I almost beat Lance Armstrong in the Argus...

Or maybe not!  Ha ha!

A friend jokingly sent me the following tweet about this year's 2010 Cape Argus Pick n Pay cycle tour in which Lance Armstrong took place:

RT @Grant_Russell: @digitaldion Have a good race, just sit behind @lancearmstong until the end and then attack // ha ha! I'll give it a try!

It's a GREAT strategy Grant!  I was keen to try it, were it not for two little problems... 1)  I'm not a GREAT cyclist, and 2) Even if I was on a motorcycle Lance Armstrong would still have done better than I could!  ha ha!

So, if you look at this picture from Sports Illustrated really hard you may just see me in the background (well, you'd have to look REALY hard because I was about 1hour and 23 minutes in the background.  Can photos show you that far back?!)  Whereas Lance completed the 110 kilometer course of the Argus around Cape Town in 2 hours 39 minutes (he came ninth for the record).  I completed the course in 4 hours and 3 minutes.  I came... well, the number is too special to write here!

Seriously, I had a great ride!  In spite of the strong winds I gave it a good shot and felt strong for the whole race.  I had no mechanical problems and my legs and lungs held out very well.  A year's worth of training paid off!  Secretly (well as secret as posting something on the internet is!) I had hoped to get a time under 4 hours.  But, I rode a good honest ride and I'm thankful to have done the course in the time I did.

So, if you're interested in checking out my ride you can have a look over the data from my Polar Heart Rate monitor.  

For the Geeks out there, I use a Polar SX 625 with a heart rate strap and the speed sensor.  Since I am an Apple Mac user I get the data off the watch using Polar Pro Trainer for Windows and then import it into Ascent (a great Mac program).  When I ride on my mountainbike I use a Garmin 305 which can import directly in Ascent via USB.  So, that way I get to keep all my training data in one place.

I hope you, or anyone you may know who rode, are happy with your time.  I saw a few nasty falls - never nice.  So, I pray that everyone is OK and that you're looking forward to a great offroad season.  Get your mountainbike serviced and get going!  My friend Greg and I will be riding the Wines2Whales in November - it is a 3 day offroad stage mountainbike race from Somerset West to Grabouw ending in Hermanus.  Our training will continue in the next week or so.  For now I have my feet up, an Energade in hand, and I'm loving being home with my family.

I leave for Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong on the 23rd of March.  So no cycling for a week after that.

Let me know any friends or relatives' times for the Argus!  Or feel free to share your super story if you rode this year!  I'd love to hear from you.  Just click on the comments button below and leave a comment.