The Rocky Mountain Garden Route 300

Last Wednesday the team made its way down to Knysna for the 2^nd edition of the Rocky Mountain Garden Route 300.  The reason for coming down a day prior to the event was to do the team photo shoot on Thursday.  With the riders on the team being geographically spread across the country, it is not an easy task to get everyone together. As our full team (Nicci Grobler, Leana de Jager, Catherine Williamson and myself) was competing, it was the ideal opportunity for a team photo shoot.  (You are welcome to have a look at the pictures on the team’s Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/teambizhubcycling

With all the formalities completed it was time to start the race.

The Rocky Mountain Garden Route 300 takes place over 3 consecutive days and covers a total distance of 300km (hence the name).

Each stage starts and finishes at the Cruise Cafe situated next to the Knysna Lagoon with the beautiful Knysna Heads as a stunning backdrop. As the days went by and the calorie deficit grew, the focus shifted from the Knysna Heads to the delicious buffet meals Cruise Café had on offer.

The race routes were mostly laid out in and around the lush green Knysna forest and largely consisted of single and jeep track.  Some of the single track had logs placed across them to form steps, so I guess walking trails would be a more suitable description for some of the single track we negotiated. It is a peculiar feeling racing your bike on routes surrounded by thick forests allowing just enough sunlight through to not leave you wondering around in the dark.

Day 1 – 105km, 2100m ascent

Last year I rode the race with Catherine but for this year’s edition I teamed up with Leana de Jager.  I’ve ridden several stage races with Leana as team mate and we’ve always combined well making for some good memories. I was looking forward to another adventure alongside Leana and upon reflection it was indeed an adventure.

At first everything seemed to be perfect (the trails, the weather, the location etc) but the morning of stage 1, the entire team woke up feeling a bit under the weather. A stomach bug made its way into the race village and affected all of us in the bizhub camp. As the saying goes – we ride together, we die together...

Leana and Nicci were the first to get affected by the virus.  Despite feeling ill, Leana rode her heart out and pushed herself over barriers I’m sure she didn’t even know she had. At the end of day 1 we crossed the finish line in 4^th place in a time of 5h 40min.

Day 2 – 115km, 2300m ascent

Stage two was the ‘big’ stage of the race as it was the longest stage and included the most climbing.

Leana felt a bit better while I started to feel the ill effects of the virus. This levelled things out making us quite a fitting pair on the day. We kept focusing on maintaining a good race pace which would get us to the finish line as soon as possible without fading out on course.  After a long day we were happy to cross the line in 3^rd place in a time of 6h 02min.

Day 3 – 80km, 1700m ascent

We started the stage with high hopes of fighting for a podium spot. Sadly my hope vanished as soon as we were set off to start the final stage. Leana felt her old self again while I felt the exact opposite. I started feeling nauseas and “empty’ with nothing left to give. I was moving pretty fast that day, unfortunately just in the wrong direction (backwards). Leana and I assessed the situation and we both decided it would be best for me to not risk my health and rather stop before causing any permanent damage. I hate pulling out of a race but this time I honestly couldn’t see myself reaching the finish line in one piece. Very disappointingly that is how our tour ended- 20km into stage 3.

Despite the team having to endure some setbacks over the 3 days of racing, we still had a happy ending as Catherine and Nicci went on to win the final stage and finished 2nd overall for the weekend.

If all goes well we will be back next year to fight another battle and hopefully this time it will be the right one!