This past weekend saw Susan and Myself, head up to White River to take part in the Panorama Tour. The Panorama Tour is a four day, 2 (wo)man team, road race for amatuers. This is the second year that Sue and i have taken part as a woman's team. Last year we achieved a 3rd place overall in the category, so this year we were hoping to defend and improve this position.

We arrived to overcast and cool conditions, hoping that this would pass, we readied ourselves for the next four days.

Day 1 was tough with 2300m of climbing over 115km, nothing like any roads in Cape Town. The weather conditions hadn't cleared, and we were in for a cold day out. We started immidiatly on some very long rollers with steep descents. We kept losing groups, and ended up riding most of this day on our own. Our low point must have been the 5km descent from Spitskop, after a long 13km climb up from Sabie. It was 9 degrees! We suffered a bit after that, having to defrost and try climb more hills, but we took 6th in a sprint finish! Ok not so much sprint - we just out-climbed them!

Day 2 was an easier day - 80km, only 1200m of climbing (!). The roads aren't the greatest, breaking up with cracks all over the place and a selection of rather large vicious pot holes! After a quick start, we once again found ourselves along after a dodgy descent. We pushed on up the climbs passing alot of the faster descenders as we went! After about half way, we were lucky enough to find our way into the MTN peleton: Kevin Evans, Christoff van Heerden and Douglas Ryder along with their corporate partners! Great vibe in the bunch, and they set a perfect pace. Being so greatful to finally have a bunch, we sat happily with them! The group must have been 50 strong, and we were cruising. The last 30km came and along with them the hills! Sue took the lead and became famous (or infamous) as we split the group, and only took 4 teams and the MTN 5 with us. Being the only girls in the group, we made ourselves known! The bunch finished together, and we finished 7th in the ladies.

Day 3 was another toughy - 113km, 2100m of climbing. Was raining at the start, so we thought it was going to be awful. Turns out it was almost the perfect riding weather. 2 major climbs to contend with too. We managed to stay in a nice bunch on all the rollers leading up to the first climb, I struggled on the 5km climb up Spitskop, and we lost the group. It was quite eary at the top being completely obscured in mist! The otherside was the long 13km descent that we had climbed on day 1. I paced Sue to make up for the slow climb, and just 2km from the turn to Sabie and Long Tom Pass we were caught by the MTN Peleton. They were flying and we jumped on and had a chill before the climb. Long Tom was about 5km, and we sat back and let it happen! We dropped the peleton! We took the gap and tried to get an advantage before the long descent, as they are a little quick on the corners. A group formed from various lone teams, and we had a gap on the group. Sue unfortuanlty didn't have the confidence to go 80kph in this bunch and lost touch. The MTN group caught us finally, and we gladly took the lift! We were feeling it in our legs with 10km to go, but we were hung in there. And we managed to push through with tired, cramping legs finished within seconds of the 5th and 6th ladies teams!

Day 4, The time trial - 25km, can't remember the climbing (it was a lot!). The TT is the tell all in a race like this. We had done so much of our race alone that we thought this would put us in a better position today, as we knew we were strong. We headed off on a fast descent, sue tight on my wheel - strategy: I'd take the descents, she'd take the climbs, and we'd see on the flats (not that there were too many of these). The plan worked well, and as a TT pair, we work very well. Using everything we had left in our legs we pushed through to our sprint finish. Broken we managed a time of 00:51:13 - 5th in the ladies, and a minute behind 3rd and 4th! We were thrilled that we had such a great ride to finish off our tour.

Total time for the tour was 12:00:02, 7th in the ladies and 106th overall. It is a great race, and I urge everyone to try it out. The vibe is fantastic, and the roads and scenry amazing. I will certainly make an effort to head up each year.

Also taking part in the tour were Tony Walker and Mike Vomund. Unfortunately Mike only arrived back from America on the Saturday night, hense missing the first 2 days, leaving Tony to ride solo.