Coronation Double Century
Posted by Nicholas Hops on Wednesday, November 30, 2011
On Saturday i rode the Coronation Double Century in Swellendam with the Plett Club 100. Being the youngest person on the team by quite a long way it was going to be a fun day out and I was joined by my Dad as well. The main problem is that my team mates have all been 'peaking' their training specifically for this race whereas it is part of the beginning of my training schedule as I had only started training properly two weeks ago with the Hell and Back. 202km is a long way for a training ride!
After 5 minutes of riding I had to stop because my seat had almost come off my seat post. So I spent a few minutes fixing that and then rode solo to try and catch up to the team who were soft pedaling up ahead. I caught them with the help of Alan Kuhnert and we were then back on track to the first climb of the day. The 1st and 2nd climbs lead into eachother and come before the 60km mark. So that put the majority of the hills behind is in the first 2 hours. From there on it was pretty much smooth sailing and we managed to get a few pace-lines going to pick up the pace, but mainly it was just 2*2 riding along the undulating roads.
With 45km to there are some large and steepish rolling hills which always hurt the tired legs and there were quite a few in my team who suffered some epic cramping at this stage. We waited at the top of each hill and everyone just rode their own speed until we got to the final climb where we regrouped at the top and sped the last 10km to the finish. With 1km to go the road kicks up to about 10% for 500m and that led to a lot of cramping in some people! WE waited on the top and rode over the line in a time of 7h10m51s which put us in 71st place for the day. After doing it for the 2nd time I was very happy with how it went as I was never in any sort of 'trouble' the whole day. My next race is a triathlon in Natures valley which means I am going to have to amp up my swimming 10-fold.
Cheers,
Nick
After 5 minutes of riding I had to stop because my seat had almost come off my seat post. So I spent a few minutes fixing that and then rode solo to try and catch up to the team who were soft pedaling up ahead. I caught them with the help of Alan Kuhnert and we were then back on track to the first climb of the day. The 1st and 2nd climbs lead into eachother and come before the 60km mark. So that put the majority of the hills behind is in the first 2 hours. From there on it was pretty much smooth sailing and we managed to get a few pace-lines going to pick up the pace, but mainly it was just 2*2 riding along the undulating roads.
With 45km to there are some large and steepish rolling hills which always hurt the tired legs and there were quite a few in my team who suffered some epic cramping at this stage. We waited at the top of each hill and everyone just rode their own speed until we got to the final climb where we regrouped at the top and sped the last 10km to the finish. With 1km to go the road kicks up to about 10% for 500m and that led to a lot of cramping in some people! WE waited on the top and rode over the line in a time of 7h10m51s which put us in 71st place for the day. After doing it for the 2nd time I was very happy with how it went as I was never in any sort of 'trouble' the whole day. My next race is a triathlon in Natures valley which means I am going to have to amp up my swimming 10-fold.
Cheers,
Nick
