“Why do we do this to ourselves every year?” This was the phrase of day day from many of the riders of the Cape Argus Cycle Tour. I say “Why would we NOT do this every year?”
I really enjoyed it. I can see why 30,000+ people show up to do it every year. This year was 38,000! It is considered the most beautiful bicycle in the world, a lot of it along the ocean. It is one of the only places in the world where normal people like you and me can compete in the same race as the top athletes. This year, the big name was that Lance Armstrong was racing too!
Training was fun. I love what it did for me physically. I am in the best shape of my life, I have not been this flexible since being a teenager. I have more energy throughout the day to get other things done. My to-do-one-day list is shorter now than when I started training. Amazing how taking a few hours out of the week has helped me get more done in the week.
The whole process is exhilarating. Even just waking up and hearing the helicopters follow the race leaders (like Lance) through our town started the day with excitement.
I rode down to the train station where I met up with the first of the friendly riders I would encounter today.
Every year the railway company say they will have a special cart just for us and our bikes and every year it looks like this. (I love talking about “every year” even though I only did it twice).
If 38,000 cyclists all getting ready to ride as hard as they can does not get you excited….. wait till you’re there, it will. There’s awesome energy in the air!
Husband pushing wife up Chapman’s Peak. Lance rode up this hill in an INHUMANE 2 minutes but for us mortals this is actually a hard climb.
Yes this is definitely the most beautiful cycle race in the world. This doesn’t even do it justice. Africa has so much beauty to offer…
When doing endurance athletics I have always finished well, towards the end I started feeling a lot faster.
Last year I barely finished before the cut-off (They cut you off if you don’t finish fast enough because they can’t keep the road blocked all day). This year I wanted to do better. I trained longer & harder and between birthday and Christmas I got some new gear. My mom bought me the tires, I took off my fat knobby tires and put some thin racing tires on and WOW, the difference in resistance is so huge it felt like I was being pushed from behind. My father-in-law got me the bottle and gloves which saved my hands and helped me not to carry the heavy water like last year. And my lovely wife got me some shorts with Gel on the butt, I’m thankful for that as I sit here and type. My final time, 4 hours and 50 minutes for 110km/67miles. Beats my goal of 5 hours, and I feel 80% better than last year, both because I am in better shape and I didn’t spend 6 1/2 hours pedaling on my bicycle. I can actually walk on my own tonight!
I joke that I was racing with Lance Armstrong and maybe I could beat him. He did it in about 2 hours, 40 minutes. WOW! But he placed 9th. Marysol says that technically we are even since I did my best and he we wasn’t exactly at his best. She likes to tell me things like this.
I had a lot more fun than last year, even just being able to really push and race without running out of breath made the whole thing a great experience. I had a blast, I’m already planning on doing this every year I live in Cape Town.
If you want to see what its like on the the bike and at the finish line, here’s some footage I took while riding with my phone. 1 minute. This is my version of a “rigged up helmet cam”. Some parts are shaky. The goal was to stay on the bike, not get the best video (scroll down a bit)
DW Helmet View: Cycle Tour from De Wet & Marysol on Vimeo.
