Well al I can say is I’ve never seen anything like it.
When we went to bed last night we were aware that there was a high winds warning. We had discussed our options and decided we would make a decision at our relevant start time. We woke at about 4am and you could hear the wind howling outside and the trees were rocking and rolling about a fair bit.
As we got up at 6 it was clear it was very windy but there were loads of cyclists arriving in the start shoots outside our hotel so we decided we’d crack on with it. We got dressed and went down for breakfast where we met Louise who had been out to see the opening ceremony and she told us she could only just about stand up and that the Elite riders and Tandems had had a devil of a Job getting started with some of them being blown over.
About 10 minutes later news filtered into the hotel that a large number of the elite riders had been blown over after about 3km and at that point the organisers had called it all off as they were getting gusts of up to 100km/h (55/60mph) being registered.
At first we were very much disappointed but after a quick trip outside we realised how dangerous it would have been. There was very soon a number of videos on YouTube showing rider flying about and Porta-loos being blown down the street so clearly it was unsafe.
So there was nothing else for it but to get dressed into rough gear and start packing the bikes away before we went for a second breakfast.
Martin’s wife had by this time arrived and so he soon went off to meet her whilst Liam, one of the tour staff, treated Cat and I to a day out in his car driving the route of the race. There is no doubt it would have been insane to try to ride it, although some did try, as it was still very very windy several hours later.
We managed to see some Penguins at Boulder Beach and watch some nutters kite and wind surfing in the still very strong winds and then had a nice lunch.
It’s a great course with some stunning scenery, plenty of climbs and long descents with views that are hard to beat so if I get the chance I’d love to come back and give it a crack.
Mid afternoon we met Martin and his wife for a few beers on the Waterside. It was a lively pub with live music so we had good laugh before heading back to the hotel to shower before going out for dinner.
Dinner tonight was at an African Themed restaurant, it had all the trimmings with a great, but very noisy, band/singers but it was hard not to start jigging about to the rhythm.
So thats it really, hopefully tomorrow Cat and I will manage to get up Table Mountain wind allowing and then we're off to the airport for the 9:40pm flight home.
Sadly No Stats today.
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