Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge (Road Race)

Prep day 17 November 2012.

Wash my steed, oil and wax, gather all relevant goodies, put water bottles in the fridge and set my race suit out.

Met with my friend Maruis who completed the 94.7 two times before. This will be my very first 94.7 not to say my very first race longer than 55km (The 94.7 Mountain Bike Challenge). We had a lekka chat over a beer discussing the race tactics........................ then the discussion regarding my steed (MTB 29er with XC tires)

You are going to suffer you know that, you were supposed to invest in slicks, sure you want to do this with your XC tires? and the motivation continues ☺

One thing I know for sure, I’m going to have fun, and that’s all that matters.

Set the alarm for 5am and into bed with the maths of XC tires V/S Slicks running through my head. My conclusion......ill cross that bridge when I get there.

So the alarm went off and it’s time to get up. I felt very good and my blood was pumping  small amounts of adrenalin through my body.  So quickly get all the necessities ready to load, including my bike....... grab some sort of cereal (Yellow bag of something found in my race pack) and swallowed it down. Now I’m ready for this. Maruis arrived at 6h00 just as panned, we loaded all our stuff and of to JHB.

Arrived at the parking area (one massive area) and now the adrenalin starts to pump aggressively.

  Offloaded our goodies and proceed to the starting point. Still with the maths in my head. XC tires V/S Slicks. On our way to the start we passed our team mates “Choc Caw” which by the way is one of the largest charity organisations in the cycling word.

So now to the seeding.

We all moved as one to the charity seeding.

Never before except for the 2010 Comrades did I observed this gratitude of sports fanatics.

The vibe was indescribable, cyclists were seen 360°. Not one sad or disappointed.  

THIS is MOS my kind of people.

The countdown started and reality kicks in, there’s no turning back now, its only one way and that's forward. 

I set my bike comp on average time for we planned to maintain a 18km/h average  this will allow us to finish in about 5 hours. We peddled away. My plan was to follow Marius all the way till the finish. Within a minute Marius allowed me to read his number sticker from his back which very soon faded away in the magnitude of cyclists in front of me. I just kept my pace and hope for the best.  

The weather was phenomenal. Before i even noticed i had peddled 15km and then I know this is gone be easy. So the meters just flying pass and I'm just having fun along the way.

I stopped at numerous occasions for a refill (Refresher) for the temperature soon become unbearably hot and the humidity not standing back at all.  Nothing like "moedersmelk"

  

At 60km I started to feel what it's like to be in prison...........................................
and at round about 75km it was just numbness and the peddling happened spontaneously. I met up with Marius and shared my experience with him whereby I realized that the emotions were very similar.
We ride from there to the finish together and just enjoying the scenery.

This was one of the most lekker events I ever experienced. We crossed the finishing mats at a time of 4h:41m which isn't to bad for my first time. I think???....... Ill definitely do this one again next year.

Count me in.