Stage 7

Stage 7

Distance: 110km
Time: 5:19min

They say you shouldn’t get too comfortable and complacent when riding the worlds toughest mountain bike race! Each day is going to test you! With only two days to go you really feel like you are on the home straight and you can picture yourself crossing the line! Well I could anyway, but with another 200km to go anything can happen!

This stage was always going to be tough after two relatively less crazy days, Dr Evil had to make sure all the riders were broken by the time they crossed the line!

The first section followed the tar for a good couple of k’s, which Chris lapped up! The bug question on all our minds this morning was, was Chris going to be able to get back on the bike after his crazy fall yesterday!

Hard man Chris, after pumping in with some serious anti-inflammatory’s grit his teeth and knew that he couldn’t give up now with only 2 days left.

The strategy was to take it easy and see how we go!

The first major obstacle was the Groenlandberg, a massive mountain separating the hinterland from the coastal belt, Mike Mike the voice of international cycling quoted it to be the highest mountain in the Western Cape (sorry mike not quite) but it felt like it that’s for sure! We were able to ride up most of it, there is usually a bit of hiking in btw. The views back down into the valley were spectacular, Theerwaterskloof dam sparkled in the mid day sun.

From the top it was a fast down hill into Algin area, through the fruit orchards and over the N2 into Ledennon and beautiful pine forests.

For the last 30km it felt like we were riding in a furnace, with temperature in the 40’s! All we wanted to do was get out of the sun and Chris was very fortunate not to take another tumble when he got a flat on a very steep rocky section!

The last 1km was on the beach, looked good but have you ever tried riding on beach sand??! It doesn’t work to well! Ask Chris about his little tumble 100m before the finishing line! We were both very happy to cross the line and put our feet up with the view of the sea!