Tru Cape ride report

Alicia was at a Womens Conference at our church this past weekend, so I reckoned a bit of MTB action would be on the cards.

Then a friend of mine asked me of I wanted to ride the tru cape race on the saturday, as his wife was also at said conference.

His dad is Wouter Lochner who along with Gerrit (of Gerhard) Huyskens (sp?) was the route planners/coordinators and apparently they had a lekker race planned for us. It is also the race that introduced me to singletrack 14 years ago, so Grabouw has a special place in my heart.

The last time I rode more than 50km was at last years Argus, so it was with trepidation that I agreed to ride the 50km. I contemplated doing the 25 on my SS. I knew I would survive 25km on the SS, but I also knew the back mountains where the 50 goes into is where the suffering would happen. If it was raining, I would be riding the 25 on SS, but alas, it didn't, so I took the plastic bike. My strategy was to start slow, keep riding slow and within myself, have fun in the singletrack, pace myself with some more slow riding, try to survive the last half, and wheelie over the finish line. seems simple. 

Online entry beforehand was R150, and registration was handled swiftly and I was given a temp board as I was not a PPA member. This also meant a back marker start. for me. 

The start was the usual Le Mans start. Naturally I sprinted ahead, ran a bit with the bike and was out of the field at the front. And then my hamstring reminded me where the doc removed some flesh (wat is sening in engels?) to manufacture me a new knee ligament last year. Dammit. So I switched back into easy mode and stared the climb being passed by almost everyone. before we hit the singletrack, we did some creative loops up some climbs that we never usually ride, with some lekker jeep track descents to sort out the field. I liked the jeeptrack descents as passing people was very easy here. 

At the first piece of singletrack i was stuck behind a slowish group, it was some new freshly raked trails, so alot of speed was not on the cards anyway, at the road I put in a bit of an effort to get ahead of this little groupie, and managed a clear run through a lot of single tracks after that. There really is a lot of trail in Grabouw. as in a bucket load, and we most all of it, and some new stuff. We did bypass the lank rocky trail with some new steepish rake-and-ride stuff that had me grinning and gooi-ing my foot out sliding all over the place. Jammer oom Wouter, dit was ek. Maar dit was lekker. I reckon bypassing the rocks was a smart idea, it would have been a walking nightmare for a lot of our lesser skilled brethren. Some more singletrack upon singletrack was followed by more singletrack. The dirt was still lekker firm from the bit of rain, with the smell of pine needles and racing through the trees I had the Indiana Jones theme song in my head. Great fun. 

I did eventually catch some slow okes on the later sections, but since they were mostly pointing uphill i tried to regain some rhythm in my breathing. My lungs were clapping hands along with staccato rhythm of my heartbeat. I knew I might have burned a few too many matches in my singletrack shenanigans, and that it might hurt later. Oh well. The traffic did become slightly frustrating when it got lekker again, but at the first set of switchbacks I pulled a Kevin Evans by taking a shortcut, passing 7 okes and bypassing two turns to get in front of the line. The uncle in front moaned and complained and said he will make sure I get disqualified for this. I just tuned him that I cant waste my time behind him all day, he is riding too slow. Some more lekker rough rocky singletrack followed until we were met by the second waterpoint. I stopped for some munchies, and grabbed an apple when I saw uncle slowpoke coming and raced ahead. I realised the apple was valuable, but had no place to store it, so I took a bit and kept it in my mouth when we entered the singletrack next to the waterfall. This trail mostly consisted of bridges connected with some lekker bench cut trail. on a rocky patch two ladies stopped (because: OMG! Rocks!!) but they gave us way, and when I mumbled "hmmhhmmm Thank you hhmmm" through the apple i was still holding onto with my teeth they burst out laughing. Just after this the 25 and 50 split, and we went up a climb that i remember from my school days. This did not bode well. Here I switched back into hurt prevention mode, and actually stopped to stretch my hammies a bit, as both of them were reminding me of all the Km's I have not been riding the last two years. A bit further on I helped a Spanish dude with a broken chain. He promised me a beer in return for my quick link, but I reckon he was already at home by the time I finished. 

Climbing was followed by more climbing, interrupted with a couple of way too short flat and down sections only to send us up more climbs again. On one of these "flat" sections there was some puddles, and i chose the conservative line through one of them, but it was way deeper than i thought, and it turned into a wall of spray around me, everything was wet. And then it turned back uphill again. Flip, I can climb up to the top of Jonkers on my SS, but climbing to the top of this monster was not something I want to repeat soon (it is called Venster Bult IIRC) and I very nearly had a sense of humour failure towards the end. I chatted to some guys who were putting the final touches on their Sani2C prep, but I have bad news for them, climbing out of Umkomaas might not be fun for them either. I spent a considerable amount of time in the pain cave here, and I must admit, it was good. It is lekker knowing that I can still take some punishment. The legs might not be strong, my fitness is not top notch, but at least the mind is still strong enough not to back off from the pain. The views did not disappoint, and the camaraderie of everyone suffering with you was lekker. 

After Venster Bult there was some more rough descents went into the waterpoint that was right at the start of a lekker singletrack with some nice rock sections in it. I stocked up on some Ice Tea, with some strond praat with the water point people, and then dropped into the singletrack Those who have descended down Nuweberg will know this trail.. Once again the guys in front of me were courteous enough to give me track without me needing to ask for it. After this lekker trail we had a last bit of climbing to do, and I made it all the way to the medics on quads before my legs ground to halt. I was cramping, and it was not fun. I knew I was less than 8km from home, but I could not move. The medics gave me some Rennies for the cramp (it works for all the doubting Thomas' out there) and i eventually got going. We went into some more singletrack, followed by a bit of gravel roads, and raced towards the country club. That is until we were pointed back away from the finish line. Some more gravel roads took us back towards the huts. Fortunately we turned back towards the country club into some new singletrack. here I had another cramp moment when I had to dismount up a short sharp climb, but I just ran up it to keep the legs going before they could cramp. we cruised the last bit next to the dam and through the forest towards the country club. 

I did manage to wheelie the last bit as planned. I think it took me just under 4hrs to finish. As I crossed the line I heard prize giving was already going on, and knew I would not be winning any lucky draw prizes, but fortunately the ladies at the coke stand were nice, even handing me more cokes when I consumed them to slow for her liking. "Jy moet drink my kind, jy het die suiker nodig" apparently I was looking too well. Apparently my friend thought a beer could also fix me as he handed me a Windhoek. He is a good friend, but it took that Windhoek, two burgers, countless cokes and a longer than short while to fix me. 

All in all it was a great day on the bike. The route is tough, but very fun. The singletrack is fun, abundant and with a good mix of flowy trail and trough trail. And gooi some rocky gravel road descents in as well. The marshals and water point angels were awesome. It is cool seeing that a local community is still investing into an event like this by giving their time. I am defs doing it again next year. 

The Grabouw Forestry trails are in great shape, and that is due to the efforts of oom Wouter en oom Gerrit. Go ride it when you can. You won't be sorry.