Over the last four yearsI have watched the record for Race to Willowmore (RTW) get faster. Each year I analysed the various times and wondered how long it would have taken me.
Men's winners the last four years are:
Tim James (2017), Bruce Hughes (2018), Casper and Casper-John Venter (2019) and Henry Angove and Pieter vd Westhuizen (2020), the last pair also holding the record of 2 days 9 hours and 41 minutes. Freedom sorts are familiar with these names. They're all proper athletes and any attempt to better the current record was going to be a big ask.
Like the other events of the Freedom Trail there are bits you'd rather not do at night. For RTW the tricky part is the Osseberg section mentioned in Part 1, the section we call Mordor. Mordor is positioned immediately before the support station at Kudu Kaya in Cambria.
No one has crushed Mordor at night. Most who attempt a dark passage have either a disappointingly slow time getting through or end up sleeping rough waiting for the sun to illuminate their way out.
Then there's the unique challenge of The Gate. Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency only allow FC cyclists to traverse the Baviaanskloof Reserve if they are accompanied by a support vehicle. The support vehicle is a precaution against the cyclists being confronted by Cape Buffalo which were reintroduced to the area a few years back. Apparently there are loads of them although I've never seen one. The logistics of providing vehicular support isn't easy. To simplify the operation there are only 2 times a day that riders may venture into the reserve - 6am and 1pm. Arrive after 1pm and you get to spend the night in Cambria at Kudu Kaya while you wait for the 6am start time the next day. The Gate is the boomed entrance to the reserve which is about a 20 minute ride from Kudu Kaya. Kudu Kaya is a support station so riders need to sign in and out before heading to The Gate to complete the permit paperwork and start the traverse with the support vehicle.
The duel challenges of Osseberg and The Gate need to be factored into riders plans. The practice over the years, whether doing RTW or the Race Across South Africa (RASA) is to either start your day in Bucklands, the support station immediately before Kudu Kaya, to finish your day in Kudu Kaya, or start your day from Hadley Guest farm, an interim support station situated between Bucklands and Kudu Kaya, to start the Osseberg section at first light in time to get to the 1pm Gate. Either way it makes sense to leave early. Leaving from Hadley shaves almost 4 hours off compared to starting from Bucklands. A 4am start from Hadley should have riders getting to Kudu Kaya in time for the 1pm Gate. That being the case it stands to reason that if you want to start from Bucklands to make the 1pm Gate you'd need to leave by midnight.
The Gate becomes the critical component of putting down a fast time for Race to Willowmore. Pieter and Henry set a new record last year finishing well by riding the final 160km from Kudu Kaya to the finish in Willowmore at a blistering pace. They did however overnight in Kudu Kaya which had them stationary for 14 hours but did mean they started their final charge with fresh legs.
At the start of the race 2020 race I watched with interest as the eager bunch ate up the distance out of Cradock. Even though I've ridden most of the RTW route during RASA the first 30km's out of Cradock are not part of the RASA route so I didn't know how long that would take. The first 20km's are a climb and based on the riders times from RTW 2020 it seems that 1h45 was a fair estimate to get over the top.
Early last year on a morning coffee ride the subject of RTW came up. "Do you think you could ride to Kudu Kaya in time to make the 1pm Gate?" someone asked? Simple question, complex answer. I didn't have a sense of how long the various sections would take on fresh legs. By the time riders get to the RTW route on RASA they have well over 1000km's of accumulated fatigue in their legs. I did the rough maths then subtracted a number of hours for fresh legs and concluded that it was possible. However, it would have to be done nonstop. I figured you'd have to make it to Bucklands by midnight. That's 276km in 18 hours. While it doesn't sound too taxing the first 20 km climb and the 20 km off road section that starts at the farm Grootvlakte culminating in the tortuous down portage of Struishoek would cost many hours. If you kept moving and minimised stoppage time I reckoned Bucklands by midnight and therefore The Gate by 1pm was possible. Tight but possible.
This idea was underpinned as I watched Pieter and Henry roll into Bucklands on queue at midnight. They chose to sleep rather than push on so the question of making the gate for 1pm remained unanswered. At least they had demonstrated that Bucklands by midnight was possible.
It would be a big push to better Pieter and Henry's time into a Bucklands. As Henry in his blunt manner told me, "There's no way you can ride faster than we did." This turned out to be a key comment.
I met Pieter for coffee and we chatted about my basic plan. I told him that could probably shave 14 hours off his time. Pieter was happy to bet against that outcome. 5 coffees were offered as the bet and the deal was sealed.
Pieter and Henry unwittingly became the architects of my race. They'd demonstrated that the first part was doable and then they bet against me. They knew it was possible but boys being boys we goad each other into action.
Thus primed with Pieter's bet and Henry's blunt assertion I crafted a plan based on firm data sprinkled liberally with I'll-show-you.
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