A savage test early on in the season for the team

Boys ready to roll from Durbanville

The team rocked up in a moist Durbanville on Saturday for the start of the Bergriver Festival Cape Town to Veldrif Road Race ready to hammer. After a quick and painless sign on and a quick race brief we were heading out of Durbanville heading towards some rather dark clouds.

The team had entered CAT 3 on the day as this would be one of first proper DC training rides and wanted to utilize the opportunity to work on riding together as a unit. After the first 20km the team had worked well together and were at the front with two other riders. As we passed through Malmesbury and onto the long climb for the day we dropped on of the other riders that was with us.

Savage climbing up the N7

As we reach the summit of the N7 climb and turned onto the R45 Hopefield road we were met by what felt like Hail for 10 minutes. After the down pour the team got back into a rhythm and cranked up the pace for the next 40km. The roads were long and straight, with a slight down hill and not much wind to speak of so the pace was maintained until the 100km mark.

The entire day we had a motorbike and car behind us 

As we approached Hopefield our high pace had caught up with one of the boys and in true Pure Savage fashion a few grunts were exchanged and the remaining three dropped the hammer. As we entered the water point the organisers were ready for us with bottles on the go, so we ditched our empties, picked up some full red bottles and carried on.

Pain train overtaking the other train!

As we passed Hopefield the wind had picked up from the front and the boys had to dig deep and put in some big efforts upfront to keep the pace high. Just before we reached the R27 the other rider with us finally was dropped after constantly putting some big efforts up front. Once we turned onto the R27 we knew we were on the home stretch and had not yet been caught by CAT 1 or CAT 2 yet which allowed us to dig a little deeper.

Team crossing the line!

The last few slight rollers felt like mountain passes and the legs were screaming as we climbed the last rise into Veldrif. The boys came home just in 1st 2nd and 3rd, crossing the line just ahead of the CAT 1 and CAT 2. Everyone was smashed at the end and could not mutter more than 3 words. The team achieved what it set out to do and we are very pleased with our result, lots of training to go until the DC!

Top 3 with our Mitchum to keep us dry!

The Bergriver Festival Cape Town to Veldrif Road Race was hosted by the Western Province Cycling Association and was run extremely well. This is definitely an event the team will do again! We had a motorbike and a traffic official for the entire route! We would like to thank Mitchum our new sponsor. Also a big thanks to the support crew who drove the cars up for us so we did not have to cycle back to Cape Town!

For a full Gallery visit out Facebook page here.

To have a look at the Strava for the ride click here.