Trans Baviaans 2018 - Number IV

The weather prediction leading up to Trans Baviaans 2018 made from some grim reading, although the day of the race seemed fair. It was cold, wet and windy leading up to the event but the weather reports for Saturday, 11 August 2018, predicted sunny skies and mild temperatures. Travelling down to Willowmore we even got some snow on one of the passes we went over and when we woke up on the day of the race everything was frozen. My bike had slept outside on the bike rack overnight and was covered in ice in the morning. We’d never seen this in our three previous attempts and I was a little worried.

However, as soon as the sun came out it warmed up nicely and on the starting line I was even considering getting rid of my jacket. Remembering how we went a little hard in the early stages in 2017 we started out more conservatively and also a bit more towards the middle of the field.

This time our strategy worked out well as we sat on bunches pulling us through the early kilometres of the race. We formed a big bunch pulling us to checkpoint 1 at the 52km mark where we grabbed a quick bite and pushed on. We again found ourselves in a big bunch and was making short work of the flatter section of the race. Around a bend I felt my rear wheel wobble and realised I had a puncture. We stopped and I bombed the wheel and were on our way again. I couldn’t find the actual puncture so the bomb had to do. The wheel felt a little soft up until the next checkpoint but never went completely flat so we could push on without having to stop for running repairs.

This stop meant that we missed the bunch but caught another one coming through. We sat on until we entered the reserve at 96km mark where I had to stop for a quick pitstop. The bunch had done it’s work and we did our first 100km in under 4 hours. From here I wanted to take it a bit easier up the checkpoint 2 where we could fill up. We rode the last 8km alone but still a decent pace and stopped at checkpoint 2 for a well-deserved break. I had a quick bite, filled up our bottles, pumped my wheel and got going again. I was still feeling ok up until this point.

After checkpoint 2 saw the first big climb of the day, in Baviaans back. This is where things started to go a little south. I was in two minds leading up to the event about whether to change my front chainring to a 32 from the 34 tooth chainring I had on and decided to rather spend money on other necessities. Because my biggest cog on my cassette at the back was a 42 tooth cog, having a 34 in front meant that I missed an easy gear when things got steep. A 32 at the front would’ve given me an easier gear but I decided to stick with the 34. I felt the effects of the 34 on Sani2c and knew that I had to change it. Although I was able to ride everything I was grinding on the cranks when the road got steeper instead of being able to spin at a faster cadence but a lower resistance to put less stress on the legs. I ended up not changing it, which was a mistake.

The thing is when doing normal riding the legs are usually rather fresh when we ride big climbs, but during baviaans the climbing only really starts after you already have more than 100 kms in your legs. Fatigue obviously plays a part in how your legs react to stress, although beforehand I thought I’d be able to manage it… I knew I was in for a ‘treat’ when I found myself in my easiest gear way before the steepest part of the climb. Hitting the steeper part of the climb was a grind. I was pushing the big gear and getting to the top but I was hurting with each pedal stroke. I battled to the top and right there realised that I’m going to have some challenges for the rest of the day.

We dropped down the back of Baviaans Back and stopped at checkpoint 3 at 124km, still ahead of schedule, for a quick bite. We were still looking good for bettering our time of 13 hours and 14 minutes of 2017 despite the few challenges up to this point. At checkpoint 3 I started to struggle to eat though. I forced down a piece of wors and my stomach didn’t feel great. For some reason I was just battling to eat. I’m assuming that the combination of energy bars, potatoes, Coke, energy drink, dry wors and wors was just too many different things for my stomach to handle and just decided to settle things down. I never felt as if I was bonking so was pretty confident that the issue was not that I wasn’t fuelling adequately but rather how I was fuelling.

We pushed on from checkpoint 3 with the next goal being getting to checkpoint 4 at 140km. Checkpoint 4 is at Bergplaas at the top of MAC aka Mother of All Climbs, however, before we got to MAC first had to negotiate the two Fangs. These climbs aren’t terribly long but are the steepest climbs in the race. I was able to ride both but that came at a cost. In retrospect I should’ve pushed on the steeper parts in order to save my legs for MAC. I needed to spin in an easier gear up these climbs but didn’t have those easier gears and had to push hard to make it to the top. I crested both fangs and we made our way to MAC. This is where I lost the plot…

I was battling up the lower slopes of the 8km climb. I felt the effects of the efforts on Fangs. I had to stop once already on the lower sloped when the cramps started to niggle and knew that this was going to be a challenging climb. I’ve never before pushed my bike on MAC but as the cliché goes, there’s a first time for everything. I battled up this climb needing to stop at numerous occasions when the legs started to cramp. When the road kicked up I could no longer push that big 34-42 gear and my legs would just start to cramp. Anticipating the cramps I had to stop and push on a number of kicks on the climb. Opting to not fit an easier gear for this race ended up being a big mistake and bit me hard on this climb. We’ve lost almost all the time advantage we had built up on this climb and I was hurting when we reached the top.. At least I got there, when at more than one point I wasn’t sure I was going to. Poor Erno had to wait for a long time at the top

On top of Bergplaas it was cold and windy. I changed into dry and warm kit, forced down some soup and we made our way down the big dipper. Our first objective of the day was to descend from Bergplaas before sunset and despite having a rough time up to here we were still able to do this. Had I had better legs on MAC we would’ve smashed our previous best time by a big margin. Still, we were ahead of where we were last year this time but the damage was done.

We rode a steady ride to checkpoint 5 at Hadleigh Farm at the 175km mark. At this point it became cold… much colder than we’ve experienced it in years past. I had a coke and three bites of my chip roll at CP5. I didn’t have to fill my bottle as I was still struggling to take anything except water in and my coke water mix were still full from Bergplaas. Leaving Hadleigh I was cold to my core. My thermal base layer had no effect. We pushed on, with only the 12km long Neverender still ahead of us. We knew making it over Neverender meant we were home free. Easier said than done… At this point I became tired and was battling to keep my eyes open. Despite the cold I was throwing ice cold water in my face to keep awake. I rode past another rider who was sleeping right next to the road. At that point there was nothing I wanted more than a quick nap but I kept on telling myself to just keep moving. I was cold and sleepy. I've never experienced getting sleepy whilst on my bike before but now was battling the sleep demons head on. I was so tired that I was battling to get the zip of my pants up and my glove back on after a quick pitstop.

We finally made it over Neverender in what felt like an eternity and made it to checkpoint 6 at the 200km mark. The usual jaffels at this stop was not ready yet when we arrived, but it didn’t bother me one bit. I was still battling to eat and drink and had a coke and, for the first time ever on a bike ride, a cup of coffee. I just needed to wake up. The coffee helped and got me to the end. I had a minor crash as we got closer to J-Bay after my front wheel slid out through a mud puddle. I had a nice soft landing though and the fall probably did more good than bad as it waked me up even more.

The worst part of this race is the last 6km singletrack next to the train tracks and again this year lived up to its dreaded expectation. As J-Bay had had quite bit of rain leading up to the event I was hoping they were going to reroute us away from the train tracks but that ended up to be wishful thinking. The trail was extremely muddy but we still had to battle through. We crossed the finish line in a time of 13 hours and 40 minutes. We were hoping to get in under 13 hours, and for the most part was on track to do it, however, at some point the wheels came off. Despite this, the first goal has always been to just finish on Saturday before midnight. Despite the most challenging Trans Baviaans I’ve experienced we were still able to get home before midnight.

I had to fight hard to get to the finish line and what made it so much sweeter was the fact that Adél had the kids there to meet me on the line. My kids have always been great sleepers since they were born. This is something we’ve always been grateful for, but this also meant that anything happening after 8 at night they would probably miss. Try as they might, when it’s time to sleep they’re gone. However, that Saturday night they were there! How Adél got them to wake up in the middle of the night I do not know, but seeing Evan and Dian at the finish line made for a really special finish and  a memory I would treasure forever.

It was a tough day and I’m still not quite sure where exactly we lost the bulk of the time. We were up on our previous best at the 140km mark, despite my challenges, yet we finished 25 minutes slower than last year. It felt though as if the most difficult parts, other than my sleepiness on Neverender, was behind us but clearly it all played a role to slow us down. I felt we were good to have a go at the 12 hour mark and we were on track to do so, but sometimes things just don’t go to plan. Unfortunately much of that was self-inflicted. This was definitely my most challenging Trans Baviaans and also one of my most memorable.

Net year we’re going back for number 5 and to get our Baviaans boards showcasing all 5 medals. I’m anticipating a fast one!