Distance: 111km
Climbing: 1800m
Weather: Sunny 33 degrees.
Plan: Didn’t have one.
A technical day, both up and down and an enormous helping of sand. Some very broken people, including my riding partner. We made it, with about 30 minutes to spare from the cut off time. Sounds fine, but a mechanical and or nasty crash would become critical. Michael was emotional over the finish line, he’d had a rough day, multiple falls and a crash, I was impressed with how deep he had dug.
All those around us were on the limit, including the Liv Trail Squad. Read their story if you get chance. A great bunch of “ordinary women” (as they put it) from around the world who applied to be on the Liv Trail Squad, with no idea what was in store for them. When they were told they’d be riding Cape Epic, I can only imagine their response. They then only met their riding partner last week! A media crew is tracking them, so they have a fair amount of pressure on their shoulders, and it’s becoming one hell of a journey for them. Now they’re over halfway, they’re all very capable and getting the job done and it’s great to see.
A 9.5 hour day out in 30 odd degrees today. It means all my usual housekeeping jobs are late or even missed. Fingers crossed that we have a late start in the morning though for the 39km time trial. It will be a much shorter day, but still 3 hours I think.
Summary. Bloody cool trails, very techy.
Verity Appleyard 