It is a very long way from Vancouver to Cape Town, but both us and our bicycles did just that! The event was the The Cape Argus Cycle Tour which is a 109 km one-day race (or fun ride!) around the picturesque Cape Penninsula, and there were 35,000 entries! The pros start at 6:15 am, then the rest of us start in groups of 600 every 4 minutes thereafter. We started at 7:30 am and headed off into a day of cycling that saw temperatures reaching 41º C.
Despite there being over 1,000 recorded cases of heat related problems, we both survived to the end expecting at any moment to join the ranks of the many suffering from major cramps to completely heat exhaustion! Dave, however, survived the race, but then could not get out of the car on the way home as his legs completely cramped!
This is a great event with the roads completely closed to all traffic from start to finish. Crowds lined the route cheering us, holding street parties, cheerleaders, etc. all the way!
Our journey was in fact, a little longer as we made a “side trip” from London to Abu Dhabi and return to see Jo, CJ and our grandchildren, Brodie and Tegan. (The bikes remained at Heathrow in “Left Luggage”)
Do it again?? Yes, most likely in 2014!! Here are a few of our photos: