The race has finally started, sort of.  Today was the teaser 17km prologue on a private piece of land.  No one had been able to ride it prior to the start of today.  The female teams were scheduled first off.  From 8am til it was finished 600 teams rolled out at 30 second intervals.  It was basically 45 minutes of all out riding to determine your position for the mass start tomorrow.  It was the first real ride Cristina and I did together.  We were both a bit nervous knowing that sprinting is neither of our strong points and also being a bit unsure of how we would ride together.

Arriving at the start was a bit of a shock for me.  The race organization had converted a huge rugby field into a massive starting track for all the teams. It was my first view of the grand scale of this race and the production that it takes to pull it off.  The center of the giant circle of flags was the rider corral.  After we headed onto the squishy, manicured grass, we were herded into a maze of fencing and put in proper order in the line.  We took off at 8:08.30 and took a loop around the infield, then headed onto the dirt for a hilly, but fast course.  I let Cristina lead the way since she’s a master at these sorts of races.  We’d agreed to just communicate and figure our riding styles out as we go.   After the first 5 minutes of nerves and jitters burned out of my legs, I felt really good.  Cristina didn’t feel fantastic today, but we still rode a time good enough for 7th place.  It was only the first 45 minutes of approximately 45 hours of racing, so neither of us is too concerned with the placing. 

I had a fantastic time on the bike and it felt really good to finally be racing after all the travel and preparation.  It was a great little teaser to check the bikes, the odometers, the legs and just be sure everything is really ready for the long haul.  Half way through the prologue, I had a really strong sensation sweep over me that we were going to have a fantastic time here in South Africa.  Tomorrow, we leave the civilization of Knysna and head into the wild.  The first real stage is rumored to be one of the hardest at 123 km and 3,091 meters of climbing.   Today was just a walk in the park compared to what lies ahead.