Cape Argus 2007
Ian Lowe - Sub 3 hour beaten by a Puncture!
Well arrived back safely in the UK yesterday morning 09:00 and collected by my wife and kids who arrived 1 min before I walked out of customs. What a great experience when a plan comes together.
Oh and of course you want to know what happened in the Cape Argus too I guess…….
Also another great experience. Over 28,000 starters and pretty slick with the management of the event too.
Well I raced it as planned and when going through the check points my split times were a tad slower than the time I was aiming for 2 hours 50 mins but certainly on schedule to achieve a sub 2 hours 55. At about the 70 km mark we crested a short steep climb and I noticed my racing college Vaughan taking a little strain so motivated him as he did me last year. We were descending down the other side at about 55 kph and coming up to a T-junction when I decided I wanted to go through this near the front of the batch and went down the right hand side of the road in the emergency lane between the yellow line and the edge of the road to get up into the top 10 of the batch to go through this pinch point of a turn when suddenly I road over a broken bottle and punctured my front tyre……
Gutted and deflated excuse the pun, I now knew I would never get back on to my batch and my goal of a 2 hours 50 and a top 500 or there abouts had gone, but I change the front as quick as I could in a flash and reset my goal to a sub 3 hours. I tried to find some others to work together at least to try and get a sub 3 hours but most were struggling and I road off ahead up the road passing a lot of riders who had blown out of the batches ahead. I road for nearly 12 kms before the Vertran “B” batch caught me up which I tagged onto and road home to the finish with them.
I stopped my stop watch to find I had recorded a 3 hours and 45 seconds. Gutted another time outside the 3 hours and I knew I was fit and strong enough to do a sub 3 hours. I eventually got my time of the internet which is provisional until end of this week and I am not expecting it to change, and it showed 3 hours and 17 seconds.
Last year I was 3 hours 9 seconds no puncture. This year 3 hours 17 seconds with a puncture and 10 – 12 kms of solo riding.
Gutted……
I will be back. I told Mum and Dad I will ensure next year that it will be a sub 3 hours with 4 punctures……….. Mum said is that possible?
My family did really well this year.
Rod with less training this year than last year did 3 Hours 11 mins and cramped on the last climb. His weight was up 4 kgs to 100 kgs.
Rod’s wife, Colette did 3 hours 35 min her previous best was 3 hours 45 mins also with less training this year.
Dad at 71 years did the best at 5 hours and 7 mins some 50 mins faster than last year with a cold breaking, great ride Dad!
Well all in all I did not crash and felt fantastic through out the race. My goal shattered as Vaughan did a sub 3 hours at 2 hours and 53 mins and feeling it a little just before I punctured when I was pretty comfortable and riding with the front runners. I believe I would most certainly have achieved a time equal to that of Vaughan’s but who knows whether it may have been a 2 hours 50 or less as the front runners of “B” batch completed the course in 2 hours 49 mins a cracking time that. My average speed was 36.28 kms and Vaughan’s was 36.87kms.
The pros winning time was 2 hours 32 mins so not far off. The pros average speed was about 44 kms
For more information see the Cycle Tour website.
Cheers - Ian