Close

October 17, 2013

Gearing up!

It’s nearing the end of the week, and most riders riding the Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek are running around like headless chickens trying to sort things out last minute. I’m trying to think how guys with full time jobs manage to get it together. Being a professional mountain biker with considerably more time on my hands, I’m even struggling!

My team mate for the Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek, Daniel, of the Craft-Rocky Mountain team is jetting into Cape Town tomorrow morning where he’ll be picked up by yours truly before heading straight for Oudtshoorn. I’m taking no prisoners! This is to ensure we have a couple good nights rest heading into this event.

Mountain 2 Mountain

Mountain 2 Mountain

Preparation this week has gone well, and after claiming a victory at last weekend’s Slanghoek Mountain 2 Mountain in the rain and mud against some formidable opponents I’m glad to say that the form I’ve been building on since World Champs is certainly on track. This week I’ve been attending to my bike, changing tyres, cleaning bearings, changing brake pads, tweaking suspension as well as collection extra product from sponsors that we need to the race to get us through this 7 day, 550km odd race in the Karoo and the surrounds of Oudtshoorn.

The amount of spares needed to make sure no mishaps happen when racing at the sharp end of a highly competitive stage race such as this is more than most people would use. Compared to most top teams, the amount of equipment we are taking along is minimal, but still I find myself packing my car full of equipments such as 3 sets of spare tyres, spare set of wheels, 8 sets of brake pads, 4 chains, extra chainrings, spare cassettes, spare saddle and seastpost, spare pedals, as we as chain lubes, grease and cleaners, not to mention the bags of nutritional products to take car of our energy consumption throughout the event. Pro racing is certainly not cheap and I really could not afford all this on my own. I count myself really blessed for this opportunity to be able to tackle such an amazing race with the amount of support I have behind me.

IMG_1251

The race kicks off on Sunday with the prologue event, a 14km sprint around the trails that Matthys Be

ukes has been grooming on his farm over the years. Team Rocky Mountain Factory Racing tears puts the hammer down on the prologue at 12: 21 pm on Sunday afternoon. Follow me on the Twitter machine (@renaygroustra) to keep updated! I aim to be posting everyday about each stage, but it can get a little hot out there in the Karoo, so we’ll see how that goes.

Keep it rubber side down!