Finally summer !
You cannot believe how happy we are when at 2 PM on friday-afternoon we finish the workweek and the raw winterweather of the past couple of months. Straight home to take a quick shower as Toptours is already waiting.
A troubled winter is behind us: the decision to continue the team brought a lot of organizational work and the necessary training in “polar temperatures” is for us not obvious. Just like Reevax, also our sponsors are again confident in us and with little bits at the a time, the team got its new looks. The new website, that you probably already have seen, provided Kroki with plenty of sleepless nights. Hopefully it is an improvement. Also the design of our Bioracer-race-outfit got a new look with a few new sponsors, without loosing the typical Reevax style. This season we will conquer the elements and the competation with the Orbeas showpiece: the Team 05 with Scape frame is race-ready.
With a brand new T-shirt and backpack we stood proud at the checkin desk of our national airport. A little like the first day of school, but then for big toddlers. We wil save you the details of the boring, 11 hour flight via London to Cape Town. Thanks to Toptours we had more legspace then legs and for the first time in my life I sat in the “bump” of a 747-400.
Once in cape Town a lot of stress falls away and we absorb as much as possible the autumn sun to which we longed for so long. A red-burned neck is the price we pay after only half an hour picknick. Unpacking the bikes and making sure we can make our first summer training tomorrow morning is the plan. The South-African hospitality was not unfmailiar to us, but making surce we would completely feel at home, was a little bit over the top: During our first training ride at the other side of the world, we became “only” 3 times soaking wet !
Our hotel is about 5 km from the center of Cape Town. This means aither an hourwalking or taking a cab. Our legs are not really made for walking and next the to physical advantages of a cab, you learn something from the local, almost exclusively black, taxi-drivers: apparantely the spoken language amongst the “brothers” is the Xhorsa. Absolutely not understandable and has nothing to do with English or African. For us is the childrens-Dutch or African extremely funny and we try to speak it a bit ourself: baaie funny !
“You can get everything in Cape Town, only ask”, announces an helpful taxidriver. Because the Reevax-fish doesn’t seem to bite, an additional advertisement campaign for “the African wildlife” follows. We friendly decline for this generous social invitation.
The waterfront is and stays “the place to be” if you ant to grab a bite to eat. All international kitchens are represented, but our attention obviously goes to an Italian place with plenty of sweets and on top of it in Reevax teamcolors and a waiter with the same name. The service in the hotel and the restaurant differs quite al ot compared with our western habits. Because most of the waiters live from the “tips” they receive, they ask more often useless then useful if everything is ok and if you wish to order something else. We think there must also be a price per cleared away plate, as soon as you put the last bite in you mouth, your plate is gone, even if the others at the table haven’t finished yet.
The training rides the following days go extremely well and we gather quite some km with this nice weather. This is the way the winters have to be in Belgium !No wonder that Tom Boonen came here for his wintertraining. The strong sea breeze is always present and makes the hilly area harder. Our urge to discover new places results that we explore the south side of the city. Next to the breathtaking panorama from Red Hill over False Bay, we also meet some wild animals. We immediately feel at home between the babboons, a kind of monkeys. An Englishman couldn’t resist to offer some food ta make a nice picture, despite the “no feeding ” signs and scared the hell out of him when dad-babboon came in-between. And another surprise: the African pinguins, who traded the South-pole for the sun.
We can finally test our Orbea-Team-05 for a longer time. The Shimano Dual Control system is new for us, but works very accurate and we are quickly used to it. Also the new remote control of the Rock Shox Sid fork is a big improvement.
In the meantime it is wednesdaymorning and we will have to suffer through the 7hour bus ride to Knysna. This time we are prepared with plenty of drinks and sandwiches. Around noon, the first Cape Epic participants arrive and there appears to be no lack of Belgians and Dutch riders. Especially the area around Overijse is wel represented. Everybody installs themselves for the long ride, and we make use of the time to write our first message.
See you later in Knysna !
