It's starting to become a bit of a Sunday routine to put in some good miles out to Chapman's Peak. The road will be familiar to anyone who has seen a Porsche or Audi TV advert in the last decade. It's a stringy piece of tarmac that's been sliced into the side of a mountain and climbs up from the sea creating a tourist hot spot as the views are spectacular.
At this time of the year, the tourists are mostly cyclists. The road is relatively quiet in the morning in terms of cars but the cyclists are out there in hordes. All of them training for South Africa's biggest one-day road race - the Cape Cycle Tour (used to be called the Argus). It attracts around 35000 riders on the day, if I'm not mistaken.
I teamed up with a few mates for some company and before I knew it the ride had turned into a hammer-fest, everyone trying to drop one another. You know what they say about cycling? If there's more than 1 rider, it's a race! 😑
At one point I looked back and was surprised to see we were towing around 20 other, random cyclists. Awesome, until we got to the first hill at which point there were some serious watts unleashed and the sound of elastic bands snapping and lungs bursting was easily audible. Mostly mine! It was meant to be a zone 2, low heart rate ride, but I couldn't resist putting in the odd attack or trying to hold the wheel of a strong rider.
Check out the view from the top of what we all call Chappies (Chapman's Peak). I'm not a very good roadie but I do enjoy these rides with all the people out there at this time of the year. I was also glad to have some legs with me today, not good ones, just more than yesterday.
This week coming is a recovery week, so I think I'm only looking at 8hrs in the saddle and 1 in the gym.
