Results, photos, and packing (again)

Results from last weekend’s Kargo 10 hour MTB race are up here. Thankfully there appear to have been no last minute race commissaire changes or alterations, so I hung onto a podium finish. Very pleased.

There are also some excellent photos from the day on ActionPhoto, and I’ve popped a few of the ones of me below. A lot of tongue-chewing. Not sure that chewing my tongue is a great idea whilst mountain-biking, given the risk of an unexpected bump resulting in an unexpected bite, but there we are.

 

 

This afternoon it’s off down to Cape Town for this weekend’s racing adventure: The Contego Wine2Whales Race. Really looking forward to this one – it’s a 3-day MTB race in the Cape, roughly 70km per day, with some fairly big ups and downs (roughly 4,460m of climbing over the 3 stages). The route profile and maps are here (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3). 

As per usual, last night was spent staying up late than was sensible, frantically packing and re-packing to see if I could get three days of mountain bike race gear into a single bike box and a carry-on rucksack. Think I’ve managed it, but to be honest I’m not ruling out either an excess weight charge (the bik box is feeling a bit grumpy, and heavy), or a re-pack on the floor of the departure hall. No surprises, have been there before enough times.

Not sure where we’re staying tonight (Declan’s been in charge), but the following 2 nights are in a tent in the race village – should be a good introduction to South African MTB stage racing.