Pick 'n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Tour

If you want to make racer dudes roll their eyeballs just ask them: "So do you do the Argus , then?"

We normal people understand that, for the lean, hungry, hollow-eyed whippets up front, the Argus may represent not much of a challenge. For the bulk of the field, though, it's hard work. And it's a lot more than just a 109-kilometre tour of the Cape Peninsula.

For a start, this is The Most Beautiful Place On Earth. Parts of it, anyway. And just being there at the start with the music and announcements booming across a sleeping city is occasion enough.

Then there's the lung-bursting dash off the start line (why?) followed seconds later by a desperate clawing at the brakes to funnel safely across the timing maps and through the straw bales. By that time, even if you've arrived more than an hour early to ensure you start near the front of your group, you look up -- to see the leaders 100 metres ahead, surging up the ramp to Eastern Boulevard. Like I always say, if you can feel the pain, at least you're still alive.

On the subject of sayings, I like this one, from a friend remembering her first Argus and passing on some wisdom on the eve of my first Argus: "Everybody talks about Chappies. And Suikerbossie. Even Wynberg Hill. BUT NOBODY TOLD US ABOUT F***EN SMITSWINKEL."
The last bit was accompanied by shrieks of laughter. Actually, Smitswinkel isn't funny at all. But it helps to know that there's a bit of a kind-of-flat on the last couple of hundred metres of run-in to the top.

Find out more the next couple of days as I explore some of the memorable bits of theArgus.