ToS 2015

Seems that in all the Audax activity, I totally forgot to make any mention of this year's Tour of Sufferlandria. The formula was pretty much identical to the past two years - 9 stages over 9 days. As before, I opted to participate using Trainer Road to keep me honest and track my progress through the tour. 

Whilst there may have been little new in the format, the stages were quite different. First off were a series of new videos:

• Elements of Style
• Nine Hammers
• Angels (I opted to upgrade to the new 2015 edition)
• The Rookie
• Half is Easy

I had added most of these to my library already when released, but had yet to ride any of them. As a creature of habit, it's easy to get stuck riding old favourites rather than experimenting with new videos especially when pressed for time. So the 2015 tour presented a perfect opportunity to give them a try.

Another obvious difference was the tour start - no FTP test this year to establish the required level of punishment. Following that was what seemed like a very untypical series of straightforward stages with just 1 video per day. The sequence of Nine Hammers, Local Hero, and The Rookie did however present plenty of tough riding. The real sting was in the tail though, or close to the tail at least. The queen stage on day 8 involved 3 sprint videos totaling 2 hrs and 25 minutes of high intensity suffering. It was no less brutal in practice than it looked on paper. After 7 days straight of training, it was a real slog. I started with the goal to try and get through at least the first one or two videos at 100%, with some leeway to ease up on the third if needed. In the end, I was foolishly pleased with myself at surviving the whole set without lowering the bar.

Luckily, after the 8th day beating I had two days of camping before tackling Stage 8. The 50 hour time window allowed me to do Stage 8 at lunchtime on Friday, and complete Stage 9 when home on Sunday evening.  It was definitely a kinder option on the body, but it was not an easy option for the mind. After a relaxing weekend kicking back with family, drinking beers, and generally not doing much it was a battle to get back on the trainer again to finish the tour. To be honest, I almost didn't. I don't recall what motivated me - possibly just plain stubbornness wanting to finish what I started.

Anyhow, I climbed back on the trainer and span it out. It was sweaty, grueling, and I fell short of the power targets on a couple of sprints. But overall, it was a decent effort and I was happy to have completed my 3rd straight tour. The real benefit, as I discovered in previous years, doesn't appear immediately but comes out gradually over the next few weeks. With some recovery and easier rides to rest the body, the legs bounce back stronger and faster than ever. It's too early to say whether I'll do next year's tour, but in all probability I will. In the end, they're a fun way of pushing one's limits at just the right time of year. 

Shortest of the qualifiers

I'm cheating again somewhat by recycling the report I wrote for Audax SA on the Cape BRM 200km. I'm already 2 blog entries behind, and this weekend is both the Junior Argus and the main Argus rides (more on that later). So some shortcuts are needed to avoid falling even further behind by next Rather than just regurgitating the official account though, I'll start with some thoughts and observations of my own.

The 6am start was quite a luxury for a change, albeit not one which was universally liked by all of the riders. Some would have preferred to be underway earlier and finish before the full heat of the day. Planning and agreeing the PBP qualifier routes took a fair amount of effort to get right. Having successfully ridden each of them in the 2014 series the smart decision was to stick to the same routes for the 2015 rides.

Starting out felt a little odd. Having ridden the toughest qualifying distances, here we were heading out on a ride marginally shorter than my first DC - a milestone ride which kicked my long distance cycling into gear more than two years ago. It was easy to be complacent, and we did set off at a cracking pace. Even with a puncture, we were at the first control not that long after it's official opening time. The pace backed off a little on to Darling, especially towards the end of the leg where my energy levels started to flag. In spite of that, even as far as the third control at Malmesbury on the way back, we were still making rapid progress. Here though, in hindsight I made a fuelling error. Rather than stoking up again, I figured the big meal we'd eaten in Darling would be fine and just opted for a ice cream and a Coke, some sipped and some in my bidon.

I pulled strongly out of Malmesbury, but with around 30km still to go the tank ran dry and the legs started to cramp. I suspect in fact it wasn't so much a lack of food, but the wrong fuel at the last control. I was on the downside of a nasty sugar spike, rather than actually running low on fuel. Either way, I limped along the last section with Peter kindly keeping me company. Both Theunis and Hendrik were still feeling strong and finished about 10 mins ahead of me. It was an enjoyable ride though, and yet another valuable lesson in the value of eating proper food, and getting ride pacing right. The 200km may be the shortest of all qualifiers - but it's still an endurance ride, and more than capable of kicking you in the cycling pants if you underestimate it.

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WC200 Report 17-Jan

WC 200km BRM, Stellenbosch
Paris-Brest-Paris 2015 qualifier
17 January 2015, 06:00
by Rob Walker

The 2015 Cape Audax events kicked off with the shortest of the SR Series rides, a 200km brevet. It seems word is slowly spreading about the local long distance events, with the largest field to date of 17 riders gathering at Vrede Wines for the 6am start.

Routing and timings were kept the same as those for the 2014 event, the only change being removal of the unnecessary outbound Malmesbury control. The later than usual start of 6am was set based on the opening time of the first control, the Du Vlei farm stall in Hermon. And a most welcoming oasis it provided as the initial stop for riders – providing not just excellent coffee and food, but even a handsome official stamp together with signature to grace brevet cards.

With the potential for hot and windy conditions developing during the day, riders opted to bypass a lengthy breakfast stop in favour of a quick cup of coffee and refuel, and an early depart for the next control. With no need to stop in Malmesbury, faster groups of riders reached Darling by mid-morning. As they returned along the R315, greetings and banter were exchanged with later riders still on their way out to the control. By lunchtime, all riders had made it to the Darling control, some choosing to stop for generous portions of burgers and chips at Café Mosaic next to the official Spa shop control in town. Sadly none had time to visit SA icon, Evita se Peron, before turning back toward Malmesbury.

Malmesbury Engen was the third stop, familiar now to riders as a control on 3 of the brevets. It seems our arrival is starting to become known to the staff too. Their reception was cheerful and helpful – providing receipts and signing cards, even though most opted this time not to stop in at the Wimpy for coffee and food as has become something of a custom on the longer rides.

What can be said about the section from Malmesbury back to Vrede? For some reason this leg appears on 3 of the 4 rides despite being – to borrow Chris van Zyl’s words  – “one of his least favourite stretches of road in The Cape”. Unfortunately, it is a prime link back to Vrede for any route northward. On the 200, this was where the price was paid for the 6am start, with most riders tackling this last 48km in the worst of the heat and a rather stiff headwind. Tail end riders on the longer brevets tend to navigate these last few Km in cooler and less windy conditions around dusk.

In spite of the heat and wind, all 17 riders finished inside the 13 hour 20 minute cut-off – with times being spread out across almost the whole window of opening to closing time of the Arrivée control. The fastest riders were home almost too early for the control opening, and the final rider rolled home around half an hour inside the closing time.

The distance of dreams

Three year's ago the madness started. Despite knowing almost nothing about Audaxing, or long distance cycling for that matter, the thought stuck in my head that I wanted to take part in Paris-Brest-Paris - the world's oldest organised bike ride. At a distance of 13 times further than I'd ever ridden, it was a preposterous idea really. As the clock ticked past midnight and 2015 rolled in, we are officially in a PBP year - the once distant dream is now just 7 month's and 16 days away.

 Of course I don't have an actual place reserved yet, and with interest in Audaxing growing rapidly around the world, there's no guarantee I'll manage to bag one of the 6,500 available places. I'd feel a lot more comfortable to have that Joburg 600km pre-qualifier on my side. Maybe the difference between being able to register on May 3rd rather than May 10th won't be significant, but it's a shame to take that chance. At least in the failure, a lot of valuable lessons were learned. They've come back to me many times on the Cape Audax rides of the last few months - in fact pretty much every time I've felt the urge to push the pace harder than I knew was wise. The simple fact of knowing that I have the strength and endurance to complete the longer distances well within the cutoff time as long as I stick resolutely to my own pace has been an enormous boost to morale.

Even with the added week before being able to register, dropping back to a 400km brevet for the pre-qualifier was a good call I think. I have Yoli to thank for that moment of clarity. Successive failures on 600km rides within the course of a couple of months could have been a disastrous setback to confidence. Whereas completing the shorter distance comfortably within the cut-off time restored a great deal of self belief. There was more to the ride than simply getting my pre-qualifier too. In a year of many great rides, the  Asparagus & Strawberries 400km can hold it's own as a wonderfully memorable event and one that I would definitely ride again given the chance. At times, especially in the early and late stages, it was rather more challenging than I had imagined. But ridden at my own steady pace throughout, it restored faith in my ability to endure and prevail at the tougher end of randonneuring. The long, largely solo dusk 'til dawn leg is still vividly imprinted in my mind: the hooting of owls and haunting call of a nightjar in the cold, damp woodlands of Thetford Chase; and the slightly surreal vision of the enormous, brightly lit, but somehow ghostly Lakenheath air-force base in the middle of the night.

2014 wasn't totally about getting in shape for PBP - OK, that's a lie, it was actually all about PBP. But at least it also provided an excuse to head off the tar and back onto the trails. It's both odd and wonderful how everything is inter-connected, and Trans-Baviaans is a perfect example. The basic idea in riding it was a way of staying fit through winter, and at the same time not becoming bored and burnt out from endlessly riding the same routes on road. But the inspiration had come several years before from my brother-in-law Hendri. His descriptions of this mega offroad marathon had put Trans-Baviaans on my bucket list. Left gasping at the top Pausing of even relatively tame climbs, I was rather awestruck at how anyone could tackle such a monster. And here's where the interconnections start to happen. Hendri is mountain biking again after many years away from the trails. He is doing so on my old Specialized Stumpjumper, which I only decided to sell because I had bought the Giant Anthem as a more appropriate machine for riding long distance offroad events. And the guy who sold me the Stumpy, Eugene, who I have hardly seen since I bought it, suddenly resurfaced to join us on the recent 600km Cape Audax. Take away any of those connections, and I might not have been lining up to ride Trans-Baviaans last August, and Hendri may not have rediscovered his love of mountain biking. The most beautiful part is how the bikes themselves fit too. I'm no downhill flyer, so the Stumpy's long travel forks and aggressive geometry were never really a match for me even though I enjoyed the setup. They suit Hendri's riding style and preferences perfectly though, whereas the Anthem is a mile-eating monster, perfect for my love of marathon distances. By the oddest of paths, we both ended up with the right bike in the end.

One aspect of qualifying for PBP which I'd always assumed was that there would be a Cape Audax series for local riders hoping to qualify. I'd read enough reports to know this had been the case for past PBP editions back at least as far as 1999 and possibly earlier. What I didn't expect was to end up quite so much in the thick of actually organizing the required 200km, 300km, 400km and 600km rides. Not that it's been a chore - in fact quite the reverse. Working over route ideas and understanding how to take them from ideas to actual events has been a lot of fun. Luckily we've had great support from our country co-ordinator, Eddie Thomlinson, in terms of what is both necessary and acceptable for a brevet to qualify as a BRM event. With his help, the small team of us locally have managed to pull off a complete Cape SR series for 2014 - although Nico stands alone in completing all 4 events as a rider. It's perhaps fitting the Nico should be our sole All Cape Super Randonneur too - since he's provided so much support for each of the rides, hosting the start and finish at his family's farm, and providing accomodation for us mid-way through the 600km brevet. Missing one of the rides was unavoidable for me, but I did at least manage to achieve my first Super Randonneur Series courtesy of the UK 400km.

In theory most of the hard work of the 2015 SR Series should be done, aside from the not-so-minor task of actually completing the rides. With the 400km and 600km already done, I'll need a further 2 of the remaining 4 events to complete the qualifying set needed for PBP. Obviously the ideal would be to achieve this with the 200km in January and 300km in February, but there are at least additional options beyond these in case of mishaps. Nothing is ever certain in Randonneuring, and one should never really plan further down the road than the next control, so I certainly won't be taking them for granted, or making the mistake I did in March of 2014 and under-estimating them. There's still a couple of extra incentives too - if I can complete 3 of the Cape brevets plus PBP, that would also equate to a Super Randonneur set for 2015. And I have a confirmed entry place for the 36One mountain bike event on 17th April. I'll only be able to use this if I don't have to take part in the 600km brevet the following weekend to make up for a missed or failed qualifier. I would of course give up the 36One place if necessary to keep the PBP dream alive, but I'd rather not. Trans-Baviaans used to lay claim to being the longest single stage mountain bike event in Sotth Africa. There's a narrow window before The Munga gets going where the 36One now holds that honour. It would be nice to take part and complete it whilst it is still the longest. Plus it will give the Anthem and I another healthy dose of off-road endurance riding.

The first few months of the year should prove interesting and challenging from a training perspective too. On the last few rides of 2014 I was already starting to feel the benefits of Erica's grand plan - strength from the hill intervals gradually beginning to translate into speed on everyday rides. My moving average for the last solo 50km ride of the year was just shy of 25km/h, the last third of which was into a significant headwind. That's not a speed which will win me any races, but it is significantly quicker than I was before and a welcome step towards the kind of fitness and preparation I'm aiming at for PBP and beyond.At some point during this year's blog entries I'm going to have to start to discuss what that 'beyond' represents - a dim and flickering, dream which is every bit as ludicrous and beyond my abilities as PBP was three years ago. It's just as firmly stuck in my brain though and until something shows me it's impossible, I suspect it's unlikely to budge unless I act on it.

For now, I'm not going to stray into such thoughts and plans further down the road than completing the dream that kicked off the whole endurance cycling obsession. I will be in Paris in August, and hopefully I'll be there for PBP. I do have an awesome fallback plan, and that will be to go to Euro Disney with Ben and Yoli instead. Having seen Ben wide eyed at the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park over the Christmas holidays, I can honestly say it's not a bad consolation prize. It wouldn't be what I'd hoped, trained and planned for of course, but you can't take anything for granted in cycling, you have to hope for the best and just keep pedaling.