Sunday morning dawned with the wind trying its best to discourage me from joining my team-mates at Constantia Village at 6am for what promised to be a real test of endurance and friendship. Destination was the beautiful Franschhoek. Planned distance for the day: 170km.

I woke late and had to hustle to get to CV on time. As it was I was 10min late, but fortunately the gang had decided to wait a few minutes extra in the hope of catching any late comers. I joined Hoosain, Luke, Omar and Leon at the traffic lights and we began our long trek.

Spirits were high as we looked forward to the adventure ahead and we made our way to Claremont to meet up with the Elites at their usual meeting spot, the Engen garage on Main Rd. We waited a few minutes during which time Leon whipped out his cellphone and took a picture (pic above) while we were still looking and feeling fresh. Some of us were still experiencing the effects of the Durbanville race on Saturday and it was a good thing that the rest were standing upwind!

Jaco joined us and we made our way through Rondebosch and Pinelands and met Marius in Goodwood. We were heading deep into unfamiliar territory for some of us and were relying on Jaco to keep us on track. With the wind behind us we were making good progress and were joined by Tredoux and his cycling buddy, Daniel in Bellville.

Once we left the busy streets of the suburbs behind and hit the open roads towards Stellenbosch and Franschhoek we gathered good momentum and took turns at the front riding a double paceline inside the yellow line. It was exhilarating riding although most of us were experiencing the muscular aches of the previous day's race.

The scenery was breathtaking and there was lots of banter in the group. We ended up having a long discussion trying to identify the various types of roadkill that we we witnessed on the side of the road with no definitive agreement being reached.

Soon after we had reached the outskirts of Kuilsriver, Leon and Omar decided to return home and this coincided with my first puncture of the day. A thin piece of wire had wormed its way into my tube and caused a slow leak to take place. I had noticed a difference in the performance of the bike as we were travelling at high speeds with the front wheel not being as responsive as usual.

Having had two punctures in the race on Saturday I was out of tubes and so ended up borrowing one from Marius. It was soon to become apparent that my new nickname should be Puncture King. I had replaced both tires on Saturday afternoon, so was highly irritated when on our way back from Franschhoek we had turned to climb Helshoogte and I had safely negotiated the train tracks but did not see the pothole ahead and having stood up all my weight was on the front wheel when I hit the pothole causing a 'snakebite'. In retrospect, it was just unfortunate luck. Tredoux was the kind supplier of tube number two and I think that left us with only one tube between all of us to get home!

Our ride into Franschhoek took us to the 95km completed mark and we decided to stop at the BP garage for refreshments while Jaco headed up to the top of the pass. Having eaten and replenished our liquid intake, we decided to take a slow ride up the pass to meet Jaco.

Near the bottom of the climb we saw the Club100 CT ladies DC team standing chatting so we went over to greet them and were given a detailed explanation how one of them had suffered what can only be described as a very frightening experience in the form of a front wheel blowout at high speed coming down the pass. The rim of the wheel had cracked too making it unsafe to ride. Fortunately she had managed to slow and stop without further incident! Her backup was on the way to collect her.

By this time Jaco come down the pass and the rest of us decided to ride up to the first hairpin and after a very fast descent back into Franschhoek joined up with Jaco at the Pick 'n Pay where he had stopped for refreshments.

Feeling strong again after our stop in Franschhoek, we focused on riding in formation and spending time coming through to the front as we will in the DC. Our speeds were well above the 40km/h mark as we all spent short times pulling the group which allowed us to put a good effort in.

Helshoogte was tough after all the distance we had already covered and we were all feeling it, but rode up at our own pace and re-grouped at the traffic lights on the other side. Hoosain, Luke and I rode down together and had fun taking turns pushing the speeds up!

The rest of our return was uneventful, but extremely tough as we spent the majority of the time riding into the strong South Easter and this after having already ridden 130km plus at a fast pace. All the banter from earlier had died as each rider focused on keeping the legs moving.

Soon Tredoux and Daniel peeled off as they headed home closely followed by Marius. That left Jaco, Hoosain, Luke and I to battle our way home from deep behind the boerewors curtain. Once we got into Pinelands the wind was really pumping and my legs were feeling decidedly jelly-like. I spent a lot of time hanging onto the back while Jaco was setting the pace.

With Jaco turning towards town after we crossed the N2 bridge from Pinelands the three of us faced the winds head on as we rode along Milner Rd. Surprisingly our speeds were still in the 30km/h region although it felt a lot slower. Luke did most of the work here and both Hoosain and I were thanking our heavenly stars as the 'Bus' provided us with much-needed shelter!

By this time I was hanging on by a thread and was enduring the pain of bonking. There was nothing to do but finish the ride. Hoosain turned off by the Kenilworth Centre and Luke and I rode to CV where he had parked his car in the morning. I now had about 5 or 6km to complete on my own and this short distance seemed like the longest ride of my life! It was all I could do to keep the bike upright and moving. I felt nauseous and was praying for it all to end. Total distance for me was 196km.

At home I ate everything and anything I could find from muffins and pasta to sausages and bread. Then I showered and slept for 2hrs before feeling remotely able to face reality again!

I am glad to have gotten another long one under the belt in preparation for the DC and if I am not ready now I never will be!

See a graphical representation of the ride by clicking the link below:

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=1758864