Race report : Tour du Cap 2024

The Tour du Cap is a 5-stage road race held in the week before the Cape Town Cycle Tour. 2024 is my third year riding this event.

Here’s a blow-by-blow account of the 2024 ride.

Stage 1 Monday 4 March

YR.no had predicted biblical levels of rain suggesting a canoe would be a better mode of transport than a bicycle but the day dawned cool, overcast and all but windless. Thirty-five open category riders headed out towards Tulbagh at an easy pace. 

So easy that I thought I’d pretend to be a proper racer and put in a little dig which the real riders ignored and although another rider joined me, we were soon hauled in. The proper riders declared amateur hour over and put down the hammer. I tried to chase but I was boxed in (my story and I’m sticking to it) and after about half an hour of me and a few others trying to get a paceline organised, we realised we weren’t going to catch them.

At Tulbagh they had 3.40 on us when we picked up one of the racing group riders who had had a mechanical and he soon had us strung out in a straight stripe. He thinned the herd and those of us left in the bunch at the bottom of the Bainskloof pass agreed that we’d enjoyed having him and please could he come again in stage 3. 

The pass itself was gorgeous in a light misty drizzle and every man for himself as usual. I held on as long as I could but 92kg is a lot of MAMIL to climb with. I averaged 34kmph and pennies for the 102km which is good by my standards.

Tuesday 5 March: Stage 2

This was an individual time trial up the Wellington side of the Bainskloof pass. Immaculate tar recently relaid, cool overcast weather – perfect. I caught 4 of the riders ahead of me and only 2 caught me. One was the animator of the break…. Everywhere I go there’s someone in a pure savage jersey dropping me like a cheating spouse.

A good thing I didn’t make the break because he put 4 mins and change into me, and I was 2 mins faster than last year to come in at 29.59 and averaging 290 watts for the 30 minutes. I’m claiming it as a win.

Stage 3 on Wednesday 6 March

A 103km loop and the open group took off like scalded cats. The hooligans at the front only settled down once we were well on the way to Hermon and the big climb of the day, Bothmaskloof – where I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been dropped on the PPA funrides.  A glance at the Garmin said we had averaged a whisker under 42kmph for 20 km. There was damage.

Then they all sat up. The drag up to Riebeek Kasteel and the base of Bothmaskloof was the slowest I’ve ever seen any peleton take it and it’s only 5 or 6 years since I was in group W for the PPA fun rides so that tells you something.

And here I made a mistake and I didn’t even know it until the next morning when we did the postmortem on Stage 3 on the start line of Stage 4. Unbeknownst to me, the rider just in front of me on GC went up the road and got about a 500 meter head start on the yellow jersey group when eventually they accelerated. He’s a strong climber this chap and apparently he was just able to hang on over the top and then got a free ride with the leading group to put minutes into me.

You live and learn.

As it was, I did my PR for the main climb acting as an oversized climbing domestique for the second group and we time- trialed at a gentle pace to the finish.

No sense in blazing the legs before the Queen’s stage on Thursday.

Thursday 7 March – Stage 4 (Queen’s Stage)

The queen had a bit of setback, Helshoogte was taken out of the parcours because of roadworks, and we were routed around Stellenbosch to the road past Val de vie and on to the big hill finish of the tour at the top of the duToit’s Kloof Pass.

The racing was epic. An easy start before the GC podium battle got underway. I pulled up next to the Pure Savage rider who was in third at that point and asked him what he was planning back here in mid pack. To my surprise he told me “Momentum into the rollers and force the leader and 2nd place to chase”.

5km later he launched it and pre warned (unlike in stage 1) I saw it coming AND had the legs to hold on. Only by a shaved leg hair’s width but when they sit up they sit up and then there you are… One MAMIL extremely excited to have escaped the zoo.

Of course, you only get 5 minutes to stuff a celebratory jelly baby down the maw before they attack again and this time my campadres from stage 1 and I, including the sneaky bothmas guy from stage 3 got shelled. 

The tactics of the battle for podium were however such that we caught the leaders on the R44 which was a mixed blessing because that meant that we were going to be subjected to more torture as they tried to rip each other’s legs off. 

I almost forgot to mention another highlight, being part of the bunch sitting up while the yellow jersey took a “comfort break”. That’s another Mamil first calling for another celebratory jelly baby.

We proceeded towards the climb with Pure Savage riding off the front to try throw the gauntlet down to the other leaders who responded by periodically thrashing us. We (that’s me and one or two others) tried to persuade our little bunch of hangers on that this wasn’t our fight, but they were having none of it.

Presumably they saw through our ploy of trying to save something for Dutoit’s and correctly backed themselves to be able to wear out us bigger and slightly older okes and discard us like used wet wipes.

Which is of course what happened. The leaders went off at about 90km. I had to let the little grupetto go about 300m into the climb and I zone two’d my way to the top, telling myself that this was character building and muttering cliches about today’s pain being tomorrow’s strength.

Friday 8 March Stage 5

The forecast rain arrived and we were wet most of the way. 129km to Malmesbury and back, on the usual route with a little sting in the tail back to the start.

The ride was hard. I had 30 seconds on the rider closest behind me on the General Classification for the open group and the rider in front of me had at least 5 minutes on me, so the loosely held goal was to keep rider 266 in my sights and not let him finish more than half a minute ahead of me.

Fortunately, this wasn’t that hard – everyone was too tired to chase the yellow jersey group with anything more than transient enthusiasm and we ground our way over the innumerable rollers into a rainy headwind and back to Wellington at a 32kmph average – a bit slower than the other stages. I clung to 266 up the last 500m climb and finished on his wheel – mission accomplished.

I loved the race. I’m pleased to be fit enough to stay close enough to the action to be learning more about the sport first hand. The slower guys like me are still experienced enough to know how to ride in an echelon and are able and willing to roll turns when it’s required. Vastly different to the C and B batches at the other local rides.

It was all great fun but a little tiring. Early starts and driving back to Cape Town because I had some work in the afternoons got a bit old by the end of the week.

But smashing out everything I had through the misty rain on the Dutoit’s kloof pass time trial and crossing the line under 30 mins at about 60kmph and then cruising down the pass back into the morning sunshine, I counted myself a happy man. 

Alan Hatherley won the elite group. I finished 12^th out of 32 finishers in the open group, 3^rd out of 9 in the 50 to 59 age group in the Opens.

The future of the event seems fragile. I think the tricky logistics involved in taking a week off work and either staying in Paarl or Wellington or driving through each day from Cape Town keep numbers quite low. It’s pity because it’s a lovely event. If there are early bird entries opening soon for 2025, I’m in.