Clinton Avery Cyclist

The Giro Del Capo. A rather big deal in South Africa I must add. Everyone attending the race is there to win and apparently winning it makes you a hero in South Africa. Thats what I was told anyway. It is as big as the world championships to alot of riders from the African countries.

The biggest team to compete was the pro team ‘Barloworld’ who have competed and successfully won stages of the Tour de France. Following them were a few smaller South African and American pro teams like ‘Marco polo, MTN, Neotel, and Konica Minolta’. Then the rest were smaller teams again with a few national teams attending. The Tour was 5 days long so this email, I am expecting to be on the long side but I will attach some photos also so you can picture what it was like.

Stage 1. 110km, starting rather flat and then after 80km hitting the bottom of the 9km climb. For me the start of my tour didnt go quite as I planned or hoped. I felt I was starting the tour with reasonable form and at the start of the stage was feeling strong. However the first 10km was fast and dodgy! alot of people trying to create an early break but it wasnt happening. At about the 10.5km mark an attack went and because of where I was in the pelaton i thought, “I can go with that and its better to have someone with it if it goes”. After a quick think of my options I was out of my seat giving it a nudge. A split second later I found myself doing 60kmh lying on my handle bars, sitting on my top tube, fighting to keep the bike up right. Across the other side of the road I go, with no control whatsoever. Next thing I know Im lying on the tar-mac with a sore knee, really sore ribs (back/side) and rather alot of skin missing! My first instinct was to get back on my bike and chase, assess the damage later. However that is rather hard when your bike doesnt have a chain. I took my spare bike after seeing the damage I done to myself, which made the chase even harder. First there is no motopacing back to the bunch and I made the mistake of looking. I was rather sore, pale, and light headed. I think the shock had finally caught up with me. After a long chase I caught the bunch. 2min later I was spat out the back as I didnt have enough time to move foward before the cross winds hit. I lost alot of time in the stage so by now my tour was over. I went to the hospital after for a check up and get my wounds dressed but I was going to continue the tour as training if the next day I was ok.

Stage 2. 150km, After a rather painful stage 1 I was only planning on surviving this stage and being a circuit race it work out good if I felt I couldnt continue. 3 laps of 48.9km with a steep 1.5km climb every lap was hard but throw in 37 degrees and it just becomes insain! There isnt really much to tell you about the stage as I didnt do anything, only that I finished better then I was expecting. I was only 5 mins down on the winner but 3 mins down on the front group.

Stage 3. 175km, WOW with a captial W.O.W is all I can say about this stage. It was a 9.30 am start and my temperature was already through the roof! Anyway I survived the first 35km until we got to the bottom of the first climb, which was the baby for the day at only 6km long. I was dropped about quater of the way up as I was over heating badly and was well into the red. At the bottom of the decent on the other side I was caught by a small group of 12 which soon became 10, then 8 and so on. 140km into the race, 18 drink bottles later and only 6 riders left in the group we reach the bottom of the last climb. We were all struggling that bad with the heat the neutral wagon that was with us had to keep going and buying water to drink and ice to put down our shirts to cool us down. Just to let you know the temperature, max was 44 degrees. Anyway 2 km into the final climb we were all forced to give it all with a little sprint. I get really pissed at home when Im training and Im tired and a dog chases me. Well I found this rather amusing, because it wasnt a dog chasing us……. it was a baboon! hows that for funny? I was the next rider to be shelled from that group 2km from the top, but I was suffering bad! I rode to the finish after 22 bottles of water, alone, a massive 49 minutes down on the winner of the stage.
Stage 4. 144km, and seemingly rather tame. The early break was let go so the leading team can control the race and we just rode like a sunday bunch ride. The temperatures were alot more bearable today. 45km into the stage, we were surpose to make a right turn. But, because of no marshals being at that point, the entire race, convoy and all went the wrong way. 7km later when they had realised they stopped the race. It was neutralized back to the turn off where they restarted the race. One race, 2 starts. We got to the 4 finish circuits and the pace went up, the break was coming back. Just let me add that it was a 12km finish circuit four times, with a 5.5km climb each lap. I had good legs today and got up the climb twice with the leaders. 3rd and 4th time I couldnt match what the climbers were doing to each other and finished 7 minutes down on the winner.

Final stage. 5.5km hill climb time trial. Not really much to say. It REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hurt! But I think my legs are coming better as I was 38th fastest to the top so I was rather happy with that especially as Im not exactly a climbers build.