Swellendam celebrations

So on Thursday the 19th of November Benedikt and I flew down to Swellendam... and believe it or not we managed to get our 2 big bike bags, 3 luggage bags, 4 wheels and ourselves into a golf chico for the 2 hour drive from George to Swellendam... I couldn’t stop laughing at Benedikt who was squashed up like a dwarf against the steering wheel :-)))
We LOVE going to Swellendam. Its just so peaceful and beautiful and my parents always spoil us rotten in their lovely home. So immediately we had a big lunch, followed by a nap and then a ride. And that evening we celebrated my dad’s one year anniversary since his triple by pass. His health and general energy levels are just SOOoooooo much better since the op. So good times for him.
The next morning we went for another ride....fighting the wind. Then the four of us drove the route of the 200km race that we were doing the following day. My parents were the support crew for my girls team and they wanted to prepare themselves!
Then we went to registration, then to Benedikt’s team meeting where we also collected my sister and then to my teams’ meeting. 2 VERY different sessions! Us girls were so organised and thourough compared to his casual group.
So the next day myself and the 11 other girls set off at 6:20am in the 200km team event, the Double Century. We immediately had a technical problem as one girl broke her chain...it was not a good start. We lost our first girl soon afterwards, I think the hills were a bit too much for her. Then we all got into a good rhythm after that and quickly went through the first support zone where mum and dad fed and watered us. Mandy lasted until 105kms which was a really good effort from her.... she is the least cyclisty out of all of us. Then we had our next casualty at about 120kms – Nikki had to pullover to vomit poor girl! The rule of the race is that a minimum of 6 have to finish... so it was fine to lose a couple along the way, we started with a full team. Nolly and Carmen were the next to go, they lasted until 150kms or so. I had a real dip around the the 165km mark I think from downing 2 litres of water at the stop and eating a whole bar at once.... but managed to hang in and actually felt really strong in the end. Jenny almost made it... but just wasn’t having a good day and dropped off. So then we were 6 left for the last 30kms which was fine, we all felt ok-ish. We got a puncture but it didn’t take long to fix. So Linda (from Zim), Sharon, Juantia (my second favourite riding buddy ever!), Karlien, Kobie and myself were the final six in our Survivor race! NOT that we were trying to kick the others out I promise!
We didn’t do as well as we hoped – we finished 4th overall amongst the ladies teams. Last year we finished second. But it was a really really good fun day on our bikes. There is something so special about riding on a girls team like that. I think because we are all used to riding with men all the time. And because we were so thankful, motivating and boosting towards each other. Eg whenever 2 girls peeled off from the front, every other girl would thank them as they moved to the back! Quite funny and corny really compared to some of the grumpy, rude mens teams we heard about.
My mum and dad were the best support team EVER! They ran circles around us catering to our every need at all the designated stops... and they picked up all the stray girls and looked after them so well too. I think they really enjoyed being involved too.
That evening we had a visit from my teammates before heading off to Benedikts’ team braai. Sean and Ron came with us as they were staying with mum and dad that night too... I think we all had a good laugh hearing all the stories and sharing all the scary team fights that went on.

The next day we went for a little 40km ride just to spin our legs. Even Mandy made it! Wow! And miraculously none of our bums were sore! Sean and Ron headed off for the airport and Benedikt, Mandy and I headed for the wine farms. What a session that turned out to be! Van Lovern bought us entire bottles of whatever we wanted to taste.... so taste we did! And as we’d finished all 26 bottles, friends arrived, so we had to start all over again. We then headed to Robertson for some more tasting and then to a farm stall for lunch. I cannot remember the lunch very well ;-)

That evening my family celebrated Christmas. Collin, my sisters husband, (I love saying that) was missing though. And so were Mark and Nic. But we spoke nonsense to Mark, who is in Afghanistan maintaining world peace, on skype for ages. And we had a great family Christmas – lots of food, lots of beautiful singing and lots of presents!
We met up with another school friend of mine, Lauren Collier, at the George airport before our flight to Johannesburg and then Nairobi.
What a fantastic holiday. I miss Sowf Efrika!!!

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