The 2013 Cape Argus Cycle Tour (with Megan and my Brompton M6L)!

Yesterday my darling Megan and I rode the Cape Argus Cycle tour.  The weather was just perfect (perhaps a little hot, but beautiful!) the secenery was awesome, and it was just fantastic to spend the time with her!

My seeded start time was 6.48 (K group), however, I started with her and a friend from Church in PA group at 9.28.  We got lots of comments on the Brompton as we rode - it was an absolute star.  Not a single hickup, small wheels around the coast! 110km of pure bicycling fun.  

Here's a picture of us at the start of the race.

The hills were not too bad - although I do realise that I am a little fitter than many other riders. The lowest gear was not quite low enough for an easy spin up Edinburgh Drive or Smitswinkel, and since I was giving my darling wife a 'little push' it took a little more energy.  By the time I reached Suikerbossie I was having to dig a little deeper!  Ha ha! But, we passed lots of riders with BIG wheels and LOTS of gears!

Here's a picture of me with the folded Brompton standing on the side wall about 3/4 way up Chapmans Peak. I had been poking fun at the other riders for 'cheating' with too many gears and wheels that were too large!

I am so proud of my darling wife! She rode very well.  This is her second Argus (she last rode almost a decade ago).  It was my 11th ride. Megan was strong and didn't complain at all. It was so special to share this time with her, both the training and the actual race itself.

We both commented that we just don't spend enough time enjoying the beauty around Cape Town! We live here! But, we tend to get busy with everything else.

You can check out the race route and a few other details on my Endomondo data below.

A great 70km ride with my wife!

So my wife Megan and I went for our 70km ride this morning.  It was pouring with rain, but since we get so few opportunities to ride together we decided that we would ride regardless.  It was wonderful! I am so proud of Megan - she rode very strong for the whole 70km!  I think she is going to have a very comfortable 110km Argus ride in a few weeks time.

Today I decided to ride with her on Darth (Vader!) my Black M6L Brompton.  It was great to have 6 gears instead of just the 3 gears on Doris.  The bike was so comfortable.  I realise that I am a little fitter than some riders and accustomed to doing longer rides in tougher terrain (sometimes more than a hundred km on dirt on my mountainbike), but this bike is just so easy to ride! It rolled up (and down) the hills around Cape Town.  Shifting the gears does take a little getting used to.  On my old Brompton I have to pedal backwards to change gears on the 3 speed Sturmey Archer hub.  On this bike it seems that I don't need to pedal backwards, I just need to freewheel in order to change the 3 gears in the internal hub.  Then, (for those who don't know) there are two sprokets externally mounted on the hub (as opossed to 1 on the M3L).  The larger (upper) cog is naturally for higher cadence (easier gearing) while the smaller (lower) cog is for lower cadence and harder gears.

I changed gears in this way - imagine that you are riding up a steep hill (from the Lord Charles Hotel on the R44 up towards Steynsrust on the Stellenbosch road).  You start in your hardest gear (i.e., lower cadence and highest speed) = 3rd gear in the hub, smaller cog at the back.  I would call this 6th gear.  As the hill gets steeper you change from the small external cog to the large external cog (left hand shifter).  You are still in 3rd gear in the hub.  This is 5th gear.  Then to shift down you drop the internal gear from 3rd to 2nd in the hub using the right hand shifter (freewheeling), and shift from the large cog to the small cog using the left shifter (this is 4th gear)... 

The challenge is that since you have to freewheel to shift the internal hub gears, but need to pedal forward to change the external cog gears, there is always a little space between your current gear and the gear you want to be in (e.g., 6th and 5th) where you are in the wrong gear. 

Still, I got used to it quite quickly and was shifting up and down without any hassles.  The gears are wonderfully spaced! My lowest gear (1st) is fine for the hills and climbs around Cape Town, and the highest gear (6th) is OK for most descents.  If I was riding on my own I think I would have run out of top gears on my descents.

A few other things I noticed with the M6L is that the Brompton Green tires are very nice.  They roll very smoothly, and as any seasoned cyclist will know - riding in the rain most frequently results in punctures (since you cannot see glass, nails, stones and other things that can cause punctures).  These tires were bullet proof!  Super!

So, all in all a great ride with my wife! A great ride on my Brompton.

If you're interested in seeing the Garmin data from this morning's ride take a look below.

Doris the Brompton Bicycle has a brother!

Doris the (yellow) Brompton has a younger brother!

Darth (Vader!) arrived from the UK yesterday!

Darth is a near mint 2011 M6L Brompton that I bought secondhand from Richard. Darth is a black beauty! In this picture my daughter Courtney is riding Doris and my wife Megan is riding Darth!

I can’t wait to take Darth out for a nice long ride this weekend. The extra gears will certainly help on the hills around Stellenbosch and Somerset West! Darth has 6 gears, whereas Doris only has 3.

Darth also came with a Brompton C bag which is awesome! I sold my iPhone 4 to pay for Darth - a good trade in my opinion.

Why Darth!? Well a black beast like this has to have a strong name - so Darth Vader seemed fitting! Plus it starts with a ‘D’ and fits nicely alongside Doris.

Now I know of 3 Bromptons in South Africa - my two in Cape Town and one other owned by a colleague from the University of Pretoria who is living in George (I think his wife may also have one, so there could be 4!?)

This weekend my wife Megan and I will do a little bit more training for the Cape Argus Pick n Pay cycle tour which takes place on the 10th of March.  Megan's fitness is coming along very nicely! She rode an Argus about a decade ago and did nicely.

I'm fortunate to have done 11 Argus rides over the years - the 110km ride along the coastline of Cape Town is spectacular.  There are few places in the world that are as beautiful.  In addition to this, the spirit of the close to 40 thousand timed riders is magnificent!

Since Darth (my M6L Brompton folding bike) has arrived from the UK I will be doing the training ride on him tomorrow.  There are lots of hills around Cape Town, so have 6 gears on Darth (as opposed to the 3 gears or Doris) is a great blessing! Although, I will confess that the Schwalbe Kojak tires on Doris, and the 13 year old Sturmey Archer rear hub, are much smoother than the Brompton treaded tires and 6 speed Shimano hub on Darth! I also prefer my brown leather Brooks saddle on Doris for the longer rides (tomorrow we will do 70 km).  But, it is important to get some time in the saddle of the bike that I will ride on the day!

Training for the Cape Argus Pick n Pay cycle tour on a Brompton Folding Bicycle!

If you want to follow my progress towards this year's Cape Argus cycle tour on my Brompton then please see my Brompton tumblr blog for more pictures and details about my training and my gear at http://capetownbrompton.tumblr.com

I planned to join some friends for a long road ride this morning on my 'full size' steel frame bike (we planned to do 75km).  I put the new slicks onto the bike yesterday evening and got my gear ready last night.

This morning I woke at 5.30 as planned and went out to my garage to get the Diamondback only to find that I must have pinched the tube on the front wheel when I put the new tires on!  So, the front wheel was flat.

So, even though I had not intended to ride Doris my Brompton folding bike on this ride I quickly popped back inside and fetched her! 

It was a beautiful ride this morning.  I only did 60 km because I needed to be home by 8.45am so that I could take care of my kids while my wife went out to run a course with some young folks from our Church.

I rode from my home near Beaumont Primary school in Somerset West up Old Stellenbosch road (it is not quite as steep as Irene, and only have 3 gears is a bit of a handicap on the Cape Town hills!) I met the other guys, Graham Power and Graham Vermooten, at the Steynsrust bridge.  Both of them have beautiful full carbon road bikes. We then went on to the R44.  It quickly became clear that my gearing and little wheels simply would not match their gears and super light bikes!  I couldn't get low enough gears on the hills to climb comfortably, and ran out of gears on the downhills.

Along the way to Stellenbosch the Wannabees road group caught us.  You should have heard the comments from the seriously kitted out, and seriously fit riders! "Hey, you've lost half your bike", "Is that a toy?", "Did you loose a bet or something?"

Still, I managed to stick with the group up to the Stellenbosch airfield.  When we got to De Kleine Zalze I said to Graham P and Graham V that they should go ahead and not hang about for me.  I think they went out to Klapmuts.  I would have loved to stay with them but knew I couldn't keep up!

So, I turned at Dorp Street and headed out towards Polkadraai, and then turned towards Spier Wine Estate (this photo was taken at that turn).  From there I rode to Zetler road past the Strawberry farm, back onto the R44, over the top of Steynsrust to the beach and back home to Somerset West.  The climb up towards Bredell road on the R44 was not too bad at all.  I dropped to my lowest gear and just turned the pedals.  It did mean that I passed quite a few less fit riders (I'm sure seeing a Brompton pass you is not all that much fun!)  But, I have to keep my cadence up to keep moving forward!  The ride past the beach was beautiful, but very windy! 

The Southeaster pumps in Strand at this time of the year - good training for the Argus.  A few years ago I rode in the 'Cape of Storms' Argus (that was the year I met Matt Damon (him on the right and me on the left of this picture - he was in South Africa for the filming of the movie Invictus and rode the Cape Argus Cycle tour for the MAD (Make A Difference) charity).  The wind was so strong that many people never completed the ride that year.  So a bit of headwind training is always welcome!

I am constantly amazed at how well this little bike handles the long distances and the steep climbs!

But, if the truth be told, I will probably ride my mountainbike or my old steel frame Diamondback with slicks if I am going to ride in a group.  No matter how fit you are you will struggle to keep up with other strong riders on their full carbon, super light, 20 plus speed road bikes!

digitaldion:

An early morning ride. Such beauty! Such fun! #brompton #brooks #cows #Stellenbosch - (at Vredenheim Wine Farm)

Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle tour 2012 - done and dusted!

The weather today was almost perfect! Except for a slight bit of wind out towards Simonstown (mainly on the blue route), and the extreme heat a little later in the day, it was perfect cycling weather!

I was fortunate to head out in Group J at 6.51AM and managed to complete the 110 km ride in 3h35mins (according to my Garmin 705 - official times are available tomorrow).

As always the scenery along the route was a real highlight.  Even though I live in Cape Town we seldom take the time to spend a few hours cruising around the coast.  What better way to do it than with 40 000 other cyclists!?

It was a fairly uneventful ride for me.  I was a little less fit this year compared to last year (I was in England the week before the race).  And it showed in my time which was a few minutes slower than last year.  I had put in some distances in my training rides.  Yet, I still cramped going up Suikerbossie.  As I was climbing I decided to get out of the saddle and stand... That was when I felt my quadriceps twinge.  I made the top of the hill within the 3h30 split, but I just didn't have the legs to push it home for the last 15km's or so.  So, I ended up in a slightly slower bunch watching my right quad and enjoying the crowds into Sea Point and the finish.

The lead ladies (about 30 minutes ahead of me) had a serious crash in the final sprint! Wow, I watched it on television.  I believe someone shattered a pelvis and there was a person with a broken colarbone, and some very bad scrapes and cuts.  That is always the danger of high speed, super dense bunches, in the final sprint.

I was fortunate to be back at the finish, safe and sound, by about 10.20 (about 20 minutes after the last group of riders started the race! Yikes!) so I missed the heat of the day. When I got to my car about an hour and a bit later it was 35 degrees!  I can imagine that it got even hotter past 1 and 2pm.

I got my special green number for my 10th Argus, and also received a special medal at the end.  Super!

So, tomorrow it is back to work.  I'll take the day off cycling.  But on Tuesday morning I'll be back on my mountainbike!!!

I've added a few pictures from the race in this post.  They were taken with my GoPro HD camera mounted to my handlebars in 30 second stop motion throughout the race.

Final tips, advice, and preparation for the Cape Argus cycle tour

If, like me, you're a cyclist with more passion than fitness, then every tip for the Cape Argus 110km cycle tour will be welcome.  I found these great tips on the 'Wanna-B-Team' blog.

I'll do about 2 hours of cycling this week (it's a busy week unfortunately with not much time to ride).

 I've been eating carefully - lots of carbs, very little fat, and lots of liquids.  After riding the Mountain Bike Argus this Sunday I am feeling fantastic!  My legs were not sore today (perhaps that's because I had trained for the 55km but only got to finish 36km before the race was cut short due to heat).

Anyway, I would love to hear any tips and advice you follow, or would like to share, for this weekend's road race!

Don’t train like crazy in the last few days leading up to the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour. A total of four hours of easy cycling during the final week, with a last light training session the day before and a light, carbo-loaded breakfast two hours before starting time, is the best thing to do.

Here is a list of last-minute do's and don’ts for cyclists ahead of the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour:

Don’t train like crazy in the last few days leading up to the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour. A total of four hours of easy cycling during the final week, with a last light training session the day before and a light, carbo-loaded breakfast two hours before starting time, is the best thing to do.
 

Here is a list of last-minute do's and don’ts for cyclists ahead of the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour:
 

What you shouldn't do 

• Leave it to the last minute to do anything major on your bike - cycle shops are simply not going to have capacity for anything tricky. If you've trained with it, you're going to have to ride with it.
• Try and fix the back/knee/ankle problem that had been troubling you - it's too late to make any significant improvement.
• Train like crazy. Too many extra kilometres and hours will have the opposite effect of what you're hoping for: you may be fitter, but you'll also be depleted on race day.
• Climb Chapman's Peak for the first time, at speed - if you're going to climb it for the first time this week, do it very slowly - or in a car. In fact, if you haven't climbed it before, rather wait until the day unless you are a very strong cyclist.
• Eat nothing but carbohydrates between now and the ride.
• Get drunk the night before the tour.
• Leave picking up your race number to the last minute - particularly if you live in Cape Town.
• Buy new equipment/clothing this week and use it on the ride - only ride in tried-and-tested clothes on a tried-and-tested bike.

What you should do in final preparation  

• Ride for about four hours this week – all easy rides, with just a small amount of sprinting.
• Do your last ride on Saturday - an easy ride (no more than one hour) - using the same kit you will ride with on Sunday.
• Prepare yourself mentally for the ride - know that you will relax and enjoy it.
• Check your splits on the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour website - it will give you a good idea of where you have to be and when, in order to achieve your target time. Be realistic.
• Pick your race number up in good time.
• Try and have an early night on Friday - you will sleep better than you will on Saturday.

The night before: the checklist 

• Make sure you have adequate amounts of your favourite carbohydrate drink - put it in the fridge or the freezer the night before.
• Decide what you will take to eat on the ride, and pack it into easy-to-access bags.
• Include suncream sachets
• Pin your race number on and lay out your cycling clothes for easy access in the early morning.
• Make sure that your start and finish cards and your transponder are with your clothes.
• Put your helmet, gloves and sunglasses out at the same time.
• Check your bike - including pumps, spare tubes and puncture repair kits.
• Don't go to bed too early - you won't sleep.
• Make sure you know your starting time and when you need to be in your shute.
• If you are starting late, make sure you know which roads are going to be closed and when, so that you can get to the start on time.
• Programme the medical emergency number into your cellphone: 021 434 1199.

On the morning 

• Eat breakfast about two hours before your start. Eat mainly carbohydrates, and keep it light.
• Apply sunblock just before you leave.
• Take something to eat and drink while waiting to start - again, carbohydrates in both the food and the drink.
• Stretch while you wait to start and try to sit down until you have to go into the main starting shute.

On the ride 

• Keep to the left if you are nervous
• Look in front of you at all times
• Drink enough water, but don't overhydrate
• Enjoy the ride!
• If you need to bail out, move to the side of the road and wait for the sweep vehicle, or stop at any of the official bail-out points. They are the Old Boyes Drive link to Main Road, Dido Valley Road in Simon's Town, immediately before the Naval Gunnery School, refreshment station #9 at the foot of Red Hill, refreshment station #12 at the foot of Chapman's Peak, and the first traffic circle in Hout Bay.
• At the finish, don't come to a dead stop. You'll cause a pile-up.

Update on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 9:16AM by Dr Dion Forster

What race time are you aiming for this year?  Last year in the Cape of Storms Argus tour I rode a 4h58min!  It was a HECTIC ride in the wind.  I hope to do a sub 4 hour this year - it will be a great celebration if it does happen!

I was sent this link to the Garmin site that allows you to see the splits and activity for a sub 4 hour Argus ride.

I joked with my friends and said I would follow the route but just double the times - I'm heading for a sub 8 hour Argus! Don't joke, my wonderful wife once rode 7h30mins!  She hasn't ridden the Argus since...

Be blessed as you prepare for the ride.  It's going to be a fun one - at least the weather has cooled down a bit in Cape Town today.