There is always a build up until the Argus, everyone is training for it and plans are being made for before or after the Argus. It is now over and for me it has been a good one! Even though the crash in our bunch is what most people will remember from this years race.

There are 35000 cyclists doing the cycle tour and 60% are not from Cape Town, it is a good time for anyone in the cycling industry, I have 2 businesses in this industry and we can really see the ups around this time. For iRide Africa it has been a busy time for our bike rentals, I think I could have rented out at least 300 bikes for this weekend, so our 10 bikes were booked already in November last year. We had a stand at the Expo with Newline South Africa for the 3 days leading up to the race and we had very good sales, so thank you to all our customers!!

And then I was trying to perform in the race as well. As a previous winner of the race the pressure is on and you get the question a lot if you can win it again. I decided to take the pressure off myself and just ride and see what I could do on the day.

We started with the men 40 and 50 and it was a big bunch of about 250-300 cyclists, it is a bit dangerous in those big bunches so one should rather try to stay near the front. Many thinking the same also makes it difficult… Almost the whole bunch stayed together until half way when the speed picked up on the climbs. I now and then found myself in the second bunch and did not stress about it since I knew that it was going to get back together. So on the last few kilometres we were a bunch of probably 40-50 people and a friend of mine shouted that I had to move to the front, it was probably good for me cause I went up and sat as number 2 or 3 inthe bunch until the kilometre mark. Someone started the sprint on my right and then on my left, I got a bit boxed in but moved a little to the right and then bang!! The girls in front of me went down, all I thought was that I would ride over the girl laying there but I just just managed to swing around her to carry on. I got over the line in 4^th position, my second best result in the Argus and I am very happy with that.

I also won my age group and got to go to the lovely prize giving at the Round house inCamps Bay this morning.

Thank you cycle tour for a lovely morning and a great event!!

Ashleigh Moolman Pasio won the race, she road very well the whole race and was really worth the win. Cathrine Williamsson was 2^nd and Lynette Burger 3^rd. I was happy with 4^th but always a pitty to be that close to the podium…

The girls in the crash were all fine, bruses and cuts but no broken bones, they were really lucky cause that was the talk of the day and probably the worst crash I have ever been close to…

I was for the first time riding with new water bottles from SportBuddy, great bottles that keeps your drink cool through the whole race! Usually the drink is warm after a while, especially on days like Sunday when it was 41degrees mid-day. Check them out on www.sportbuddy.co.za