Renay Groustra tells us what happened on the second day of the RECM Knysna 200 race.
Another year has gone by, Nico’s age went up but his spirit got younger. Today was my team mate Nico’s 43rd birthday, and what an amazing day we had out on our bikes to celebrate it!
Waking up for day two with slightly warmer weather as well as clear skies, things were looking promising for us in terms of the conditions.
Today we had to face 67km which included 1600m climbing kicking off at Quinta da Montanha, through the Homtini mountains before finishing off with a dash down Phantom pass and back to Thesen Island in Knysna.
The start went a lot faster than yesterday due to a King Of the Mountain hotspot a mere 3km into the stage. Dominic Calitz set a blitzing pace, which I was able to follow before stepping it up to claim the neat little cash prize at the top.
Now I can afford to buy Nico a birthday present! After that move it was only Dominic, Nico and myself on the front with Jarryd Hayley also hanging on for a little while before we pulled away from him too.
From here on out we faced some pretty mean climbs, but also followed by some awesome descents! It can get lonely out in those mountain so I was super stoked to have some quality lads for company.
Read the full blog here.
Click here for Renay’s race report from day one.
