About Me
- Ashleigh Moffatt
- It all happened to me when I jumped on the seat and became one with my bike. Nothing else around you matters at that time as you are in a world of your own. I share a passion for cycling and encourage you to join me on my journey in 2012, riding in colours of BMC. its going to be a very exciting year!!
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Thursday, 29 November 2012
Double Century Road Race!!!
This past weekend I took part in the Double Century Road Race, which was in the Western Cape/ Swellendam. I was anxious, nervous and excited to participate in the race. First of all it was going to be my second road race and was going to be the longest distance I would cycle on a bicycle. So I was excited to race and it was a huge achievement to do it and finish it!
The team I rode for was the Time Freight Burgwheelers club, there were 12 of us riders which consisted of 2 ladies and the rest were men. We had a very nice team and we were all pretty fit making sure we were ready for the challenge that lay ahead of us!
We were all buzzing with excitement on the morning of the race. As we lined up to the start line a few nerves started to show and everyone was keen to get going.
The first half of the race (first ±100km) was very windy and the weather wasn’t great, being cold and rainy. We took the first 100km quite chilled getting the feeling of what the legs and body was doing and to conserve some energy for the next half of the race. As a team we gelled well, we sang and chirped one another, making it enjoyable for everyone and making sure all the spirits were still high! The wind was horrible though, I was getting blown all over the place. At one moment I would be riding behind someone and next I know I’m blown into the right hand side of the road, it was hectic!!!!
Then at about 116km we had a compulsory stop. This is where one will ‘fuel up’ on energy resources; eating sandwiches, getting new juice bottles, collecting more bars and gels for the remaining kilometres. After the stop you also get your support vehicle behind your team, due to so many teams and riders in the beginning of the race, support vehicles only follow after the stop. So after we had all got our energy levels up we were off towards the end.
On the second half we had quite a strong tail wind at some spots along the route, so we went flying clicking down the kilometres fast as we got closer to the end. I must say in the second half at about 140-145km I seemed to have lots a bit of energy and could feel the legs were tender, the wind was defiantly taking its toll on me. But then I managed to find my legs again at about 40km left to go and I decided to give it my all. We went through the second half of the race a lot faster than the first half; we took about 4hrs to complete the first 100km and about 3:15hrs the next 100km.
What a great feeling it was when we went up the last kick of the race and saw the finish line. It was amazing to think we had all just completed 200km!!!, we did it in about 7:15hrs!! What an achievement!!! Was fantastic to complete the Double Century and with the whole team together (all 12 riders). I couldn’t believe I had ridden a race consisting of 200km plus, it was a huge step up to me in knowing what I can actually do and achieve it!
I really enjoyed completing and racing the DC, even if it did take its toll on me haha
Thank you to everyone for their support, especially those in our support vehicle; Justin Henderson and Charles Edwards you guys were great! A big thank you goes to my team and being able achieve such an accomplishment, was awesome! Thanx guys
Until next time,
xxx
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