Good day my reader,
I am sitting here on Easter Monday (I actually started to write on Saturday but then got distracted) writing to you – yes you! My posts are always posted on my site a few days later as I am in the habit of getting someone to proofread my writing as my mind works faster than my hands, but at least you know when I wrote this.
I have just returned (ok, maybe not just. We returned last Monday) from South African National Champs and a week in Plett with my family and friends. My mother was my helper this time and she drove down to fetch me in Stellenbosch before we packed the bakkie and headed to Swellendam the next day.
As we turned off the N2 (the main road from Cape Town to the coast) I saw a sign board saying one of the roads would be closed to traffic on certain days due to the racing. Could that mean we would be racing on closed roads? I was too cautious to get excited. Maybe it was the route for the able-bodied racers. You see, in South Africa roads are hardly ever closed for cyclists, even for a competition. That is one of the reasons I really don’t like racing in SA. Most of our roads are quite busy and motorists drive very fast on our roads and for someone like me with bad coordination and sudden involuntary movements, being on an open road is not only scary, it can be dangerous as well. Recently due to a lack of time on the road with my trike, I have also been struggling with controlling the steering of my trike. So, the fact that we might be cycling with cordoned off routes would be such a relief though I didn’t want to get too excited before I had confirmed it with an official.
As registration was only opening after lunch we decided to get checked into our accommodation. I had booked a self-catering apartment at Wildebraam Berry Estate just outside of town where two other para-cyclists were staying. On arrival we were pleasantly surprised at how nice and comfortable the room was. (Ok, my bed was a bit on the high side, so much so that I felt I needed to jump to make it onto the bed, but once I was on, it was so comfortable 😉). While my mother unloaded the bakkie (I couldn’t help as the apartment was upstairs), I put our groceries in the fridge and so on. We then made a quick lunch before we headed back into town to find the place where I had to register. When we finally found the correct place for me to register, I received the best news of the week – we were racing on roads with total road closure! The only vehicles on the road would be race officials or team cars. I just couldn’t contain my joy when I was told and even minutes later as I sat on a wall waiting for my Mom to fetch the car so that I wouldn’t have to walk around the building, I felt so relieved that I felt like crying.
During the day my Mom and I had an ongoing debate as to whether I should cycle the route when we arrived. Mom said I should but I just didn’t want to cycle so close to the actual race and particularly when the roads weren’t closed. Finally, I won and after registration we drove the route before returning to our accommodation. Now that we knew the roads were closed and that someone would be following me in a car, there was just one other factor playing on my mind – the weather. It was due to rain the next morning during my race and as the sun was setting, the clouds were rolling in. After making sure my race bag was packed and everything for the morning was ready, we got into bed and had an early night.
The next morning it was my mother, not me, who was the first one opening the curtain to see what the weather was doing. And sure enough, for once, the weather man was right and a light but consistent rain was coming down. We got ready and drove behind Janine, Goldy and Philo to the starting area. To say the run up to the start was difficult is so true. It was so wet. I had forgotten my bike stands to warm up on (even if I had them, I don’t know where I would have stood), I don’t own an umbrella, and there were limited dry areas. Thankfully another team invited me to sit under their gazebo. We tried to keep the trike and myself as dry as possible. This time I was very close to tears for a different reason. I didn’t feel like racing in this weather. In my eight years of racing, I had only done one other race in this kind of rain and that was at a World Cup in 2016. But as the start time drew near, I pulled myself together and managed to get in two or three minutes of warm up on the road when there was a break in the rain.
As we were lining up, I think the drops started to fall again but now I was focused. I was the second last paracyclist to get going and as I stood in the queue our cycling president greeted me and said something to the effect of ‘don’t worry according to our forecast the rain will be easing off from now on’. Whether she just wanted to give me hope or whether the forecast was wrong, I will never know.
It is hard to describe what happens in a race to the reader because I often only remember pieces of the race afterwards. I remember when I was on a small road leading out to the main road, I had a motorbike following me and as I turned onto the big, wide road I heard O’Ryan’s voice telling the marshal that he would follow me from now on. I really struggled with the many cambers on the road and thinking back I may have been too careful on them. Down hills were also my downfall and I definitely need to work on both aspects before I race again. So, from a racing perspective both my time trial and road race (next blog) weren't great races and my speed was pretty bad. But considering we hadn’t had much time on the roads or any races in 13 months due to lock-downs it was good to be racing again and I enjoyed being back out on my trike, even in the rain. There were times when I shook my head both at the ridiculousness at being out on a bike in this weather, and other times when I tried to shake some of the water from my head. Do you know how itchy your nose gets with water hanging off it and you have nothing dry to wipe it on? At one spot on the way home, I just HAD to stop (a definite no no in a time trial) just to wipe my face so I could see. When I finished there was not a dry spot on me or my bike!
The entire time I was on the route I was followed by either a marshal on a bike or by O’Ryan, our para cycling director. As I rounded the last big corner and headed onto the small road to the finish, I passed the gathering point of the marshals I was filled with gratitude and respect for the marshals working in the rain to keep us safe. As I made my way back to the finish on the small road I was once again joined by a marshal on a motorbike. I had one long drag to conquer before I entered the finishing straight, but this was a mean one. As I battled up this hill soaked to the bone and over the finishing time I had set for myself, this marshal started to encourage me. He started to speak to me in English but then suddenly for some reason he ‘remembered’ I was Afrikaans. With limited breath left in me to get up this hill after an hour of racing, I didn’t even try to correct him. He kept repeating phrases like ‘Jy’s amper daar, nog net n bietjie’ (you are almost there, just another little bit) or ‘Net tot die draai, dan is die bult klaar. Kom, jou Ma wag’ (Just till the corner then the hill is finished. Come your Mom is waiting). As much as I enjoyed the first few times, he said it, the longer he said it the more I thought, ‘Dude, this ain’t my first rodeo.’ But I decided to save my breath for the racing. This race will always be known as the ‘Nog n bietjie’ race 😉
My Mom was expecting me to finish the race and say never again, I am done. Instead, this rain-soaked cyclist finished with a smile because I enjoyed the ride. After the race I was very eager to get home and bath and get into dry clothes but we had to wait for prize giving. After waiting around for a while, we were told that the medals were being handed out on Sunday instead due to confusion in the different classifications. They rather wanted to sort things out than give medals to the wrong people, a decision we all respected. Now all I wanted was to get myself and my bike dry!
Some of the photos taken by Chris Hitchcock
Kommentare