Joburg2C must be my best cycling experience ever! I have done many road races around the world but this is something very different that I would recommend to anyone! I had never raced for 9 days before and also not on an MTB, which is a lot harder on your body, even though my Focus FSL soft tail helped me a lot!!! On top of that you sleep in tents and we realised after the 9 days that we had hardly been indoors at all. So I am very happy to have completed this race without injuries or sickness, only a cold that came as I came home….
The race started outside Johannesburg, in Heidelberg, at 8am on the 27th of April at about 1700 meters above sea level and finished on the beach in Scottburgh on the 5th of May.
Day 1, Karen Beef (Heidelberg) to Frankfort113km
This was not a racing day. Lucky for us since we almost missed the start, we could not find it. We arrived 7.50am and then still had to find our bikes and drop off the bags! It was a nice social ride and the reason why it is a neutral day is that half way we cross a river that can only be crossed in a boat. We stopped at all the water point to fuel up and it was a really nice day on the bike.
Day 2, Frankfort to Reitz 93km
First racing day!! We started off well and came on to the single tracks quickly. 3 mixed teams got away and we were chasing them. My chain came off and I had to stop and fix it. Later on my team mate Dalarey started cramping so we had to slow down a bit. We rode together with a group of guys but left them in the dust on the last down hill single track, we had lots of fun and started to see that the technical stuff were going to be our strong points. We finished 4th in the mixed.
Day 3 Reitz to Sterkfontein dam 125km
This was going to be a long day!! The start was very fast as soon as the Massey Furgusson tractor pulled off. We got in to 4th place directly from the start and we never saw any of the other teams for the whole day. Finishing along side the dam was so beautiful!!
Day 4 Sterkfontain dam to Winterton 121 km
Today was a very technical day and we got the most amazing views I have ever seen on a bike, that was if you dared to look of course!! The sign “no overtaking to the right” was there for a reason! We got in to 4th place from the start, as usual, but after the most technical section, which was quite long, we came to the first water point and as we approached the 3rd mixed team of Leana De Jager and Carel Bosman left the feeding station. We were quick and started chasing them. We soon caught them and rode with them until the next water point. After that we hit some very steep climbs and Delarey was forced to walk up. Leana and Carel got away by far and I thought we would never see them again. Lucky for us it was lots more technical single tracks coming up and we caught them again. We came to the last water point together and we left first. The last 26km was lots of single tracks and I tried to go as hard as possible without putting too much pressure on a dehydrated Delarey. We managed to stay clear by 2 minutes and take our first (and only) podium position for the week.
Day 5 Winterton to Kamberg (Glengarry farm) 100km
This day was going to be my worst day on a bike ever, at least that was how it felt!!! My legs did not want to turn the pedals at all…!! It was also a bit of a rest day and personally I found it a bit boring since there were hardly any single tracks at all. Luckily Delarey felt stronger today and could help me a bit. We still managed a 4th position.
Day 6 Glengarry to Hazeldean farm 90 km
The day of the hills! My legs felt a lot better even though I was afraid to push too hard in case yesterday was going to be a repeat. We were in 4th place from 18km onwards and did not push more then necessary.
Day 7 Hazeldean farm to Mackenzie Country club 80 km
We started the Sani2c route today and this was when we hit the real single tracks. They are so well prepared that the joke the day before was that there were 1,5 acorn in the way. Most of them had dual tracks to avoid conjunction. We also went over the famous floating bridge, I was a little nervous but they had assured that normally no one fall in. In the evening we saw on the TV production when 3 guys fell in…. Unfortunately Delarey had a crash on one of single tracks when he hooked on to a tree and fell hard. He hurt his knee which slowed us down quite a bit. When that happened we were together with the 3rd team but they got away just after. A bit later my friend Cherie and her boyfriend passed us so we were now lying in 5th position. A bit further down the road we passed Leana and Carel, they had a puncture, so back in 4th. We tried to catch Cherie but they were already too far ahead, so once again we finished 4th.
Day 8 Mackenzie Country club to Jolivet 99km
Today we rode the most amazing single track I have ever done!! It is a bit of a tigh between this one and the one on day 4, wow are those fantastic!! 18km down hill all single track in one go!!! Where else in the world does one find that?? This was also the day with the least amount of jeep track and also the day I enjoyed the most!! I had so much energy and really wanted to race but unfortunately Delarey had problems both with his bike and knee so it turned out to be a chilled ride instead. I still enjoyed it so much and we also managed a 4th place again.
Day 9 Jolivet to Scottburgh72 km
The last and shortest day of the race!! Sad that it was over but also very very glad to go home!! It was a very nice route again and I was in racing mode from the start. We got a head of our biggest opponent but it only lasted about 20km…. Delarey was not feeling well today, we did not really have much to race for anyway since we were so far behind 3rd in the GC and also far ahead of 5th. Even though we got a bit disappointed when Cherie and Hanco passed Delarey on the finish line to take 4th place for the day and we got our first 5th place.
The whole experience has been absolutely amazing!!! Every day when you come to the finish someone comes and takes your bike, usually school kids, they wash it and put it in the bike park. There is a tent with your race number and you collect your bag and always have a hot shower. There was a buffe lunch in the food tent and since people finished different times it was always open. A bonus was Seattle Coffee where you could get free cappuccinos!! At 6pm it was time for dinner, every evening was good! The local communities really did everything they could for us to have a great experience!! It was anything from Braais to pojkekos for 600 people! That takes a lot of work! We also always got desert:-)
The organisers Gary, Glen and Wopper made the evening fun, the race briefings were always a laugh. I want to say a huge thank you to you guys that stood for your words that the race was for the riders! They did anything for us to have fun!! Wopper even rode one day with a guy that wasn’t sure he could manage the technical stuff!!
The nature we rode through and the views that we saw is unreal! I have been to parts of this area before but you see it in a different way on a bike where no cars can get to! Every evening we could enjoy the wonderful pictures from the brilliant photographer Kelvin Treutman and also the Bigshot media TV production that was sent on DSTV every evening.
I am very grateful that I got the opportunity to ride this race and I absolutely want to go back there next year and race again. I just need to find a sponsor, anyone??? ;)
Enjoy some pictures from Kelvin Treutman
The Massey Furgesson Tractor that started us every day
The start! can you see me??
Spectator along the way:-)
Going over the river on day 1
The bikes also had to get over:-)
Riding on the edge!
passing a wolf park!
The bags were heavy!!
The bike park
Sterkfontein dam
Time for dinner!
Good morning!
Riding over the floating bridge!
Some places we still had to walk over!
Ok, and one proof that I was there;)