Originally I had planned to ride the Saturday early morning loop starting from Constantia Village at 5am with the likes of Patrick, Luke Hardiman, Brian Gelling and Brett Wooldridge, but sanity prevailed as I woke at 4.15am and looking out saw...nothing, apart from the darkness. Some of these guys ride from the Kommetjie area to CV first, waking up at around 3am - that's either total dedication or pure madness!

So I enjoyed another 2hrs of sleep and joined the club at 7am at Constantia Village. Hoosain convinced Luke - who had already ridden the early morning loop - Johan, and I to link up with the elite riders by meeting them at the Engen Garage in Claremont at 7.30am. Now I know some of these guys like Charles Keey, James Tennent, Jos Le Roux, Alistair Davies and Neil Schaffer and all of us 'ou manne' knew that we were in for a torrid time, especially when we heard the planned route: Claremont, through Constantia, Spaanschmat Rd, Ou Kaapseweg from the East (steep) side, Black Hill, closely followed by Red Hill, round the Point, through Simonstown up Black Hill and of course Ou Kaapseweg for the second time from Sun Valley side!

We were about 10 or 11 riders in the group when we left Claremont and thinking about the route we knew it was going to be a climber's paradise and the first taste of that came on Ou Kaaps when the guys put the hammer down and left us gasping in pain. The youngsters eased up on the way down and we caught up and duly did some work at the front into Sun Valley. Black Hill was looming and Hoosain and I tried to ease away at the traffic lights at the bottom and we had a slight gap, but we were taking it easy as we didn't want the elites to think we trying to race or anything 'cause that would just have started another dose of pain!

It wasn't long however before the rest of the group caught up with us and one of the elites put some effort in as he came past Hoosain and I. I decided to go with him and we got quite a gap on the rest although we were not red-lining it. We both knew that the group behind was going to come hard after us on the last section of Black Hill and we upped the ante there, but glancing back was like being stuck on railway tracks staring at the oncoming freight train, same feeling of inevitability. Four or five of the elites caught us with about 200m to go to the top and then it was a sprint finish for them!

We re-grouped after reaching the top and Luke made a mad dash for it on the way down causing the group to split again. This type of riding is exactly what racing in the leagues is all about. Attack after attack and one has to hope that the fitness levels are good enough to stay in the bunch or get into a telling breakaway.

After the traffic lights we slowed again, but Luke and I were ahead while some of the others were waiting for the rest to catch up. We decided to continue our momentum since we knew that Red Hill was next and having a lead on the group going up would help us. We had a good steady pace going and were caught about halfway up by some of the group. Then it was a case of hang on or ride up at your own pace. Well hanging on was out of the question at the pace they flew by so we rode up at our own pace and re-grouped at the top.

Fortunately that was the end of climbing for awhile which meant that everyone rode in a civilized manner from Red Hill round the Point and into Simonstown where we decided to stop at one of the Cafes for some refreshments before continuing. My three fellows from the 'old brigade' had all decided to carry on without telling anyone while we were in the shop, leaving me with the elites on my own!! Thanks guys! Inwardly I groaned - Black Hill and Ou Kaapseweg were approaching on the horizon!

I decided the only thing I could do was to try and hide in the bunch and hope to hang on. Any heroics like breakaways on my part would only be met with further attacks. Black Hill went well, even though the pace was quick going up and there was a strong side-wind buffeting us. I was happy to have made it to the top in the bunch.

The first section of Ou Kaaps started at a blistering pace and finally all the hard work for me took its toll and I was off the back before we reached the top of that section. I faced a long and lonely climb, but the guys waited for me at the entrance to the nature reserve. I continued past and put in an attack before they had managed to get back into their saddles and it was a fast and daring descent dodging the morning traffic. What fun that was! I turned off at the Tokai circle after saying goodbye and made my way home with sore legs!

Once I had showered and eaten I sat on the balcony with a cup of coffee in hand and reflected on the morning. Although we had been daring in joining the elites on their training ride and had suffered as expected, I had thoroughly enjoyed it. Would I do it again? Definitely!

See the ride represented graphically on Nokia's Sports Tracker site:

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=1566320

Charles Ekstrom