Kargo National 10 hours

Kargo National 10 hours

Kloofzicht Lodge

6 November 2011

After we completed 3 Towers, Linden Cycles gave Team Clueless matching cycling shirts for their next event - so naturally we had to go find another team-event. We entered the Kargo National 10 hours as a team of two, and convinced Zu and Mummy man to enter too - mainly so that we had someone to talk to during the off-laps :)

It was a beautiful sunny day. Adri & Zu pitched the gazebo while Mummy & I went out on the first lap.

I loved the format.

• Doing laps mean that you get to know the course and each round you ride the rutted downhills faster than the previous lap - until it gets irresponsible :)
• Doing the laps in a due team means that you can fill your waterbottles and check the results (and the competition) while your team mate is riding.
• For every lap you do, your team mate add another lap to the score for which you don't have to work: Ride one, Get one free :)
• Sharing the gazebo with another duo team means that there's always some company while your team mate is out riding. (Ironically the only person you never get to spend time with, is your own team mate!) 
• Lap-riding is possibly the most social type of mountainbiking there is - spectators get to see their riders, and there's plenty of time between laps to check out the results.
• During your off-lap there's plenty of time to see the top riders in action and to cheer your other friends on.

Adri was fast! When you're riding in a team, you can't dawdle like you would have, had you ridden solo. So each lap I rode as fast as we could (which wasn't nearly as fast as my racing snake team mate!). When the first set of results came out about 2 hours into the race,  we were slightly disappointed to see that we were the only female duo team. We noticed that the first mixed team had a 10 minute lead on us, with the second mixed team just 2 minutes ahead of us. Due to lack of competition in our own category, we decided to chase those teams down :)

Mummy man wasn't feeling great, but when they realised they were just 30 seconds behind the second mixed team, they chased them, and on the very last lap caught and overtook the first team to take line honours in the mixed due category. Congrats!

The solo woman's category was a titanic battle between the two lead girls changing positions all the time. Very well done Nicky on that very well deserved second place!

The day was nicely concluded with a swim in the swimming pool with a stunning view, then a hot shower, prize giving and a braai.

A good day out :)