#LightBro. Photo: Gary Perkin.
Stage 1 got off to a roaring start… pan flat and on good, albeit loose surfaces. As A Batch hurtled down narrow vineyard roads, bar to bar, riders jostled for position. Every single one of the 80 odd riders wanted to be towards the front.
Those who know the Epic will understand this frenetic frenzy all too well … and it all too often means one thing: Danger! Gevaar! Ingozi!
A recipe for disaster. Photo: Gary Perkin.
This year A Batch is crawling with ‘Newbies’ – more than I’ve ever seen before – which made Zone and me very wary of the potential danger that lurked within this testosterone-fuelled train of lycra bandits.
If you look at Gary ‘Flipper’ Perkin’s image above of A Batch klapping it down a two-lane road, physics will tell you that it is impossible (and outright stupid) to try and ride three up. While this makes perfect sense to me, in the moment, many of our Euro riders’ sensibility seems to have vanished.
In an inopportune attempt to pass my cuzzie Michael Creedon (with 5 plus Epics in the bag), an overzealous rider clipped his bars, bringing him crashing down to mother earth. Cippo, as we call him, due to his uncanny resemblance to Italian stallion Mario Cipollini, lay there in a world of pain as riders looked down, relieved that it was not them – sounds harsh, but Cippo knows this only too well.
Cippo dusted himself off, remounted his chariot and got back to business. He and partner Andy Davies dug deep, very deep to complete the stage in a very respectable time. Testament to the never-give-up attitude of Epic riders.
Rock ‘n’ Roll. Photo: Gary Perkin.
Zone and I managed to avoid any admin and had a roaring day through the Klein Karoo. We loved the route – a splendid mix of terrain that never saw us dismount once. Well done Mr Route Designer. A job very well done.
Safe and sound. Photo: Gary Perkin.
As Tom Boonen says, dirty faces win races. Photo: Gary Perkin.
