I know MTB Stage Racers are supposed to be tough, but today again made me realise why mountain biking is the Sport of Real Heroes. George to Calitzdorp, over Montagu Pass, plus the gruelling Gamkaberg jeep-track, and then 40km of gravel road into a head wind. Damn.
This equates to around 3000m of altitude gain over a 140km-plus distance. The terrain is utterly in your face, with the temperature regularly peaking into the 40s. I rode the section to the top of Gamkaberg, and kakked off for 2 hrs. All I could think about as I sweated into that damn hill was how much respect I have for all the real riders tackling this purgatorial stage in full.
These are some of the Xperia pix, but I hope to load some of the proper photos tonight. It is still going to be a long day out there…
UPDATE: OK, actual photos from the day added … last guys came in just on 12hrs. #RealHeroes. I spent a couple of hours before sunset following the back markers in, while a pall of smoke drifted in from a bush fire upon the Klein Karoo plains. Man, it was like something out of flippen Apocalypse Now …
Click here to view the pics