MTN Panarama Tour

Stage 1: White River - Sabie

The first stage of the Panarama Tour heads out from White River towards Hazeyview.  About 25km into the race there is a KOM prime, on a short sharp climb that can be decisive in the stage.  This prime was not for our category (Veterans), so the main focus was just to stay in touch with the front bunch.

After that, the race turns off the main road, and descends a narrow road with plenty of potholes!  This got quite hairy, and it was important to stay close to the front to make sure you could see what was coming.

The race then heads out to Kiepersol, and winds it's way through back roads until meeting up with the main road between Sabie and Hazeyview.  The bunch regrouped and things were comfortable heading towards Sabie.  The climb out of Sabie would be critical, so everybody was saving themselves.

Turning left out of Sabie, the race really started.  The bunch shattered, and I found myself a few seconds behind a small lead group of about 15 riders.  I was on the limit, so I didn't try to get back on, just kept a constant tempo and waited for the bunch to slow a bit.  At the top of the steepest section, the bunch did sit up a bit as riders looked to see if their partners had managed to make the split.  This gave me the chance to make contact again.

This was the first opportunity to see which teams had a combined strength to be dangerous in the race.  Andrew and I were the only Veterans to make the split.  The break group contained Dave Garrett & Moolman Welgemoed (Daiken Gu - one of the favourites for the overall win), Jaco Ferreira & Pieter Henning (TCS), Brand du Plessis & Alwyn Scheepers (TCS), Hanco Kachelhoffer & Mike Hewan (BH Medscheme), David and Johan Labuschagne (CycleLab Brothers), Alex Pavlov & Henry Uys (Northcliff Cycles), and Jade Muller & Conrad Viljoen (NMMU Mecer)

The route would comprise of rolling hills all the way back to White River.  A chase group had formed with Nic White and Jacques Fullard in it.  Blayne Wikner, Jacques partner, was up with us in the lead group.  A situation that could have caused them a major problem, as Jacques crossed the line just under two minutes behind Blayne, and nearly fell foul of the 2 min separation rule.

The group stayed together to the finish, with Daiken Gu taking the sprint at the finish.  Andrew and I came in 4th, but 1st overall in the Vets category.

Power stats for this stage can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/p75ey4

 

Stage 2: White River - Nelspruit

Stage 2 heads south from White River to Nelspruit.  We needed to be attentive early in the race because some of the descents would be very fast.  With the tandems in the bunch, it would be possible to get away with a tandem and open up a big gap on the bunch in the first part of the race.  Well, a tandem did get away, Jurie Krige and his son Adolph came flying past the bunch!  Aparently they hit speeds of over 105km/h on the descent and opened up a gap of over 3 minutes.  Fortunately for us, none of the half bike teams managed to get on their wheel!

The bunch arrived at the 60km mark pretty much intact, now the real racing would begin.  The road back up to White River is a set of short sharp rolling hills, and attacks started coming quickly.

For me, this was the worst stage!  I was really struggling with the constant accelerations, and then on the short descents, riders that had been dropped on the hills would come flooding back to the front of the bunch, and it became a constant battle to try to stay close to the front and not pick up dead wheels on the next climb.  I watched in amazement as Andrew maintained his position in the bunch while I wasted lots of energy trying to get up there!

I got dropped on the second last climb, and managed to re-join but only to be dropped again coming in to White River.  Andrew came back to pace me to the finish, but we lost about 25 seconds on the GC, but held our lead in the Vets category!  Brand du Plessis & Alwyn Scheepers (TCS) took the stage.

A very hard day for me, with the last 20km reing really tough.  Power stats can bee seen here: http://tinyurl.com/r9xy8b

Stage 3 - White River - Sabie (return via Long Tom Pass)

The third stage was the longest stage with two major climbs (Spitskop and Long Tom).  I wasn't feeling confident after losing some time on Stage 2.  Fortunately we had the Vets category to race for as well, so if things went wrong from a GC perspective, we could still win the Vets.

The race started on the road out towards Hazeyview.  We then turned left on one of the smaller roads and joined up with the main road to Sabie.  Quite a few attempts were being made to get off the front, but the main contenders were waiting for the first major split point - Spitskop.  This was also the KOM prime for the Vets, with a Nokia Cell Phone up for grabs, so we wanted to make sure of that as well.

At this point we were about 25seconds behind on GC, but had about 8 minutes on the next Vets team, Gary Marescia & Adrian Enthoven (Cyclelab SuperCycling Cape Town).

Spitskop duly arrived and a small group containing TCS and Daiken Gu went off the front.  We were in the chase group but a gap was opening up.  A number of times I had to rely on Andrew for a bit of a push up the climb to keep the speed up!  Once again, the main teams that made the split on the first day were there again.  We won the KOM prime and started the long descent into Sabie in a small chase group of about 10 riders.  Jaco Ferreira was having a tough time, having fallen on Day 2 and damaged a rib.

Surprisingly, the chase group did not gel very well and the chase was very haphazard.  Andrew was trying to get things going, and telling me to keep as much as possible in reserve for Long Tom.

We went through Sabie with the gap standing at over 1 minute!  The climb up Long Tom was hard, but he gradient is quite consistent so the speed did not vary much.  Once again, Andrew kept me from going over the limit with some help!  We reached the top and started the long descent.  Hanco Kachelhoffer started to drive the pace really hard and started eating away at time gap.  At some point the TCS guys suffered a puncture and the break slowed and was brought back in.  Now all that was left was a short steep climb about 5km from the finish!

When we hit the climb we pushed it really hard.  Fortunately my legs came to the party and I was able to push the pace with the front guys.  Unfortunately for TCS, their efforts in the break made them pay a heavy price and they got dropped on this climb, along with some of the other GC candidates - David and Johan lost out here as well.

With 5km to go, the hammer went down and Andrew drove the pace to the finish.  The group finished together with Daiken Gu, TCS (Jaco), Mecer NMMU, and ourselves all within 40sec of each other on GC - setting up the final stage TT very nicely.

Overall a very good day for us, with Andrew riding amazingly well!

Power stats for the stage can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/ogkab7

Stage 4 - White River TimeTrial

The first thing Andrew said to me when we crossed the line at the end of Stage 3 was "We can win this race!".  I think he felt that all along, but didn't want to put too much pressure on me.  The day Andrew stops being competitive, is the day they put him in a box!

So, on the afternoon of Stage 3, we took a drive on the TT route, and started planning our strategy.  The course was by no means flat, with some very fast sections, then it returned along the Stage 2 route.

The plan was to let Andrew pace on the uphill sections and the drags, and I would work on the flats and descents.  This would give Andrew the chance to recover, whilst keeping the speed at a max.

First thing in the morning, we rode the route to check it out properly and were feeling confident when we got to the start.  We were lying in 3rd place, and had 27sec to make up on the leaders.  Our main threat looked like it would be Dave Garrett and Moolman Welgemoed (Daiken Gu), with Jaco Ferreira feeling the effects of his crash.  The NMMU Mecer guys were a bit of an unknown as well.

Andrew has plenty experience in the TT department, so he set a solid constant tempo right from the start.  I felt comfortable, but needed to keep a lid on the enthusiasm so that I could go flat out in the uphill sections of the last 5km.  I paced the flat and the long descent, and we caught our minute men (Mecer NMMU) with abour 5km to go.  The last 5km had the potential to cost a lot of time, and I was glad I had kept something in reserve for this section.  We went as hard as we could go, and crossed the finish line in the fastest time of the day, 38:15.  We took the stage, and the overall tour win!

Power stats can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/pslg6o