Well it’s been a busy couple of days and it’s nice to chill out this afternoon and reflect on what went down. Don’t get me wrong, I chill plenty, but at home there is ‘always something you could be doing’. Now out in Tulbagh after the second stage of the Bestmed Tour de Boland I can chill out properly after a tough little stage this morning.

 

I got back from the big smoke last week Monday after a successful trip, securing a couple more product sponsors (more on this soon) and qualifying for Mountain bike Marathon World Champs.

 

Come Wednesday I was back at Killarny, searching for a bit of speed ahead of the final Lights by Linea Hero Challenge criterium on Sunday and the tour this week.

 

The crit didn’t go as planned. Although I made the front group, I crashed, twice. As a result, I have a nice hole in my hip right now and had to make some last minute bike repairs come Monday before the tour kicked off on Tuesday. Thanks to Charlie for hooking me up with a first edition Dura Ace 10 speed shifter #retrobadass.

Warming up.

Image credit: Ash Smit

Image credit: Rob Ward

Image Credit: Capcha Photography

Crash, boom, bang!

Image credit: Rob Ward

The TT kicked of the tour yesterday day, at just 18km with a tailwind for the first half of it, the times were fast! It wasn’t easy though with the finish half way up Helshoogte pass. Besides that, is a TT ever easy? I think I went out a bit too hard, mushroom clouded and limped home, somewhat down in the field.

 

I have joined the Lights by Linea team this week. A huge thanks to Wayne Roberts for the opportunity, it’s great to be involved. Our team is managed by John Robertson and includes Stefan Ihlenfeldt, Hanco Kachelhofer, Reginald Benjiman, Brandon Christians and myself.

 

With the TT out the way the second stage would be a 125km road stage from Solms Delta Wine Farm to Tulbagh. Along the way we encountered a tough ‘little’ dirt road climb up Jan Phillips drive in Paarl which caused the first selection, Botmaskop on the Riebeack Kasteel outskirts and some good hard gutter riding towards the finish just before Nuwekloof pass. Unfortunately with some dodgy gutter riding, we missed the front split of about 10-15 riders and Stefan, Hanco and I came home in the second group.

 

With two more road stages and some more passes to climb it won’t be an easy week to say the least. We’ll have Saturday to chill, before we tackle the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Momentum Cycle Tour on Sunday (the event name is seriously legit!).

 

Until my chill time tomorrow afternoon, where I’ll try keep you folks updated, ciao for now.

 

The hurt.

Image credit: Capcha Photography