The 2013 series kicked off just like the previous one, with a scorcher in Franschhoek! Those who didn’t manage to clear last year’s punishing course from their memory banks will admit that this one came a little bit easier. I would like to say that this was totally by design, but large mountain veldfires in the month before the race shifted the course from a fully rural one to a faster racy course with far too much tar road and town shunting. I had to resort to extreme plan C measures like putting an out and back checkpoint on top of Franschhoek Pass to squeeze in the race distance for the long course, but surprisingly there were few complaints. I’m sure there were plenty on the way up, but with the view it brings and cold fresh mountain water that is always available at the summit they were mostly forgotten by the time the finish came.
And what a finish it was. We were hosted by the friendly Groot Drakenstein Games Club, which gave us the title amongst other things. We know Franschhoek is home to the hoipalloi of fancy fashion, cordon bleu restaurants and proper larney winefarms, but the good folks at the Grootdrak are solid citizens who love their sport. They welcomed us with open arms, but with raised eyebrows at the scale of torture we were putting our participants through. They promised a bar stocked with cold beer and a refreshing swimming pool, this was duly delivered and should really be a bare minimum standard for all races that are held in summer.
Back to the racing, we had a really encouraging entry for the starter event. An almost equal mix of short and long course amongst the almost fifty teams. They both followed a very similar course, with the long guys getting extra curveballs thrown in wherever possible. We staggered it by an hour, and it worked well with the leading short and long teams finishing within an hour much later on.
First up was a roundabout hike leg loop. This went onto the neighbouring Solms Delta and Two Rivers farms. We were constrained by both the Dwars and Berg rivers, which sort of made the course flat and obvious but some found a way to still confuse things. It was good to see the leaders in the long route charging in through the short course race briefing, always helps with the adrenalin.
Second leg was a mtb ride to Mont Rochelle mountain wine estate in Franschhoek. Going further through Two Rivers we crossed the Berg at a semi washed out concrete bridge early on. Whilst only ankle deep if careful and methodical, it’s reported that many did the full bike baptism in their haste to get across in bunches – I’m sorry I wasn’t there to see it.
This leg included some really testing route choices. By making checkpoints within the leg unordered, it required teams to look at options of cp sequence. As a RD this is successful when at the end of the race I see teams pouring over the maps, all showing the different routes they went for on the day debating the optimal choice. The short guys got quite a fast ride along the R45 bikelane, whilst the long guys took in some old forestry tracks to keep them honest.
The second trek was an urban/farm/forest mix. Two checkpoints in town which were fast to get too if you could avoid the Saturday crowds of bikers, church bazaars and beginning of the month shoppers. There was a simple one on the farm itself and two more complicated CPs in the forest.
The final leg was a sort of simple ride home – except for the long guys who had to scale the pass first. We had a team try the unfortunate move of cycling up the hiking path to cut out the dog leg of the pass. As mentioned earlier, Franschhoek is a happening place and they got thwarted by security beams, motion sensor cameras and on the ball armed response. Tar it was! For the rest it was a great little testing section with views to boot, and then a final slog home on tar.
If nothing else went right, it was hard to beat the finish vibe. We had boerie rolls on the braai, a fully stocked bar with good things like ice cold water and better things like ice cold beer and a refreshing pool to cool off in. Stories were shared, and every finisher was cheered in all the way from the time they hit the other side of the cricket field to when crossing under the arch.
The best news is that when all the burnt areas are green again and the river is higher and paddlerable I have a kick ass course (sort of) ready to go! Many thanks to the rest of the WCAD crew and especially Lucy du Toit and Gareth van Rensburg who manned the transition superbly on a rather hot day without complaint or query. Visit the WCAD Facebook page for all the brilliant images by Christopher Combrink and check the WCAD website for the race video by Chris Fisher.
As always, we would like to thank our wonderful sponsors for the rad prizes and welcome to our new drinks sponsor ‘Totally Wild’ who will be providing you with awesome aloe fruit juices at this year’s transitions.
Abridged Results of category winners– full results at: www.wcad.co.za
Short Mixed – ‘Switchback’ Walter Brosius and Aileen Anderson
Short Male – Hakara Hakara Alan Rosewall and Mike Martin
Short Female – ‘Victorious Secrets’ Anneli Wiese and Kristina Gransee
Long Mixed – ‘Olympus1’ Tim Deane and Kelley Hess
Long Male – ‘WCAD Racing’ Quintin Smith and Grant Ross
See you in Wolseley on the 20th of April for Round 2! Entries open on 11 March 2013.