The 2010 Sabie Experience was the first race I would get the opportunity to partner up with my father for a mountain bike team event. This made for quite an unforgettable ‘experience’.
The event took place over 4 days starting off with a 29km Time Trail followed by 3 stages. Our game plan was to take it easy from the start and back off from there . This time of year is normally the time to put in endurance miles and that’s mainly what we wanted to do.
Stage 1: On our first day we encountered some bad luck as my dad managed to break a spoke on his back wheel while negotiating a climb. He didn’t see his chain getting stuck between the cassette and wheel and tried pedalling on, but he didn’t get far. The broken spoke also caused his wheel to deflate which left us stranded while fixing a tyre. We lost quite a bit of time (15-20min) which was actually a good thing, as this meant we weren’t able to contest for the overall mixed positions and forced us to stick to our game plan.
Stage 2: The 77km route took us over one of Sabie’s many mountains, down ‘Microwave alley’, around the Witklip dam and then back over ‘The Wall’ to the finish. It was stunning to ride around the dam and I immediately understood why they described the stage as “your eyes will burn”.
On the climb back to the finish my dad added another highlight to my day. At that point we had been on our bikes for almost 4 hours, it was boiling hot and the climb was at it’s steepest! Here I asked my dad something and he’s only response was: “Don’t ask me such intelligent questions, at this stage I don’t even know what my own name is!”. Needless to say I couldn’t stop laughing all the way to the summit.
Stage 3: The 78km route was a true mountain bike stage filled with steep climbs and technical singletrack descents.
As my dad only bought a mountain bike in October this year, I decided that whenever we get to a tricky single track section it would be best to opt for the ‘chicken run’ and so reduce the chances of crashing and getting hurt.
On approaching the first one I asked my dad if we are going to take the chicken run and he just responded “I am not a chicken!”. I must admit I was very impressed with my dad’s skill, determination, ignorance or whatever you want to call it. It was actually nice to see how much fun he was having on the risky sections.
Stage 4: The 60km route took us over Long Tom dirt road pass to reach the highest point off the 4 days. It was again another great stage which took us past breathtaking waterfalls, over lush green mountains and down awesome single track.
We really had exceptionally great weather this year. Not once did we get rained or hailed on while out on our bikes. The thunder showers only started in the afternoons after the stage, and amazingly cleared by day break.
My experience was a very special one as my team (Bizhub) gave me the opportunity to participate in a stage race simply for the fun and love of the sport and on top of that I got to share this experience with my dad.
One of the waterfalls we rode past:
My dad and sister on our hike to one of the waterfalls situated within 5km from the start venue:
