Adventure Quest Africa (2)
Leg 2: 74km Bike
Cindy Van Zyl / 02.09.2002
T1 – T2: Mountain Zebra National Park – Fishriver Station Bridge
Our gears were clicking over smoothly, our tyres were zinging over the gravel road and our spirits were high. We turned right onto a steep jeep track and after a calve-crushing push, raced down the other side of the hill. A piece of wire that may have lain in the path undisturbed for twenty years awoke from our elated whoops. It struck its fangs into my spokes, destroying the de-railuer arm, twisting the chain and bending several spokes.
This was the second major race where we lost a de-railuer within the first hours of the first bike leg. Maybe it was a good omen … any positive thought would have done to dispel the disappointment as teams zoomed past us.
Thanks to Kobus’s roadside bike-repair shop we were mobile again within half an hour. But, with only duck-tape holding my gears together, we travelled much more gently and slowly; the prospect of having to push my bike for the next 70 km was far too daunting to warrant any cocky antics. Despite our conservative riding, we had another two flat tyres on this leg.
From Cradock, our road wound uphill for 38 km along the spine of the Great Fish River. This gave Brian the opportunity to introduce us to every rapid and weir that we would negotiate during our paddle leg. Kobus was battling with a bit of early race fatigue and a big-fisted headwind slowed our progress even further. We travelled some distance with Team Hydro Gear whose company brought much relief to the monotony of the never-ending road (after all, they are a good-looking bunch).
At 14:45 we met our anxious seconds at T2. We effectively had only two hours of paddling before the compulsory dark zone would kick in at 17:30. This left us with three choices:
- we could either not paddle at all, have a fifteen hour break in the transition and paddle like crazy in the morning
- or we could paddle for two hours and portage the rest of the way, which meant carrying 100 kilograms of boats and kit for 35 km (thus depleting ourselves before the race really began)
- or we could paddle for two hours and sleep on the banks of the river until the dark zone lifted at 7:30am.
