Coronation Double Century

The Coronation Double Century has become a 'must do' event in the South Africa racing calender. It is a 203km Team Time Trial held down in the Robertson/Swellendam area of the Western Cape.

Winning this event has become a major matter of pride for the big teams based in the Western Cape, and each year these teams look to invite some guest riders from up country to bolster their squads.

I was honoured to be invited to ride as part of the Anderson Transport squad, one of the race favourites along with Daikin Gu, last year's winners. These two teams are big rivals on the Western Cape racing scene, and they both pull out all the stops when it comes to the Double Century.

Sitting at dinner the night before the race, I was impressed with the squad, which included Darren Lill, Andrew Mclean, Shan Wilson, Heimer Anderson, Brandon Stewart, Johnny Kritzinger, Jacques Roussouw, Jamie Ball, Robert Quinn, Martin Wesemann, and Travis Allen.

Brandon Stewart commented that if he was a betting man, his money would be on us for sure!

The afternoon before the race, we went for a short ride so that Andrew and Darren could sort out some of the techniques required in a team time-trial and do some fine-tuning with regards to rotation order etc. Both of them are experienced pro's and had plenty of helpful information.

Initially, our start time was 7:29 - one minute before Daikin Gu. This got changed and we ended up starting 4 minutes in front of them, which was a much better situation.

The team started out nice and solidly, with everyone taking even, steady pulls on the front and keeping things nice and smooth. Up the climb (Tradouws Pass), Darren Lill kept a steady tempo, and we made it over the first obstacle with the whole team in tact.

The next sector after the climb was very fast, with a strong tail-wind. This was dangerous as it meant all the riders in the pace line had to be putting in a big effort, as there was little drafting benefit.

Next up was 'Op de Tradouws' which looks tame on the course profile, but just seems to carry on forever! This was where we lost our first rider, Shan Wilson. The first feed zone was at the top of 'Op de Tradouws' but we had elected to skip that and head for Montagu. We probably misjudged the heat a bit, and I was out of fluid with 25km to go to Montagu. News filtered through that we were 1m05 up on Daikin, and they were down to 7 riders. We were feeling confident!

The feed stop in Montague went wothout any problems, and soon we were heading out on the flat section towards Robertson. We had just lost another rider, Jacques Russouw, one of the strong men on the team! He was having saddle problems. I started to develop 'hot foot', and felt a burning sensation in the middle of my foot. Soon after that, I lost feeling in both my feet! I suddenly had no power and when my turn on the front came, I couldn't come through. I dropped to the back of the pace line, told Andrew that I had no sensation in my legs, and could not even hold on to the back of the team! I dropped off about 15km for Robertson, and about 120km into the race. Looking back after the race, I think I made a big mistake wearing black shoe covers. My feet heated up so much in my shoes that it seems that it affected my circulation. That is the only explanation that I can find because it happened very suddenly, and I was feeling quite good physically.

By now I was also suffering from the heat, so I had to take a 10 minute detour into Robertson to find some more water.

After stopping for some water, I was feeling okay again and got going to Bonnievale, hoping to catch the support car and get a ride home!

Unfortunately for me, I took too long to get to the third feed stop and the support car had had to go - so I was going to have to ride back alone. I tagged along with one of the tandem teams and finally linked up with Jacques Roussouw and we limped back to the finish. Every few kilometers I had to unclip and wriggle my feet around to get feeling back into them!

I eventually managed to limp in just under 6 hours.

In the meantime, the business end of the race had unfolded. For us, the last 30km was where the race would be won or lost. The team had heard that Daikin were down to 6 riders, so they were really cutting it fine. Andrew and Darren made the decision to ease off the pace a bit after the third stop, as they were concerned that they wouldn't have spare riders coming into the last few rolling hills.

In the end, Daikin pushed us all the way, and we managed to take the win by a mere 28sec over 205km - unbelievable!!

Ride data can be seen here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/19479177