It has been a while since my last update about my racing. This update will cover the last few months.
After the Swedish Champs there were a few smaller races to attend to. Firstly it was Karlstads XC which was a super fun course with lots of singletrack , almost 90% of the race. My form felt very good that day and I managed to win the women's class.
The next weekend we travelled down to Hässleholm and raced Snapphaneturen, I struggled during the race and it I felt as though I was at maximum effort for the whole race, simply just a tough day, the win felt like a bonus!
A week later I did a MTB orienteering race , and after the race I felt as if I was getting a cold. I ended up having a cold. Not being able to train for 7 days it was still a difficult decision to not go to the World Champs in Elba. Looking back, it was probably still a good decision considering that Cape Epic started only 15 days later and there were 2 long trips to be made in between (home from the World Champs then to South Africa).
I then continued to prepare for the Cape Epic, but it was pretty cold in Sweden at that time.Maybe not the best preparation for the Cape Epic. 3 Days after arriving in South Africa ,I did a race not far from our home in Stellenbosch.I did the race to give my body use to the feeling of racing again and on the terrain which would be similar to what we would experience at the Cape Epic. The race was a complete mud bath as it rained a lot during the night and during the race, I do not know how many times I got off the bike and I also had the thought of just cycling home instead of continuing;)
One week later, it was time to start the Cape Epic 2021, it had been cancelled in March 2020 and then in March 2021. So, it was a relief that the race was eventually going to happen. My partner for the race was Amy McDougal from Cape Town, during the past year we have become very good friends and it felt great fun to ride with her. She was in great shape, better than I've ever seen her before. I cannot say that I felt the same about myself ... It was a tough edition of Cape Epic, I have started 8 times and now finished 6 times and this was one of the toughest years in many ways! There was a lot more trail than usual, which means that you work hard all the time, there was never any rest on flat gravel road sections, and it was a lot of climbing!
Here is a short summary of the week:
Day 1: The prologue was as usual at the University of Cape Town and I was as nervous as usual! It went perfectly ok in the beginning but then it got a little tough for me, especially on the climbs, we did not go to the max as it is a long week and Epic is not decided on the prologue. It was a rainning and we were really muddy after the finish. We finished in 5th place. Afterwards we travelled to Ceres where the first long stage would start.
Day 2: It was about 5 degrees in the morning when we cycled from the guest house to the start,not to my liking, it did warm up to 7 degrees when we started! Straight after the start we rode through a river and we were all completely soaked. The first few kilometres were on a flat gravel road so we were a large ladies group. Only once we reached the singletrack at Eesselsfontein did the race split up,we were in the first group. Unfortunately, on one of the singletrack descents the team in front of us lost contact with the leaders and we couldn’t bridge the gap to the leaders. Towards the end of the stage we did catch up with Adel and Cherie and fought for 4th place but they managed to take it and it was another 5th place for us.
Day 3: I was a little surprised at how slow the girls rode the first hour on the flat part of the track. I didn’t feel that we should take on the pacing as we knew the teams will start pushing hard soon, so we sat nicely in the group. When we started the first long climb we lost the lead group, unfortunately it was chaos with the men's group caught us right when the split happened. It became so crowded that we had to get off in some places. Unlucky timing. We ended up with Marie and Hayley for a long time and I was very disappointed in myself when they finally managed to ride away from us, after they had been sitting on our wheels for about an hour. I knew the track inside and out as it follows the same route as the Tankwa Trek in February every year. The last downhill down to Tulbagh was very fun, about 15 minutes without pedalling :) It was unfortunately a 6th place for us that day.
Day 4: It was another day where I recognized almost the entire course and today. We were really looking forward today, so we set the pace from the start! It felt good! It was a crash early which we missed completely, Cherie and Adel had problems with the bike but eventually caught us and left us. Marie and Hayley were with us but unfortunately Hayley crashed and broke her wrist, so they were out of the competition. It was 30-35 degrees hot this day and it was really tough on the race’s steepest climb where the air was completely still, and many people suffered. We rode well and it was a 4th place for the day, and we moved up to 4th place overall, it was very sad that the others crashed and maybe that was why we got a better position, we felt better today so it would have been fun to see the others still in the race, to see how we would do.
Day 5: This week's "transport day", which is usually shorter and less climbing. The day had to be shortened even more due to road works and we had to drive about an hour from the finish to the intended destination. It was another day with a flat and slow start and when we "started" it felt really good and we rode with Candice and Mariske (who was then 3rd) for a long time, until we started to have problems. Firstly, I slipped in a corner, then Amy dropped the chain and later we discovered that her rear derailleur was breaking. We had Vera and Sarah with us, and they unfortunately rode away from us when we had to stop countless times to put on Amy's chain. Amy also crashed a few times towards the end, I simply think we lost a bit of motivation, and we made it just in time since Amys derailleur broke in 2 pieces as we crossed the finish line. Unfortunately, it was a 5th place for us but we kept the 4th place overall.
Day 6: Queen stage! I was a little worried for this day, 84 kilometres and 3000 meters of climbing is not fun if you are already tired! My salvation was that I had the world's best partner in this competition! Amy did not leave me but helped me where needed and I think I had my best day of the whole week! We sat with the first 3 teams much longer than usual and I climbed better than usual and even though it rained a lot ,it went well on the descents, it was a fun but tough day and we finished 4th again and extended the lead to Cherie and Adel in 5th place.
Day 7: It rained all night and I was extremely grateful that we did not sleep in tents but were indoors! The start was postponed for an hour due to the water and they shortened the track, now I do not think it felt like that when we were out for 4.5 hours for 80 kilometres, it did not feel particularly short !!! 10 minutes after the start it rained so much and it was so muddy that we could barely see anything! I had a tough day, but thanks to Amy helping me we managed to ride away from Cherie and Adel who we were in competition with, but instead I could not keep the motivation up and when Vera and Sarah rode past us towards the end it made it a disappointed 5th place for the day. I had to fight in the afternoon to gather strength for one last day of this.
Day 8: We had 16 minutes up on 5th place and the only goal of the day was to keep 4th place overall, it's easy to relax a little too much when you know it's the last day of such a long week so it took power just to gather strength;) It was hard from the start ,when we started climbing almost immediately, we ended up pretty quickly in a 5th place and there we sat the rest of the day! There were not many paths or roads during this year's edition of Epic that I had not ridden before but there was a hill that was completely crazy steep that I have never seen before, it felt cruel to have it for the last day, it was completely impossible to cycle up there with my 32-blade !!! We saw Cheri and Adel for a long time but when they opened a gap and we couldn’t see them I got a little nervous, even though we had a lot of time you never know what might happen. The last hill of the whole week was tough, my legs barely wanted to pedal and my head just told me to lie down and rest! It was an incredible relief to cross the finish line! We kept the 4th place overall!
It was a tough week, and we had all the weather imaginable, incredible heat, rain, cold, wind, yes everything!! This together with the terrain and the fact that Epic was at the "wrong time" and that the body and head are not "used" to long stage race right now, contributed to this feeling that it was the toughest Epic so far! I felt like it was the longest Epic in time, but I went back and looked at previous editions and it was the second shortest !!! ;)
Some fun facts: I got the results I was missing in the ladies category;) These are my results at Cape Epic:
1st - 2017
2nd - 2015
3rd - 2014
4th - 2021
5th - 2019
After Epic, I had no desire at all to ride a bike !!! I usually take about a week off after a race like Epic but this time it was different, just 11 days after the finish it was time for the next stage race,Wines 2 Whales another 3 day partner stage race. I first rested for 3 days and then I got a little sore throat so it was 5 days before I tried cycling again. I was hoping for a little shape topping after Epic and rest!
I rode with Amy again and it felt like it was a repeat of Epic. New for this year was that we rode Whales to Wines instead of Wines to Whales, this year's edition was called "Switchback" we simply rode the traditional route in reverse. It was fun with something new, this was my 11th W2W for 9 years (2 years I have driven 2 times).
Day 1: After the neutral start we went straight up a steep hill and I probably went too hard in the beginning and I dropped a little at the top, but we soon caught up again. We sat well with but then all of a sudden, I lost the first 2 teams. Mariske and Candice were strong, and it did not feel like there was much to do against them, but I felt we should keep up with Marie and Kim. They were ahead of us on the longest climb of the day ,but it was if they were a carrot and that made us fight harder to catch them. With about 10 kilometers left, we caught up with them and it was going to be a sprint. I sat behind Amy on the last path and just hoped that she would sprint when we entered the finish straight, it is difficult to talk to each other when another team is with. Everything went well and we were able to sprint into second place!
Day 2: Today was the famous "play day" as it is mostly trails and fun cycling! We were 4 teams together today, Sarah and Barbara were also with us for a long time, on a downhill we managed to drive away from Marie and Kim, they were quite close and we see them behind us almost all the way to the finish. We were happy with another 2nd place ,and it felt good that we had opened a little more of a gap.
Day 3: It was a tough day! We were again 4 teams together in the beginning but already after about 18 kilometers Candice and Mariske got away and it felt like the remaining teams would be together all the way to the finish. We ran down the mountain where it was mandatory and I must say that it was harder to go downhill than uphill, although I thought it would be the opposite, I was quite happy that we were first there so that the others could not get away. There were some gaps here and there, when we started riding again Marie and Kim were with us but Barbara and Sarah got a gap on us. It became a mental challenge as the track would be 62 km and the last 7 kilometres would be downhill, but when we had ridden 62 kms we were still not on the top of the last climb. The organization had to change the course while we were out due to a bee invasion which was to dangerous to pass ... We had a small gap down the last hill as we descended slightly better than the others but just before the finish Marie and Kim caught up and it was a sprint again, we took it which meant we were 2nd and 2nd on GC.
I have to say that I was very happy with a second place at W2W!
You would think that I would feel like I wanted to rest after W2W, but it turned out just the opposite! Craig and I will be in Sweden during the winter this year, something that will be new to us. And with the knowledge that our time in the heat was limited, we used the time to cycle! Now we did not have time for long rides but we cycled every day for about 1.5-2 hours and it was 15 days in a row! It was incredibly nice to just cycle completely without plan or requirement, no intervals, no program, no predetermined time, but just exactly what we felt for right then. I think it was a mental rest that was really needed.
We went to George and visited Craig's parents and I took the opportunity to have some business meetings with Right for Bikes suppliers, Squirt and Feva who are located in that area. At home in Stellenbosch, there was also a meeting with Sahmurai Sword.
This Tuesday we went home to Grycksbo and it has taken some time to get used to the cold and especially the darkness! The question is whether we will get used to it! It still feels appropriate to take a yearly time off right now ;)
We went to a Christmas market here in Grycksbo on Saturday :) I am looking forward to a white Christmas!