20 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - BBB – what a ‘shova
Added by Mike Bradley 20 October 2010

For the first time, since migrating to KZN from Gauteng, I decided to partake in KZN’s version of the Argus/94.7. That’s right, I decided to take my cycling skills on the road for my 4th ever road race, in my illustrious cycling career. I had previously done the Argus (’94) on a MTB, the 94.7 (’96) on a MTB, Midmar Notts (’04) on a Kona Jake-the-snake cyclocross bike and now I attempted the 106km Shova on a 20kg, 3spd Kona Africa Bike! What an experience.

The Build up
Having decided very late to actually go ahead with the race, I only could enter on the Saturday at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. Previous attempts to do the ‘shova on an Africa Bike resulted in the selling of the bikes prior to the race, so this time, one actually remained in stock until race weekend.
Registration was a bit of a confusing issue, and even though it was 1430 on the Saturday, one expects a bit more professionalism when paying a whopping R320 to do the race. There was no direction of where to go to, where to collect the bag (no goodies for late entries – just a 2010 World Cup Soccer shopping bag – though we were doing a cycle race here – not so “Ayoba” MTN!) never mind that there was rugby on next door that made parking a tad difficult. Once we got the admin done, the race was on.
My steed of choice was the Kona Africa Bike – a 3-speed, steel frame bike, with built on carrier. The bike complete with front basket, full mudguards, chain guard, frame-mounted wheel lock, back pedal brakes, front v-brake and flat pedals (we could not fit clipless pedals onto the 1-piece cranks). The extra’s I took along to make the trip as much fun as possible included a radio, 6 x Windhoek lagers (a challenge created through Facebook), water bottle and tools (as the Africa bike does not have quick release wheels or seat post).
Having seen the weather report the day before, and miscalculated that a NE wind translates into a sprightly head wind – the whole way – I was aiming for a sub-5 hour time. That would mean riding at an average speed of at least 21 kph.
The Race
 Having entered late, I was destined for group N and a 08:19 start – the last of the last. This took some pressure off, as I knew that I would not have hundreds passing me en route. Ska and Claire joined me, and we set off into the unknown. The radio was soon blaring out tunes and news/weather reports much to the amusement of fellow cyclists, with the beers in the basket receiving most of the attention. The fact that I was riding a 3spd, 20kg bike was not the cause for much comment in the early part of the race. I actually felt okay and put the stiffness in my legs to the 30km ride I did on Saturday morning. Half-way up Fox hill though, I realised that my seat had slipped a bit. We stopped, raised the seat and continued at a much more comfortable position.
As we proceeded to move through the field, many things became apparent. Young teenagers, who see a guy on a communter/delivery bike, do not take kindly to being passed, so they promptly gear down and race ahead, only to be caught again and passed. After the 4th attempt of trying to surge ahead, they blow, never to be seen again (and this before the 20km mark) – this is one of the reasons that I believe there should be a minimum entry level age on long events like this.
The realisation from guys on their nice 2x10spd road bikes being passed by some random on a commuter bike further into the race was priceless - upsetting to some, amusing to others. To these guys I have no apology, but to say I have been riding bikes consistently for close on 20 years, so don’t feel too bad. But the best was still to come.
The first real descent down Inchanga to Drummond, showed me the true capability of the Africa Bike – man that bike is fast. I “aero-tucked” as much as I could and simply accelerated away from those I caught and passed on the way up. She was so stable that I never had to worry about braking, and with full road closure, could sweep through the entire downhill with not a care in the world. It was going up Botha’s hill that someone finally asked about the bike, and was flabbergasted that I only had 3-gears!!
Having taken on some really bad tasting water from the stop near Phezulu, (and therefore I had not had a drink of water from there until the top of Cassier road), my legs started warning me that I was soon to come into some serious cramp. With the consistent head wind and hot sun, I was dehydrating fast and felt the effect of this on the gentle climb up the M13 to Plantations. I finally had to stop to give my legs a break and get some refreshments in. Now, having researched what causes cramping and learnt of a possible preventative method, I decided to put 2 and 2 together. Let me digress for a second here....
My sister is a very experienced nursing sister who manages the clinic at the National Road Pharmacy in Kloof. In her recent studies on HIV/Aids and primary healthcare, she noted that Vitamin B1 is used to restore and provide ATP (from which cells derive their energy). It had been documented that by simply increasing the levels of Vit B1 (Thiamin) into the patients diet, cramping experienced by patients was much reduced. Cindy’s theory is that if you restore cellular energy, or build up sufficient level of ATP, that could well prevent cramping in most situations. So, having carried 6 x Windhoek lagers (a result of a challenge) all the way to this point, it was time to test that theory – and I no longer had any palatable water to drink. So I resorted to cracking a slightly luke warm beer.
We headed off again and came across the water point outside hillcrest. Here I emptied my water bottle, disposed of the empty beer bottle in the bin, sucked down a gu, and continued. I was feeling better, fields hill was a blast – freewheeling the entire way down, passing people left right and centre was great fun on what felt like a boat. Note to inexperienced riders out there – when descending a nice long road with full road closure, take a glance over your shoulder before crossing two lanes to glide around a corner – you may have passed people on the way up to that point, but there very well could be fellow cyclist catching you – this could prevent accidents.
But, the legs started to give warning signs again, and I cracked another beer under St. Johns bridge. This lasted till Westville. By then I had a group of riders behind me, sheltering in the huge wind tunnel that I created by being on very upright that comes from riding a non-racing geometry bike. The going was tough on this relatively flat road, and when I grabbed the beer from the front basket, I heard a voice from behind saying...”and now he’s drinking a beer...” – when I looked over my shoulder, the bunch had slowly dissipated – in disbelief or tiredness I would not know.
The second beer seemed to do the trick and my legs felt fine by the time I got to Tollgate bridge. The free wheel down into Durban was really nice and when we finally turned into the home straight I looked at my watch and realised that we had met our target. My final time, as I calculated it was 4h48mins, finishing at 13h07 – sub 5 hours – an average of 23.6kph!
Oh that heading? 20 = 20kg mass, 6 = 6 x beers (only 4 made it to the finish though), 5 = sub-5hr target, 4 = my 4th ever road race, 3 – the number of gears on the bike, and the BBB? Well another chirp passed to me whilst I was climbing Fox hill passing a cyclist on his Cervello Road racing bike was “Dude you have got BBB – big brass balls!”