Jock Stage 1

Having stuffed all our bikes into the cardboard boxes,
jumped on a plane and then cruised 4 hours to Nelspruit in a mini bus rental,
we were ready to rock the Jock.

The first day saw us taking on a 27km time trial up to
Kaapsehoop. The stage started off with a 12 kilometre section of rollers and
then the gradient kicked up for the next 15km to the top. Brendon made a rookie
error and filled his bottle with recovery shake instead of his usual carb
drink, so it was going to be sticky Powerade for him from the Engen.

At the start we had the first bike weighing before a race
ever, it was a little rude when the lady told Johann he did not have to weigh
his bike as there was no chance it was going to be underweight.

Brendon was off first, he took it easy on the flats knowing
very well he was going to be caught at some stage by Kevin and Calvin. 

Then
Delano and Kevin were off, starting 30 seconds apart, Kevin gave it real horns
right out the gate. He passed Delano at 3km and then Calvin at 12km and Brendon
at 17km. Then went on to smash the rest of the stage and take the win for the
day and the yellow jersey! Brendon came in 9^th, Johann 19^th,
Calvin 34^th and Delano in 43^rd.

The decent back to the start we took as a warm down, which
turned out to be the longest and fastest cool down we have ever done, 45
minutes long and an average speed of 44km/h! This also led to Calvin getting
dropped during the warm up.

Some recovery shake, Tour de France and a lekker braai
awaited the boys back at the guest house.