Pick’n’pay 94.7 Article

Pick’n’pay 94.7 Cycle Challenge

A small contingent of Maputo Ciclismo riders braved the wet and windy conditions of Johannesburg on the 19^th November for the tenth annual running of the 94.7 cycle challenge. This event is now officially the second biggest timed bicycle event in the world (after the Argus), and features a number of professional cycle teams from Minolta-Konica, Barloworld and Microsoft.

Tim Born, Carlos Sales, Bill Osborne and Werner Schofmann rode in Ciclismo colors, while our friends and fellow Ciclismo riders Kevin and Michelle Thomas rode as part of the Bionic team contingent.

Conditions could be described as very poor at best, to downright appalling at times, with rain, a nw wind and a maximum temperature of 19° as the average.

Tim rose before the crack of dawn to ride to the start, seven km from our hotel, and got away promptly with the VE veterans group at 0550. I am still trying to decide whether it’s better to start that early because that means you can finish and go back to bed with a clear conscience by 0930…. Riding under at times torrential rain, Tim rode a super race, self timed at under three hours, and the official time of 3.00.07 probably reflects more the slowdown due to massed start and finish than any slacking on Tim’s part. This put him 55^th of 151 in his start group, and 77^th of 1176 for his age group - which we won’t reveal: let’s just say some of us youngsters better get cracking.

I and Carlos had agreed to ride to the start, and I bravely set foot outside the hotel in the 12° temperature (at 0730) at which point it immediately started raining again. After a few minutes cursing Carlos and bitterly thinking he’d probably decided to stay home in bed (as would any sensible person) I set off to ride to the start, when like an angel of mercy Carlos appeared through the gloom, to pick me up in his truck! We drove to the start area, with the rain still sluicing down, and as I got out of the car I couldn’t help reflecting on the official 94.7 advice:

“Bring plenty of sunscreen,” they said;

“Make sure your water bottle’s full”, they said;

“Beware of dehydration” they said.

Yeah, right. Nowhere did they warn of drowning……..

However by the time we reached the start gate the rain decided to graciously relent, and it was with anticipation that we split up for our respective start groups, Carlos claiming that he was still full of flu and was therefore going to ride “slowly”. With my start time three minutes behind, we agreed that we’d meet up on the road and go together.

8:45 precisely my ZZ group started (no men with beards, however). Roads were still very wet on the initial climb and first downhill, so most were proceeeding cautiously. I immediately started to pass other cyclists and looked for Carlos. Because I was in an open group, there were plenty of not so experienced riders, and it was necessary to give some a very wide berth, most noticeably on the downhill sections, where many were obviously unused to riding quickly downhill in the first place, exacerbated by the fear of falling on the wet road. Frequent use of the audible warning device was necessary (“Look-out!” “Passing Left!” “Passing Right!”)

Still looking for Carlos, I descended towards the Nelson Mandela Bridge and having read the race instructions beforehand, was in the correct gear to climb what is quite a sharp incline onto the bridge itself: many people missed the necessary advance preparation and I found myself climbing rapidly past a large number of riders. It felt Good!

One consequence of the open category was that I was for the most part riding alone: I did get a couple of small groups , but largely found the general pace limiting. Lessons for next year: be prepared to get up early!

At the halfway stage I still had not seen Carlos, so I assumed he was either A) dead from flu; B) overcome by the physical attractions of the nubile young cheerleaders; or C) still somewhere ahead of me. My money was on C.

Up to then my average was 31 kph, and my top speed had been a pedalled 72 kph on a downhill. I intended to keep this average and try to top 80 on what I knew was a forthcoming long downhill. Well you know what they say, the best laid plans…….

At this point my rear shifter decided that it had had enough rain and cold and would no longer let me select any other gear than the biggest rear cog. This of course completely destroyed any chance of significant speed work: at 36kph I was bouncing all over the place at about three hundred rpm (well... that may be an exaggeration, 250 probably). On the downhills I literally could not keep up with the bike, and my max speed thereafter was only 68.

This firmly put the kibosh on any 3 hour aspirations, and I began to wonder if I could even make 3:30. All I could do was be thankful that at least it was a hill climbing gear.

..and there were certainly plenty of them….. Although I never think of myself as a hill climber, our local training sessions certainly had a tremendous effect: all those loops of Caracol, and grinding up to Namaacha and Goba finally paid off. I would often find myself working fairly hard behind what appeared to be a rapid group on the flat approach, only to significantly pull away from them as soon as we started to climb: I thought these Jo burg riders knew hills!

Passing the old finish at Kyalami I knew that after all I was going to be inside 3:30. The legs were definitely feeling it at this point, but with only the 5ks to the new finish at Woodmead I was confident of a strong finish: except that the new finish features a 2km final climb: what an evil, sadistic thing to do! At this point I could see all around some extremely tired riders, gritting their teeth and desperately mashing their way up to the end…..gritting my own teeth I rose in the saddle and made the last charge : never was so glad to hear the sweetest sound of those electronic beeps as I crossed the line. 3:25:47! Under the circumstances a creditable time I feel. Later discussion was that the conditions were worth at least a ten to twenty minute difference, this is certainly born out looking at last year's results. No excuse though: just a target to aim at next time.

And still no sign of Carlos. Beeping him on the phone I settled in to wait: and wait, and wait, and ….hmmm. Then finally through the logjam of cellphones swamping the network Carlos manged to get through to me to say he was back at the car: and his time was 3:22:58; in other words he had finished less than three minutes before me and we must have been within 1km of each other the whole race! Final results for me was 14^th of 275 in my group and Carlos 13^th of 198 in his group.

Other riders:

Werner a superb 2:45:42 , 3 minutes faster than last year a magnificent acheivement under the circumstances (76 of 158)

Michelle: an excellent 3:15:41, 217 of 346, but more tellingly 184^th of 3346 women riders - well done! Why Michelle always says she’s slow and can’t ride I don’t know, this is a super time only 20 secs behind hubby

Kevin at 3:15:20. (258^th of 339)

Bear in mind the the professional race winning time was 2:18:00

Go to http://www.cyclechallengeresults.co.za/ for detailed results.

A big thank you to Kevin for inviting us to the Bionic official post race party. Great atmosphere and a splendid example of how a club can flourish going from nothing to providing SA and Regional champs in 2 years: now let’s do the same for Ciclismo! We extended an invitation to them to come down with their bikes anytime for a ride by the sea. (and prawns and beer afterwards!)

Now for the Argus……………..

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Maputo

21 November 2006