Tour de Plett Cycling Festival
After the Knysna Oyster festival MTB and road races last weekend, team bizhub stayed on in Plettenberg Bay to take part in the inaugural Tour de Plett Cycling Festival.

Event Organiser, Danie Erasmus invited the team (bizhub) to participate in his
event and also provided us with lovely accommodation at his
guesthouse, O’Hannas in Plettenbergbay.
Most of the time I only see my teammates at races and therefore I
really enjoyed spending the week with them down in Plett and getting to know them better.

On Saturday we took part in the Tour de Plett mountain bike race which
took place just outside of town at Wittedrift.

All the rain from the previous weeks made the course quite muddy with
big water puddles turning the 75km route into even more of a challenge.
The route consisted of long rocky climbs and descents, beautiful jeep track in the Knysna/Plett forests and also spectacular
views as we cycled through the Buffalo Hills Game Reserve.
Candice Neethling (bizhub) used her strong cross country start and took the
lead from the off with me chasing in 2nd place. It was a lonely ride
for both of us as we didn’t see anyone in front or behind us
throughout the event. At the end Candice took the victory in the inaugural Tour de

Plett MTB with me in 2nd place and Heidi Koen in 3rd place overall. My
other two team mates also rode very well as Nicci Grobler managed to finish
4th in the 75km event despite being ill and Liani Morkel finished 2nd in the 50km event.

The following day the team took part in the Tour de Plett road race.
Despite our exertions at the MTB event the previous day, we all set out
to give our best and get another good result for team bizhub.
This time we had two pairs of fresh legs joining us in the form of Lindi Erasmus
and youngster Monique Gerber.

The 110km route took us out and back on the N2 in the direction of PE.
On our way back the route veered off into Nature’s Valley which eventually led us onto
Nature’s Valley pass. This made the route very scenic but also extremely
challenging. Anriette Schoeman (Nashua/
Toyota) used the pass to break away and win the race with Lindi Erasmus (bizhub) in 2nd place and Candice Neethling (bizhub) rounding of a fine week in 3rd place.

I truly enjoyed the hospitality and great organisation at the Tour de
Plett and would love to return again next year.
This is definitely an event to add to your race calendar for 2012!