Amashova

The Amashova is the cycling equivalent of the legendary Comrades Marathon. But although the two races share much of the same route, I would far rather do this on a bike than in running shoes!

Although this event has been running since the mid-90's, for some reason this year the organisation was absolute chaos! First indications that things were going to be a bit different was the start order. Junior ladies categories were starting off before the Vet's categories, and with the weather conditions the way they were, along with some of the very serious descents on this route, it is a wonder that there weren't any serious accidents en route!

My race entry had been lost in the works somewhere, and I was told that the licensed categories were absolutely full, no more entrants allowed. Fortunately some intervention from Dave Bellairs got our team sorted out, but I was not surprised to see riders lining up next to me with boiled potatoes in a little bag on their cross bar, and rearview mirrors! Fun riders (i.e. riders on hybrid bikes and flowers in their hair) were lining up in the ladies elite start pen!

Forunately, the main selection point in this race comes in the first 15km or so, so we wouldn't have a mixed ability group for very long. I have absolutely nothing against people that take their riding a lot less seriously than I do, but this situation was plain dangerous!

Anyway, having a look around the start pen, there were definitely a few guys who we would have to keep an eye on. Our plan was to try to get away (Andrew and myself), right from the first climb. The second selection point (Inchanga) comes about halfway through the race, with plenty downhill after that, so we decided that getting away early would cause a lot of indecision in the bunch as to chasing hard. Guys would be reluctant to go too hard so early in the race and risk not having legs for the windy sections approaching the finish.

Andrew had been feeling very tired the whole week, and I had not been too sharp either. We also had Colin Germs from the team, and a welcome guest appearance from Gary Marescia (Cyclelab Cape Town). Jorge Faria (V&A), Martin Saunders (DiData) and Garth Schonewolf (Bring It On) were two of the danger men present.

On the first slope of Fox, Andrew surged, and a few riders followed and the bunch got strung out. Things came together, and Andrew went again. This time, Garth Schonewolf, Martin Saunders and another Bring It On rider went with. The bunch did not react, so as soon as the gap got to about 30m, I jumped across and nobody came with - perfect.

We went really hard up the rest of Fox, with Andrew doing most of the work. Martin popped off quite quickly, but Garth and his team-mate were hanging in there. Sensing this was the move, Andrew tried to force the Bring It On guys to come through, but he was putting on a lot of pressure. At the top of Fox, Garth started to come through but his teammate was not. Andrew surged and I let the gap open. Garth jumped across but his teammate stayed. I let the gap open again, then went hard, getting rid of him.

The gap was now just under 1 minute, and the three of us started working hard to open it up. Next came Inchanga. Andrew drove the first half of the climb, then I took over for the second. Andrew dropped back to see how Garth was doing, and decided the time had come to attack him. So, on the next climb, just before Botha's Hill, Andrew jumped clear and Garth stayed with me. Once the gap was a reasonable size, I attacked Garth and bridged across to Andrew. Not an easy feat because the road was windy and Andrew did not see I was coming across initially, so he kept his head down and was going hard.

Now it was just the two of us, and the gap was up to about 2 minutes. No holding back, we went as hard as we could. Coming on to the M13, we got a time check that the gap was now 3:40, so we just needed to keep a good solid rhythm and baring any mechanical problems, we could do it.

On a couple of the rolling hills, I was struggling to hold Andrew's wheel he was going so well. No problems for the rest of the race, and we came across the finish about 7min ahead of the bunch. Andrew taking first place, and I took second. Gary Marescia took third place to round out the podium for Cyclelab.

Power-wise, this was my best ever race effort. We finished the race in 2h31, at a speed of 42km/h, and Normalised Power of 354w. Peak 60min NP was 377w.