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Letshego solo photo [FNB Wines2Whales]

Letshego Zulu Braves the Cape Weather

By FNB Wines2Whales, 10/28/19, 8:00PM HST

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Solo photo of Letshego

Riders during the 2019 FNB Wine2Whales Pinotage 3 day mountain bike event stage1 from Lourensford to Oak Valley. Image by Xavier Briel

Letshego Zulu is no stranger to extreme adventures. Which is why she and, her FNB Wines2Whales Pinotage partner, Phathokuhle Zondi were undaunted by the Stage 1 weather prediction. Despite the Western Cape cycling through all its weather options during their ride, from Lourensford to Oak Valley, the pair never stopped smiling.

“Phathokuhle is the CEO of Sport Science Institute in Cape Town” so she has an advantage over me, Zulu pointed out good-naturedly. “She’s used to the Cape weather and she had mountains to train on. We don’t have any mountains like these in Joburg.”

As she prepared for a post-stage interview, she continued to joke. “Is my make-up okay?” she said, wiping mud from her face. “There were ten seasons in one day! The thing about riding in the Cape, because I’m a Joburger right, is that when you come here you need to be very open-minded. The Cape will throw all kinds of obstacles at you. We had wind, we had hail, we had rain. But you know what, the riding was still fantastic.”

“The route was fantastic. I know it had to be chopped and changed here and there but I still had fun” she explained. The change was enforced by torrential rain. Lourensford received an incredible 240 millimetres of rain between the early hours of Friday morning and 7 am on Monday when the Pinotage started. Avoiding the rain-damaged singletracks cut nearly 10 kilometres from the route.

Not that Zulu was complaining. She quietly confided that she has hardly ridden her mountain bike in a year. It’s also her first FNB Wines2Whales in a while. “It’s my first one since 2012” she confessed. “FNB Wines2Whales never disappoints!” she concluded with a typically broad smile.

She and Zondi will be heartened to hear that the weather prediction for Tuesday’s Stage 2 is much better. Only 0.3 millimetres are expected to fall on the trails of Oak Valley and Paul Cluver on the out-and-back play day.