Happy is the DC cyclist with a sociable soul
When you google “cycling quotes”, the first questions that come up under the “People also ask” section are, in this order: “What can you say about cycling?”“Are cyclists happy?”“Why is cycling so happy?”
You can say a lot about cycling, and, indeed, some would suggest that cyclists probably say too much about it.
It makes us happy because cycling is a happy thing taking us to a happy place on the greatest invention in the history of the planet. Riding a bicycle is the simplest and most beautiful of actions. It can also be the most awkward and involved, but it is always beautiful.
The cycling was magnificent on the last weekend of November at the Old Mutual Wealth Double Century, a 200km jaunt from Swellendam and back. It was my 10th “DC” ,a race I first rode back in 2008.
David Bellairs, marketing director of the Cape Town Cycle Tour Trust, asked me to ride with his 12-man team that year. On the Tuesday, David called to say two people had pulled out, but, not to worry, we were still going to ride. On Wednesday, another bailed. On Thursday, one more dropped out, by the time I go on my flight on Friday, there were just two left: David and me.
And still we rode. We gave another team our early start time and they allowed us to ride with them for a spell. It took just 205km, eight hours and 48 minutes and I was hooked.
The DC is, without a doubt, the most magnificent road race in SA. It is, essentially, a team trial over 200km, with 12 riders in a team aiming to cross the finish line together. For others, the ones at the sharp end, it is a race, with those who tire or who have emptied the tank, left to cruise home.
The 2022 DC was particularly special as it coincided with David’s 60th birthday and he gathered a cast of friends to join him on his special day. It was a 200km birthday party on wheels, one where you had to earn the finish line beers on the roads through Suurbrak, along the R62 past Montagu, before turning left just before Robertson, ripping down the R317 to Bonnievale, where the hardest part of the DC begins.
Six climbs and a false flat later, and you are done. The party can begin, but, truly, the party started at 5am when we were sent on our way.
The stature of the DC is such that Breitling, the Swiss watch company, brought out a starspangled team. This year, Nic Dlamini, the first black South African to ride the Tour de France, was with them, so was Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali, Ironman world champion Jan Frodeno and chef David Higgs.
I bumped into Rob Hunter, the first South African to win a stage at the Tour, at the final water point. I’m not a fan of riding races. I prefer riding on my own with my own thoughts and not having to talk to people for a few hours, but the DC brings out the sociable soul in me.
That may change on the second weekend in December when I take part in the inaugural Stanford 100 Miler, a 169km dirt ride in the Overberg, beginning and ending at the Stanford Hills wine estate. It will be a test for legs that need more kilometres in them, but that is the whole point of testing yourself.
I do have 200km and 2,100m of climbing from the DC, and a head of memories. With the DC, David has started a tradition that has become the greatest of weekends, the one I look forward to the most every year.
There’s the pre-race lunch at Van Loveren, handing over bikes to schoolkids, buying plastic bottles of soetwyn in Bonnievale, the pasta dinner and jersey handover, a wonderful 200km ride and the sense of a good day well spent.
For me, David is the DC and the DC is David. It speaks to every part of him as a human being. It’s the race and the person who has the answer to the question: “Why is cycling so happy?”