Training Ride to Cape Point

We decided that yesterday would be a great day to start with some training for our cycle from Cape Town to JHB. It was 6am on Sunday morning and low mist and cloud hanging over Cape Town when we both clipped our shoes into the tandem and off we went. As we rode through Cape Town, it was very quiet but we spotted more cyclists on the road as we wound our way through the Southern Suburbs towards Constantia and Muizenburg. The wind along the route to Fish Hoek and Simonstown was strong and we tried to keep a good steady pace - both of us getting used to each other's rhythm on the bike. We stopped at Olympia Bakery for some carbo-loading and the almond croissant and custard pastry topped up our energy levels to help us with the long climb up to Cape Point. We ended up doing the Argus Route but since Chapman's Peak is still closed, we decided to test our hill climbing strength up Ou Kaapse Weg. That's when we had to really concentrate on pushing those pedals and keeping the speed up as we struggled to push the heavy tandem up the long drag. After about 20 mins of hill climbing we were treated with a steep long downhill on the other side which was technically tricky since a lot of strategic leaning is required by both of us in order to get round the corners in one piece! It ended up being a glorious day of sunshine and 120kms later we pulled up to our front door. Our bums were a bit sore and the knees had taken strain after all the hills but it was great to be back on the bike again!

An update on the sponsorship front: since the launch of the Cancer Fighting Journey we have raised over R6,500!! This is really fantastic and we thank all our sponsors for their enormous generosity! We challenge all of you out there to keep on emailing your sponsorship amounts to sponsorship@pag.co.za in order for us to reach our goal of raising over R25,000. In addition to this, we have been offered bicycle pannier bags to use for transporting our clothes and spares on our journey. And we possibly may have 2 other cyclists (yes, 2 other MAD cyclists) who are wanting to join us on our adventure.