Sunday 11th March 2007

At last it was happening. The Argus Cycle Tour! We trained for it, we dreamt about it and it was real. Our wishes became true as the weather stayed favourable and we had a glorious ride.

Look at the results , pinch yourself, it happened, personal bests for most of the riders and for those riding their first Argus a fantastic welcome to the event.

We were lucky that none of our riders had a fall. With huge groups of over 800-900 per group, and no wind to slow them down, high speeds were the order of the day. All the groups from Group J onwards were delayed by 15min. The delay was caused by an accident in the H group. At the notorious Hospital Bend one of the cyclists clipped one of the road cones with his pedal. He didn't come down but the cone flew up and landed slam bang in the middle of the peleton with the effect that 44 cyclists came down. Needless to say they needed some time to clear the road of fallen riders and bike debris. Photographs in the local newspapers showed cyclists and bikes strewn across the road, with one of the cyclist on his back, his bike right up in the air and with his cleats still in his pedals. Luckily none of the victims got hurt too seriously, and most did complete the tour.

We met at the beer tent at the end, and as they came in one by one, their smiling faces were already telling the story. "Better than last year" and "it was great" and "I thought it was going to be worse" (obviously from a first timer) .

Now, the only thing we are still looking for is "Smits Winkel" ( winkel: Afrikaans for shop)

I forgot to tell the first timers that Smitswinkel was indeed a mountain pass and not a shop.

Until next year! In the meantime we will keep on training for the wonderful Cape Argus Cycle Tour.

PS. I really like the Bulla shirt!