With very short notice, internationally acclaimed South African mountain bike photographer, Gary Perkin, found himself riding the FNB Wines2Whales three-day stage race for the first time. Did he like it? Not really. He loved it. He also shot some pics while conquering one of the world’s most loved stage races. See his superb images and read his tale here…
An out of the blue What’s App conversation from Sean Badenhorst on Thursday afternoon:
SB: Are you in the country?
Me: Yes, what’s up?
SB: Do you want to ride Wines2Whales for TREAD?
By Gary Perkin
Having never done the Wines2Whales before, and given its reputation and the fact that it’s so close to home, it was no-brainer to accept the generous offer of a media entry. Now to find a partner. Being a teacher, my wife Karen couldn’t get off school mid-week for the W2W Ride; and my normal riding buddy Tom doesn’t seem to read texts at all these days. But Paul Morris, aka Paul the Plumber, was, after quite a bit of persuading, available. Paul is a legend around these parts – so much so that he has probably the most technical trail in Jonkershoek named after him.
Fast forward a couple of days and all of a sudden it’s Monday morning and we’ve registered, packed and find ourselves in the start chute with 1000 or so others. Nervous, excited and more than a little out of our depth in B batch.
I won’t bore you with each and every detail of our hours in the saddle, or of the three days’ stages themselves. Suffice to say we had an absolute blast, hurting ourselves on the climbs and dirt road sections to try and keep pace with those around us – usually failing. Then railing the singletrack sections as only folks with about 45 years of MTB experience between us can. It was rad.
But the fun didn’t end there as we settled into long evenings with cold beers chatting with good mates for probably a little longer than our tired bodies needed. Then in the morning when you wake up to the sounds of Ultravox’s “Dancing with tears in my eyes” on the camp PA, you know you are with your kind of people!
Photo wise I tried to capture a small slice of the event. But when sitting at 98% of your max heart rate on a super-steep pitch, the last thing I felt like doing was grabbing the camera. I would stop for a breather and let Paul ride ahead while I took some photos, then chase back to catch up. This approach worked fairly well for about 170 of the 197km total of the three days – when my legs decided enough was enough and Paul’s decided it was time to charge! The last 20-odd km into Onrus Caravan Park had me on the ropes, but that feeling of seeing the finish chute loom large more than made up for the lactic acid haze.
Anyway, sit back and take a look at the photos, hopefully I got close to inspiring folks to get out there and try it for themselves – because that’s the only way to soak up the atmosphere on this great event.
