Kaapland Feb 2016

Late last year we got wind of the Simonsberg Contour 2 day stage race in Stellenbosch. Not having done a stage race in the Cape yet I was keen, and coupled with the fact that February would be our last month that we didn’t have to pay for a plane ticket for Dian, before his second birthday, the idea was as good as sold. What’s better than a family long weekend in the Cape coupled with a stage race on the majestic Simonsberg. A few weeks before the race we got the news that a fire had broken out just south of the new trails, built especially for the race, on the Simonsberg. As time went on the fire moved closer and closer to the trails as firefighters’ efforts were focussed on saving the vineyards also on the mountain. The fire swept through the new trails leaving carnage in its wake. We knew that the chances of a race continuing was slim. In the end it did, but we decided to make better use of our little time in the Cape and ride some of the best trails around while the Simonsberg trails were busy being rehabilitated.

We only arrived at Nico’s house late on Wednesday, he and Dala graciously offered to put us up for the long weekend, but was already out hitting the trails early on Thursday morning. We headed to the Rhebokskloof MTB Trails via the Paarlberg Reserve. I was blown away by Rhebokskloof in December 2014 when we were there so it was at the top of the list of this visit. Heading there via the Paarlberg Reserve was spectacular vith views of the entire Paarl and Wellington Wine Valley as the sun started to peek out over the mountains. We soon entered the Rhebokskloof trails and started descending these smooth, fast and flowing trails. Of all the trails I’ve ridden, this reminds me most of the Umkomaas drop on Day 2 of Sani2c. It’s fast, winding en flowing. Great fun with great views of the Paarl winelands to kick off our Boland long weekend. We headed back through town, ending up on 35 km with just shy of 900m of climbing and started getting ready (on the beach) for the next day of riding.

Friday morning were soon upon us and we made our way to what Nico calls “the spiritual home of South African mountain biking” – Jonkershoek Nature Reserve. Jonkershoek is a Pine plantation reserve managed by Cape Nature and one of the most popular mountain bike parks in the country. Many local and international professional riders station themselves in Stellenbosch during their winter, to enjoy our long summer days and off course the trail hub that is Stellenbosch, of which Jonkershoek is the crown jewel. I rode it back in 2014 after which the park was also ravaged by a fire. Luckily in the meantime the trails had been restored and the park is close to its former glory again. The trails here are much more technical than what we rode the previous day at Rhebokskloof and requires a fair bit of concentration. We headed to the top of the Canaries trail with a contour road that seemed to go on forever – 7 km of pine forest climbing. Dropping into Canaries starts off with a couple of jumps, luckily all jumps at Jonkershoek are optional with decent b-lines. These jumps are not optional for Nico though and he does hit them with more than decent amount of speed. In this instance though he also hit a tree after hitting the third jump. Nico was ok, but the tree had seen better days. The trails are still flowing but not as easy to ride fast at Rhebokskloof, requiring a bit more skill to get through the rock gardens, wall rides and over the jumps. We soon did so and soon started climbing again.

We headed up to the trail head of the new trail called Red Phoenix. It’s one of the new trails built after the fires and one I had not seen before. First though, the climb there made us work. It’s long, rough in places and steep. What I always enjoy about the Cape Town trails is that the climbs are well built snaking and winding its way through a series of switchbacks up the mountain. Roads are not built like that in Gauteng. All our climbs are dead straight steep roads heading up the hill. Riding these climbs are refreshing and fun as it’s always rideable, but in this case the straight steep roads of Gauteng stood us in good stead going up to Red Phoenix. In places it was really steep but luckily hard packed, allowing me to get out of the saddle without losing any traction. Soon enough we made it to the trail head and made our way on this trail, cut into the mountain side, down. The trail again required our full attention as it was fast with quite a few spots that could catch out a rider. The riding was immaculate as we dropped down to the trail floor, finishing by going over some brand new jumps. Upon making it to the valley floor we climbed again to go and have a look at the bottom part of the black route. We saw parts of it climbing up to Red Phoenix and it was very clear that it was not within our skill level to ride that. At the bottom though there was the Rock Roll trail feature that we wanted to give a go. A drop down a steep rock, onto a steep wooden bridge into a catch berm at the bottom. Sounds fairly simple, and in hindsight probably is, but standing atop that rock is intimidating as hell. We ended up doing it twice, before making our way out of the park. We ended up doing only 22 km but with 850m of climbing. An incredible day rounded off with the scariest trail feature I’ve ridden as the cherry on top. We’ve seen so much, yet we still had two days of riding left.

Saturday morning, in my mind at least, was the big one. The Welvanpas Black Route. A 31km trail, with 1300m of climbing, in the mountains of the majestic Bainskloof. In anyone’s book those are intimidating numbers and not knowing what exactly to expect I was definitely intimidated. We started off slowly and I was sure to keep the pace steady as there were lots of climbing that still had to follow. The first major climb was a singletrack climb with 29 switchbacks, aptly named Aap d’Huez. I enjoyed the first climb, it was relentless, yet gradual. The trail is built in such a way that you climb more than you realise, as it snakes its way up the mountain. The corners on the switchbacks were steep, but short, and the rest very gradual. Although long, I’ve found this as with most of the other climbs at Welvanpas, very gradual. The fact that we were keeping a conservative steady pace also helped. After every climb we were treated to awesome views of the Wellington wine valley and, even better, a superb trail back down the mountain. Stopping before the start of Full Monty we had already climbed more than 700 metres in the first 12 kilometres. It was here that I struggled to clean my glasses with my sweaty hands and decided to just pop it in my back pocket. At the end of Full Monty it was no longer there.

The glasses were a birthday present from Adél back in 2010 and almost 6 years later, probably the only piece of gear I still had dating back to those early days. Those Livestrong Oakley Jawbones were really awesome riding glasses and even though I replaced lenses a couple of times were still going strong, and also attracting the odd Lance wisecrack on race starting lines, 6 years later. This day unfortunately turned out to be it’s last as it popped out my back pocket somewhere on my way down Full Monty. In hindsight, this was a truly fitting place to lay my glasses to rest on one of the most epic pieces of trail I’ve ever had the pleasure of riding.

We made our way back down the mountain again through the Pine forests of the Full Monty trail section. Fast, flowing, sharp and rocky in places and really exhilarating. Pushing the envelope a bit to try and not fall too far behind Nico and Andre I had a couple of close calls… a two wheeled drift into a corner was a first for me and one of those moments where you expected to be on the floor as you are exiting the bend. Nico was next level fast again. The steeper and more technical the route, the faster he goes and the gap between us grows exponentially. Being the first time I rode the trails also added a bit of uncertainty about what was awaiting around the next bend, but all things considered I tried to go as fast as I could. It was an exhilarating day.

We filled our bottles at a natural stream inside a short-ish rain forest section that interjects these pine forests before hitting another climb. This would lead us to the last two sections of the ride, Cool runnings and Cool runnings too. More fast sweeping trails with spectacular views of the Wellington and Paarl valley. I ended the day with a sidewall cut on my rear tyre. Luckily I had ridden the entire trail except for the last few kms of district road so wasn’t too upset about it. My day ended up being 26km with just on 1100 metres of climbing. I had just ridden, as a complete trail section, the best trail I’ve ever been on. This was more than just riding from one climb to the next or one downhill singletrack section to the next, this was a proper adventure into the Bainskloof mountainside – more than a ride, but an experience. We had one more ride left the Sunday morning. As we had done our fair share of riding over this long weekend, we were just going out to have some fun. Yes, the previous days were fun but riding as much trail as we could in a short space of time also meant that we put in some good training miles. On this Sunday morning we headed to the infamous G-spot trail in Stellenbosch. G-spot is a hand-built trail spanning the complete distance of 2 km. 2km, that’s it! You ride 2km up the hill, not a climb, but a long uphill drag and then hit the 2km long trail consisting of an array of expertly positioned berms, jumps and drops. It’s 2km of fast paced fun. The trail is also built in such a way that a jump has a small or big option, some even have a small, medium and big option with the smaller options being shorter and the take-off less steep. After a pep talk by Nico I started hitting some of the medium jumps. Man, it was thrilling. The landings of these jumps are so well placed that the smoothness of the jump fits perfectly with the smooth flowy trail. We rode up and down the whole morning, stopping at some cool spots, like a fast sharp berm and a hip jump, to ride it over and over again and get some snaps. It was a morning of great fun.

We then decided to go up for one last run. Nico had my GoPro on his chest and was following me as we headed down to the bottom. Having now ridden the entire trail at least 4 times before I felt comfortable that I knew the trail and could really gun it. I flew down the trail, Nico in tow. Coming around a sweeping right hander I headed straight into the jump, positioned on the far left of the trail. As soon as I hit it I realised: “That was the big jump line”. I should’ve stayed to the right as the smaller jump line was on the other side of the sweeping corner and about two metres closer to the landing. I only realised how steep the take-off really was when I hit it. The rest is a blur… except on the GoPro footage of course. I came just short of the landing and hit the dirt hard. I still remember the bang of my helmet hitting the ground. By far my hardest crash ever. Somehow though, I was lucky. I got up and after composing myself again rode down to the trail end, hitting the last medium jump for old time’s sake, sporting only a couple of bruises. After pushing the envelope for four days in a row I guess it was only fair that I pay my “trail debt”. I had a couple of close calls the previous few days but now paid my dues, luckily without any injury. Perhaps a fitting end to 4 days of absolutely amazing trail riding. We ended up only riding 12 km but with 400 metres of climbing.

Eventually we ended the four days with only a total of 90km ridden but with more than 3100 metres of vertical ascent. The distance wasn’t important but the amount of climbing we had done stood us in good stead so early in the year. More importantly for me personally though, was the way in which we improved our skill level on some exhilarating, fast and sometimes technical proper mountain biking trails. It was four days where we saw the insides of the Boland mountains the way you can only do by mountain bike. Blessed I am indeed to share these memories with great mates. Here’s to many more adventures!