Salomon Bastille Day

Bastille Day 15km

I think I can now confidently say that I have completely defrosted after Saturday’s freezing race.

The event started well, with the biggest climb in the beginning. The route itself doesn't have a huge amount of elevation in it which immediately makes for quite a speedy race. The 15km route turns right where all the others turn left and winds its way deep into the Franschhoek mountains on a meandering single track. Due to the wide contouring path I was able to move quite quickly in this section. After reaching the highest point at just over the half way mark I took a bit of a “create your own route approach” and unfortunately misread a route marker which resulted in me trampling down a waterfall path. At this point most people would have turned around realising that this was obviously not the right way, but I’m no quitter and didn't doubt myself in the slightest. The fact that the path was barred by several trees and bushes, and had obviously never been used before, by anyone, for some reason didn't ring any alarm bells. I was convinced that this was exactly the sort of thing Trevor Ball would put in the route. But after climbing over the 4th tree and the path (well if it can even be called that) disappearing into bush I had to admit defeat and scramble my way all the way back up to find the actual single track.

This mid-race expedition took quite a bit of time and I unfortunately dropped a few places. The rest of the race is pretty much down hill from there as it drops into the valley. After successfully crossing the icy river a few times (in previous years face planting at this point has become a regularly occurrence). The race then follows a sandy single track along the opposite mountain, up a short gravel hill before dropping back down onto the last stretch of single track, yet another freezing river crossing (because you can never cross a frozen river too many times) and sandy stretch before finally reaching the finish line. Due to the nature of the race being so short and speedy I was only able to catch one lady in front of me in order to secure 4th place.

Despite the slight detour and the absolutely arctic conditions, I absolutely loved every minute of it and would do it all over again in a heart beat (possibly minus the self-invented route). Big thanks to Salomon and Energy Events for yet another incredible race!