Sani2C Report

Okay, so I'm home. back from a 3000km road trip, and a 280km MTB trip that changed my life and my view of riding.

Saturday-sunday
So the story started a week ago when Werner and I hit the road at 9'o'clock saturday night heading to Underberg (about 1400km,) the drive was cra
p. From getting the police to wake up sleeping petrol attendants to watching the sun rise somewhere near Molteno to eating breakfast at KFC in Maclear to dealing with taxi's in the Transkei.

We arrived in Underberg at about lunchtime, checked in at the backpackers (Under-the-Berg backpackers, lekker place,) and passed out. Had a monster afternoon nap, found a coffee place that had pizza, smashed two pizzas super fast and went back and slept some more.

Monday.
We woke up to the realization that it is REALLY cold in Underberg. We had to layer up to near polar bear levels, only to shed all of it as the day progressed. Registration was quick as we went early and then we repacked everything we needed for the next 3days into the boxes provided by the organizers. These would be shipped to the race villages for us, while we cruised  on our trusty steeds to the beach. Lekker man. How hard could it be? We trained and had enough horse steroids to power the Durban July.
That night the rain started...


Tuesday. Day 1 Underberg to Mackenzie

It was cold. Really cold. So we layered up again. This time we swapped the trusty corsa for our MTB's and headed off to the start line. Armed to the teeth with camelbak, Gu's, energy bars, biltong and even some banana bread (thanks Alicia) we were ready.



The route is everything people said it is. We had super sweet singletrack, rivalling some of the best sections I've done in the Western Cape. and there was dual singletrack, so we switched between left and right a couple of times to pass the slower people in singletrack nd generally whizzing through the mud and slippery roads, not knowing that we were going out a bit too fast (cocky over confidence) but we were having fun. whooping like school kids and shouting at each other in the singletrack.
Pretty soon we reached the dam with the floating bridge. While Werner changed the card on his GoPro a helicopter landed next to us. I couldn't resist the temptation to walk under the rotor blades and warm my hands at it's exhaust (did I mention it was cold?) with the camera man. he filmed me doing his (apparently I was on TV, really should convince my dad to invest in a PVR...) Hands warmed up and gopro rolling we hit the bridge, with the cheering crowd there I naturally wheelied my way down the bank onto the bridge. there I quickly put the wheel down, not taking too much unnecessary chances. The bridge was easy but lank fun. we soon reached the water point at Pevensey. This immediately humbled me, as we were served by mentally disabled people, and they helped us with smiles and all the warmth their hearts could give. I'm writing this with tears in my eyes as I remember the old lady coming up to me, asking me if she could clean my glasses. putting her hands under the cold water to make sure she could get all the dirt off. We have so much to be thankful of.We were served donuts, bananas, oranges, Powerade, coke and even potatoes. this would set the bar for all the water points of the race, and none beat the feeling off love and welcoming we were received with here at Pevensey. I'll do this race again just to pass by that water point again. The rest of the day's riding hurt. we had started out o fast and nailed ourselves in the singletrack and the mud wasn't making for easy going, and now we were paying for it.I remember praying that we didn't cramp, and by grace we didn't, even though we were both experiencing muscle twitches by the end. We dragged ourselves over the finish line in about 5hrs. after finishing we washed our bikes and parked them in the bike pound. the rest of the afternoon is a blur of shower (lots of naked men, but at least it was warm) lunch and siesta. That evening we were treated to an amazing dinner (I gained weight, the food was that good and that many) and an inspiring video of the next day's riding. Here we also met Stewart and Emma, a couple from Cape Town who kicked our asses. Luckily they are pretty cool and we'll ride with them in the Cape Colony again, so I might save some face on the singletrack.

Tuesday Day2 Mckenzie-Jolivet
This was the monster day.100km and 1700km of climbing, with us dropping into the legendary Umkomaas Valley. We've been hearing legendary stories about this day's riding. it all proved to be true. Wow. Minstrels should be writing stories and singing sonnets in ode of this trail.
We dropped back in our seeding and pretty soon got stuck behind some slower people in the singletrack. our strategy for this day was not to push it ad try to pass people. thus we saved alot of energy over the 40km singletrack that was mostly downhill, we actually enjoyed the views (I'm left speechless at that view, nuff said) and not focus on the next corner and 5metres in front of my wheel. I also spent most of the time fooling around on my back and front wheels and generally showing off in front of Werner who was recording the entire descent down the Umkomaas Valley. 40km's later we got sat out at the bottom of the valley and reached WP1. More donuts and lubing off chains (trail was still very muddy) later and we started climbing. it felt like forever, but we slowly made our way up the other side of the valley. we got told that all the water crossings were ride able, so we smashed into most of them splashing ourselves, and drenching the bikes, some of the crossings were rather deep, so I'll have to strip the bike this week, and service EVERYTHING. a lot of climbing later we reached WP2, but only after suffering a bit of a sense of humour failure after seeing countless Nando's boards, and false summits, but eventually we made. pretty shattered. after wolfing down 2 Nando's and countless donuts again we set out again, dropping into a very fast rough downhill and passing countless people again (open plea to the slower guys, I promise to train harder and get stronger, if you promise to do a bit more technical riding in your training. Deal?) after this downhill we reached Push of a climb, and we decided to see how far we could go up before dismounting to push. we actually made it up all the way, but only because we were stubborn, and the people who were pushing their bikes made way for us giving us the choice lines going up and encouraging us to keep going. the camaraderie between the riders is unmatched. some more climbing and flat roads followed before we reached the Sappi plantation and the legendary singletrack. This wasn't dual track, but we decided to gun it anyway and pass people where we could. This was also a very cool stretch, rivalling Oak Valley in terms of fun. after a blast of singletrack and fast flat roads we reached the last waterpoint at Highflats Church, knowing that most of the climbing is over. some more donutty goodness followed before we set off again. We reached more rough downhill, where we promptly passed everyone on the left (I really hope the footage looks as cool as it does in my head,) and they then passed us on the climbs. this cat and mouse game continued until a couple of km's before the end, until we reached Charlies Cat Walk. Here we knew we were almost home, and here I told Werner to just sit in my slip while I ground it out till the end at about a 11 on the 1-10pain scale. I couldn't care less. we were almost home, and we knew that the worst was over, so I gunned it in the red. There is something glorious in gunning it past the point where it feels like your eyes are bleeding and your lungs are clapping hands, but you don't show any pain and just sit and WORK. I love that feeling, and the sense of accomplishment when it is done and you know you gave it everything. That is how I felt when e crossed the line. 7hrs and 22mins. I don't care how slow that is, I loved day 2!
Rest of report on next post.