We were treated last night to the most wonderful dinner at the farm of the B&B owners, Paddy and Peter Hugo who opened their house up, managing to rustle up a braai of chops and chicken sosaties and LOTS of wine.........which then led to a bet.
The bet was........if Mark Elliot could ride up and down Dutiotskloof pass twice for my one ascent and descent I would put R1000 towards his Starfish account.........you can only imagine the banter from then onwards.
So we woke this morning had a great breakfast, I must admit I was a bit nervous! I am not the best of climbers, Mark is an ex-pro rider and the odds were stacked against me, the agreement was that we would all ride together to Franschoek have coffee and then the race was on. Mark's team members included Michelle Harris and Kobus Burger. I had John, Rui, Chris, Michelle, Kevin, Deon, Andrew and Lizzie on my side, we knew that all we had to work hard to get to the bottom of the climb and then Kevin, John and wing man Andrew had to get me up the hill, Mark had to get up and down twice.
All I can say is I was VERY lucky to have Kevin and Andrew on my side, they got me from the bottom of the climb to the top, when I was tired they got me going again, they encouraged me and most of all stayed with me all the way to the top. On our way up Mark flew past us on his first descent, I was aiming for the radio tower at the top, what was around the corner was not expected and the additional 1.5km climb was just not welcome at the end of the climb, once we reached the top I turned and starting riding, pushing as hard as possible all the way down the hill hitting 71km at the fastest point.
Once I had turned, within the first km Mark was on his way back up again so I knew I had to peddle hard, digging deep I pushed as hard as I could, I did get to the bottom before Mark but trust me, one more km and he would have caught me.
What an awesome experience, great fun to compete against someone really fast and strong and what amazed me was how quick the guy climbed this 10.5km hill.
We are in Paarl tonight at the Pontac Hotel, looking forward to the ride into Fishoek tomorrow hoping the weather will hold like today and be kind to us.
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