with the left.
At 17 km's we reached the first water point. I was in no mood to hang around, so after filling the water bottles and shoving a potato in my mouth, we were off again. We were probably about 20 places down by now, but we kept on grinding. At 20 km's we were cresting jubilee creek. The views were simply breath taking (or was that the climbing). At the top we caught up the first team, then there was a second team in our sights. We were on a steep, rutted descent and used the opportunity to haul in a few more teams as this is where we could exploit the fairer sex riders' built in caution sensors. We were approaching the old mining town of Millwood and caught a few more teams. With the climb tht followed my legs were feeling strong for the first time today and we picked up the pace to haul in a few more teams. Soon we were on the Homtini Trails. Every one that go to Knysna to simply do Harkerville 4 or 5 times in a week need to go and explore this paradise of indigenous trees and bird life. With a few fast single track sections there is enough to keep the baggypantbrigade happy and get a very good work out too. The second water point stop was even quicker than the first. With my newly found legs my partner wanted us to keep moving to ensure that we don't loose rhythem. As we left the Homtini Trails we encountered a particularly muddy patch that had us pedaling hard on the drier sections to carry us through the wet patches. Another team were in our sights and then another.
Soon we were on the Reenendal road and onto the Phantom Pass. I dropped my chain on the outside of the big ring and had to stop to unhook it on the rear derreullier before we could get moving again. We crossed underneath the N2 on the Brenton-on-Sea road and had a short portage up the stairs. We continued on the lagoon side of the N2 and had another team in our sights. They were blissfully unaware of the chase from behind and we shot past with a huge burst to ensure that they would not wheelsuck to the end. A few km's to go and we were keeping a weary eye on the chasers. We turned into the Knysna water front for some urban assault through the shops and headed off to Thesen Island for the finish. 21'st for today's stage, and hopefully not too many places lost on the GC.
No comments:
Post a Comment