My Journey to Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek.
Although the official journey started Sat 19 Oct 2013 at 3h00am. The actual journey started much, much earlier than that. One thing that one must realise, a race like The Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek takes a lot of training, preparation and time.
During the race I had a lot of highs and a lot of lows, and at some points I was so close to throwing in the towel it was really not funny. But I managed to push through and am so glad I kept going even though I felt spent.
My Stage finishing times were as follows:
Prologue: 1:10:47.837
Stage 1: 8:47:39.416
Stage 2: 8:10:21.813
Stage 3: 7:40:21.205
Stage 4: 8:22:09.231
Stage 5: 6:35:46.770
Stage 6: 4:12:53.774
GC: 45:00:00.046
The last 2 days from 16km into stage 5 I broke my rear de-railer shifter and as a result had to run single speed, well not completely single speed I could still select H/M/L on my crank and of course walking speed. The one thing I did realise due to this was that I became faster doing single speed than I was with all the gears. I was forced to pedal harder on a lower gear up the up hills resulting in going faster on the ascents than I have been, although tougher still doable.
The last day was planned to be 92km ride but due to rain the course was changed and the route was made 68km of mostly gravel roads. I enjoyed the shortened route as did most of the guys I spoke to. The fact is we were spent and I really don’t know how much our bikes and we could still take. If I can give one recommendation for next year keep the route you used for Stage 6 for next year as well, loved every minute of it.
My wife waiting at the end had my heart racing and I really was pushing hard with my single speed to get to her as quick as possible. Walking into Karoo Sun guesthouse after the race seeing a real bed, a real toilet and real shower was unbelievable words cannot begin to describe the feeling.
I was I warded the “Social Media” prize for the person that posted the most stuff on the social networks. Thanks guys much appreciated.
The one thing I can say for sure the mountain biking community are the best people around and the meeting of new friends and camaraderie is unbelievable. If ever you do anything in your life go and do something like this. Take yourself 100% out of your comfort zone and see what you really are made of.
In closing I want to say to everyone that got me to this point a huge thank you to all my new friends stay in touch and hope to see you real soon.
Now I need to start saving and firstly get my bike fixed as it is broken a need some real good TLC and then to save for next year and the answer is “Yes” I am planning to do it again.
With next year being an UCI event and Bridge announcing R125k Prize for men and R125K Prize for woman this race promises to bring the best of the best to South Africa next year I plan to be part of it again.
I’m still planning to do other big races and would appreciate any support you guys can offer feel free to contact me on my twitter handle @MartinvosVos or on Facebook Martin Vos.
Thank You
Blog: Martin Vos
