As I wrote this on March 9, 2014, some 35,000 cyclists were riding the Cape Town Cycle Tour in South Africa – at 109 km (68 miles), “the world’s longest timed bike race” – and I rode it in 2013!
Before the ride, I spent a week with a friend in a fishing / beach village in suburban Cape Town, acclimating to the late summer weather, seeing the sights, and recovering from the 14-hour flight and the worst sinus/upper respiratory infection I’ve had in years (hit me a week before I left). I was nervous – big event, all those people, all those bikes, all those hills, and a high probability of serious wind. I’m really not into big crowd events. But here I was – in AFRICA!
Here’s how it happened: I have a friend who is from South Africa and spends (our) winters there. He’s told me all about the Argus and invited me to visit. For two years I thought “Yeah, right.” Then I thought, “Why would I NOT do this?” and I went on the website, registered for the race, and began planning my trip. I took the Power Advantage class at High Road Cycles in Wayne to keep my cycling fitness up through the winter. After much investigation into bike boxes and shipping vs. checked baggage, the airline taking me to my safari couldn’t guarantee they’d have room for my Madone, so I decided to rent a bike in South Africa. I took my own saddle (SO glad I did!), pedals, and seat bag with my tools/flat kit with me. CO2 canisters can’t go on the plane, so I bought them there and returned them with the bike, as I fortunately didn’t need them. The rental bike was a brand new Bergamont light alloy frame with Shimano 105 components, and the guys at the bike shop were helpful and fun.
On race day, everyone is assigned to a start corral in groups of about 500. From 6:15am, groups are sent off at 4-minute intervals. We had to be in our corrals an hour before our assigned start time, which was good because it took about that long to stand in line for the restroom. I even found a new friend to ride with for the first 30K. My start time was 8:04, and they opened the gate at 8:03. I was a little leery of the mass start, so I hung back a bit, and I was surprised at how smoothly it all went – we were riding normally by the time we left the gate. From the very beginning, I had a blast! It was so much fun to be in an event this big, with a huge party mood all around. Everyone comes out to watch and cheer on the riders – since the main (only) road around the Cape is closed, there’s nothing else to do on this Sunday. Women riders were in the distinct minority, so we got lots of shout-outs from the crowd, which was fun. Everything is extremely well-organized (they’ve had 35 years to get good at it); the scenery is stunning with mountains, rocky beaches, and sparkling blue ocean; people were friendly and fun; and we had near-perfect weather.
The course is almost never flat, with 5,000 feet of climbing. Even though most of the course hugs the beautiful shoreline, it manages to be quite “rolling”. The little course profile they gave us was only about 3” wide, so it looked very jagged and scary. Really, the hills are more long than steep – as in “Is this bloody hill ever going to end?” Highest peak is 500’. The downhills are long and sweeping, my favorite kind! On the first long downhill, I caught myself going 54 kph (33mph) – pretty scary for a C rider in a huge crowd!
At about 60 km, I started to get serious cramps in both my quads. I stretched and got massage (after waiting about 20 minutes) at the next rest stop, and they gave me Coke and Eno (a fruit salt), apparently the pre-Gatorade electrolyte of choice. It took me till the next rest stop to realize (duh) that I was dehydrated because the rest-stop water tasted like an old hose, so I switched to Powerade. But I struggled on the hills the rest of the way. (Sadistically, the last hill is the worst one.) Just to make it more fun, we had a fairly stiff wind between the 30-60 km marks, then we turned the corner and it got hot (about 84°F) and we all wanted our breeze back! Where the course turns inland, we rode through a village with kids all along the route looking for high fives from the riders. Loved that! I tried to make sure to high-five all the little girls.
The whole trip was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. In addition to seeing a slice of South Africa (including a 3- day safari), I learned that I can do a long ride by myself, and that having my own custom-fit bike wasn’t as crucial as I thought. I learned that I need to be conscious of drinking and eating enough (not usually my problem). I averaged 12 mph while actually riding, but with the cramps, the massage, and a bit of walking (again, the cramps!), I missed the 7-hour cutoff to get an official finisher’s medal, but that did not ruin my day. I highly recommend this experience!
