1965Ride Day 5, Ladybrand to Wepener by Manelisi and Morris

We woke up in Ladybrand on day 5 to a very misty and chilly morning with the mercury reading 8 degrees. This was a far cry from last year when we were greeted with the pitter-patter of raindrops. A collective sigh of relief could be heard coming from those who were here in 2024.
After a hearty breakfast at Cranbury Cottage, we headed out through town and on to the R26 to continue our journey to our next stop at the Lord Frasier Guesthouse in Wepener. The ride out of Ladybrand is not for the faint-hearted cyclist as a 3km climb awaits to warm up those chilly legs. As we slowly made our way up the hill, the mist started to burn away as the sun and blue skies made a welcome appearance.
At the top of the hill, we stopped where we took the customary photographs looking over Ladybrand in the valley below, including one with Tony’s favourite pose – our posteriors…!
Continuing on the R26 we turned left to continue our journey to Wepener. This particular stretch of the R26 throws up the finest potholes the Free State has to offer. With all of us carefully navigating our way around and through the battered surface, the only person showing a delighted grin was Lungisa, our mountain man on his mountain machine who was revelling in the opportunity to put that MTB bike to good use!

We stopped around 25km outside of Ladybrand for coffee and rusks and to enjoy the beautiful scenery and warm sun. This stop was not without excitement because as we were preparing to leave, Tony discovered that he had a puncture, thereby putting him in the lead of the Trek competition of who can get the most punctures on this year’s tour. The score has Tony on top of the leaderboard with three while Silisizwe nipping at his heals with two. Sili, the tour is only halfway so you still have every chance of coming out on top of this year’s competition.

We continued on the delightful potholed roads, keeping everyone focused on making sure both bike and rider got through this safely.
At around 35km on our journey, the road began to improve and as we came over a rise, we were greeted by fields of yellow sunflowers almost beckoning us on our way. We stopped for some photo’s and were held up by Alessandra who had to take photos with the sunflowery backdrop for her sponsors. Ale has to pay for her fancy kit somehow.

As we made our way past the sunflowers and onto Hobhouse for our lunch stop, the roads improved and we managed to do some parletone riding at respectable speeds surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery the Free State could dish up, almost as an apology for the potholes.

The ride from Hobhouse and onto Wepener was largely uneventful. We broke it up with one more stop at around 80km because this last section was not without it’s fair share of hills, and after 4 days of riding, there are a lot of tired legs on bicycles.

We arrived to a sunny welcome at the lord Frasier Guesthouse where we did some stretching on the lawns of the beautiful garden and then proceeded to a wash bay conveniently located at our venue, to show our steeds some love and respect at what is now over the half-way mark of our journey.

The wash bay was named “Sili’s Soapy Suds for Cycles” as he manned the bay like the seasoned professional he is. If accounting doesn’t work out for you, Sili, you have a ‘plan B’ waiting in the wings!

With all of that done, it was time to check into our rooms, freshen up and get ready for dinner.

After yet another sumptuous feast, Oom Willem regaled us with tales of yore. After the evening’s formalities of choosing MVP, handing out the mandatory fines and the night’s episode of ‘Stats with TaMorra’, it was time to have a good nights sleep and look forward to the easier ride that Monday would bring.

Today we rode 95.9km in a time of 4hrs, 26 mins, bringing our total kilometres clocked so far to 513. We climbed 896m but, more importantly, we descended 1044m. The first time we’ve shown a net descent, finally showing signs that “it’s all downhill to Queenstown “!