Mountains to Molehills or Mountains to Mudhills? This is how my Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek Started.
I Left Johannesburg Sat 19 Oct 2013 3h00, the road from Johannesburg to Oudtshoorn is a Trek by itself 1143km of driving, fortunately hassle free except for all the road works, traffic cops and trucks otherwise very good ride. I arrived at Buffelsdrift game lodge at about 14h00 to collect my number and meet the guys and girls from Bridge and Drylands top class guys gals all of them. The Bridge kit looks and feels awesome, team Bridge looks like a world class team having the “Big Boss” of Bridge riding with us an inspiring guy bringing such a great event to Oudtshoorn and the surrounding towns. Many thanks to Karoo Sun Guest house who received me with open arms, thank you. You guys are the best.
The prologue started Sun 20 Oct 2013 my start was at 10h32 I planned to do it 1h07 but made a stupid mistake taking the road less travelled, one of the marshals came to fetch me 2km later and I turned around and had to play catch up. I Finished Buffels Battle 1:10:47.837. Phillip Buys and Matthys Beukes won Buffels Battle and took the Yellow jersey’s for Stage 1 Redstone Rumble
‘Redstone Rumble’ Mon 21 Oct 2013 Stage 1 started 7h30 and from the onset it was clear it was going to be a wet day but nobody expected this. This stage started in Buffelsdrift in and finished in Oudtshoorn a total of 105km with 1768m Ascent. I think there should be a new sport created called “Mud Biking” because today can be described in one short word “MUD”. I Asked Phillip Buys how was your race today, he said ”Today was a very tough day” now if a mountain biker of his calibre says Redstone Rumble was tough take it from me it was very, very tough. There was a lot of guys that broke their bike’s derailleur hangers and derailleurs and had to convert to single speed and there was many, many riders that did not finish their race today. The official cut-off was 8h00 however due to the conditions this was extended to 8h45 I finished 8h30. I was very fortunate, all the prayers from my wife and mom sent me some angels because even though I decided to dive into the mud head first and my bike performed well with no major technical issues. The only problem was “MUD” In my opinion this stage should be renamed Mud Stone Rumble.
Swart Berg Showown 22 Oct 2013 is the start of Stage 2, 92km with 2760m Ascent. Now this stage probably makes me most nervous of all the stages as climbing is not one of my strongest points on the bike and after Mud Stone Rumble who knows what the legs will be like on the stage. For the Teams with more than R100k Prize the biggest in South African mountain biking all the top teams are going for it.
I got support from Kenda tyres they will be supplying me with 2 tyres at wholesale less 15% thank you guys for the support. I’m still planning to do other big races and would appreciate any support you guys can offer heel free to contact me on my twitter handle @MartinvosVos or on Facebook Martin Vos,
Thanks guy’s next update to follow shortly.
Blog: Martin Vos
