An extremely early and chilly morning, 5:30! Saw us leaving our house to make the 2hour trek down to Mtinzini. The trip in total went very quick for me as I managed to sleep some of the way.
We arrived at the venue and it was a completely different type of weather. It had already become really humid and hot, and it was only a little after 7:30!!! My race was only off at 9:00 so I decided to just chill. This was my first race over 45km and I knew it was going to be tough, a whole 57 kilometers!!! I learnt my lesson from Karkloof and decided to take 2 bottles f juice on the bike. The time came to warm up, so Jedson Tooms and I went out to check the start loop and as we arrived back at the start it was a mad dash to try get onto the front row, for we were a little late.
At 9:00 sharp we were off, and it seemed to be a neutral zone for the first 2 or so kilometers. As we hit the dirt the pace jumped greatly, as Rourke Croeser, and Sean Merridew took to the front. It was a bunch of 5 or 6 of us, but at the first climb Rourke, Andrew Warr, Andrew Hill, and Sean broke away. Carl Calvarly, Jedson Tooms and I all gave chase but we eventually settled into a good pace and sat at it. After the first big climb we were a couple of a hundred meters ahead of the next guys. We put in some attacks to give us a bit of a cushion.
We all really worked well together taking turns to do some work in the front. But towards the end Carl had a powerful surge and broke away. It was just myself and Jedson now. Another 10-20minutes after that, I managed to get away from Jedson, but he managed to close the gap again.
Coming up to the finish a big pack was coming towards us. It was a pack of about 4 or 5 riders. I knew then I had to start to up the pace. I went as hard as I could for the last 2km and came out of the bush onto the last 200mtar section in 5th place overall, but the big guys managed to catch and out sprint me, which gave me a 10th overall and 1st in youth category.
I was very pleased with result. It was a long race distance wise but we had covered the 57km in a shade over 2hrs which showed the pace was rather quick. The sandy sections and short sharp climbs made for a very interesting experience.
Well-done to the organizers who did a good job with the marking.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Nelspruit XC National - 17 May 2008
After arriving on Thursday morning we decided to go check out the course.
The national was to be held at the newly established Mankele Bike Park, just outside Nelspruit and very close to the Sudwala caves. We pulled in at the gates, and from what we could see the area looked VERY hilly. But the venue looked really awesome and I was super keen to hit the track. I took to the course and had not even completed a lap before I managed to puncture my back tyre.
On Friday we were again at the track, checking out lines and making last minute checks on the bike. While riding I kept checking out my back tyre and soon realized I needed a new one as my tyre kept going flat. Fortunately my dad had phoned friends in Pretoria and a tyre and a bottle of Stan’s was on the way. After practice I cleaned my bike and then we decided to visit the Sudwala caves. It was really cool and thereafter we all headed out to Graskop for some seriously good pancakes.
On Saturday I was able to lie in as my race was only at 13:30, the last race of the day. During the course of the day I took it really easy. Taking in a lot of fluid and staying chilled. We decided to leave the house a bit earlier to go and support some of the races before mine. The day seemed to take forever and eventually my race came.
I was seeded 8th after having a DNF in Pretoria. I still managed to sneak into the front row, next to Travis Walker. The start was really fast, and went into a really tight first corner. I was the second rider to the corner but having the outside line, I had to scrub off a ton off speed to make the corner, and I lost a couple of places, but then jumped into a good position in the pack.
On the first lap I managed to work my way up the pack into the top three, but then disaster struck. I came into a really rough section way too fast, and managed to crack or strip the bolts in my head set. This caused my bars to swing down, and I flung over the handle bars. I recovered from the fall and raced as hard as I could to the feed zone where Johann Wykerd and my dad assisted by re fastening the bars. It was during this time that I l slipped further down the standings and by the time I got going again, I had dropped to 6th position.
I then went as hard as I could to close the gap and managed to catch Luke Roberts (5th). But soon after catching him my bars came loose again and I slowed right down to retighten them. This caused me to lose a huge amount of time. For my final two laps I got over it and went balls to the wall only stopping to tighten my bars when I absolutely had to. I took huge chances in the very technical single tracks, but could only slightly close the gap, despite all the stopping. I still managed to secure a 6th position.
I was very disappointed with my result as I really wanted to do well and I felt really strong, right to the finish, but you can’t always have a good race I guess:-)
That evening we all had a braai at the venue, watched the 4 cross racing and finished off the evening with a live performance by Prime Circle playing the concert, it was AWESOME!!!
In all the course was really awesome, I loved it, it was really technical and had some good climbing. I rate the course as one of the best the XC circuit has to offer.
Well-done to the guys who put in such a huge effort. Look forward to the next race up that side- Hazyview!!!
The national was to be held at the newly established Mankele Bike Park, just outside Nelspruit and very close to the Sudwala caves. We pulled in at the gates, and from what we could see the area looked VERY hilly. But the venue looked really awesome and I was super keen to hit the track. I took to the course and had not even completed a lap before I managed to puncture my back tyre.
On Friday we were again at the track, checking out lines and making last minute checks on the bike. While riding I kept checking out my back tyre and soon realized I needed a new one as my tyre kept going flat. Fortunately my dad had phoned friends in Pretoria and a tyre and a bottle of Stan’s was on the way. After practice I cleaned my bike and then we decided to visit the Sudwala caves. It was really cool and thereafter we all headed out to Graskop for some seriously good pancakes.
On Saturday I was able to lie in as my race was only at 13:30, the last race of the day. During the course of the day I took it really easy. Taking in a lot of fluid and staying chilled. We decided to leave the house a bit earlier to go and support some of the races before mine. The day seemed to take forever and eventually my race came.
I was seeded 8th after having a DNF in Pretoria. I still managed to sneak into the front row, next to Travis Walker. The start was really fast, and went into a really tight first corner. I was the second rider to the corner but having the outside line, I had to scrub off a ton off speed to make the corner, and I lost a couple of places, but then jumped into a good position in the pack.
On the first lap I managed to work my way up the pack into the top three, but then disaster struck. I came into a really rough section way too fast, and managed to crack or strip the bolts in my head set. This caused my bars to swing down, and I flung over the handle bars. I recovered from the fall and raced as hard as I could to the feed zone where Johann Wykerd and my dad assisted by re fastening the bars. It was during this time that I l slipped further down the standings and by the time I got going again, I had dropped to 6th position.
I then went as hard as I could to close the gap and managed to catch Luke Roberts (5th). But soon after catching him my bars came loose again and I slowed right down to retighten them. This caused me to lose a huge amount of time. For my final two laps I got over it and went balls to the wall only stopping to tighten my bars when I absolutely had to. I took huge chances in the very technical single tracks, but could only slightly close the gap, despite all the stopping. I still managed to secure a 6th position.
I was very disappointed with my result as I really wanted to do well and I felt really strong, right to the finish, but you can’t always have a good race I guess:-)
That evening we all had a braai at the venue, watched the 4 cross racing and finished off the evening with a live performance by Prime Circle playing the concert, it was AWESOME!!!
In all the course was really awesome, I loved it, it was really technical and had some good climbing. I rate the course as one of the best the XC circuit has to offer.
Well-done to the guys who put in such a huge effort. Look forward to the next race up that side- Hazyview!!!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Karkloof MTB Festival 10 & 11 May 2008
XC: Saturday:
Saturday saw the second race of the festival, the XC (cross Country) and this also doubled up as the final race in the KZN XC cup series. The racing for this race was a little different from the previous XC’s as you had to race in your age group not in your chosen batch. This placed me in the C batch and my race was off at 9:30 am.
The start was off on time. As we took off Travis Walker came to the front and sat in front off me. I sat behind him and let him pull for quite a while we opened a gap on the rest of the field and we sat with each other until we caught up to the back markers of the previous batches.
Travis managed to squeeze through a couple of gaps and broke away. I waited until I could find a gap in the single track and I took every chance after that to try catching him again.
I pushed hard every lap and felt that my times were consistent but the gap between Travis and I continued to increase slightly each lap. I still went as hard as I could and I managed to get into a group of the faster elite riders and let them pull me, which enabled me to conserve some energy.
In the end I could not close the gap enough, but I still managed to grab 2nd overall in the Youth championship, 2nd in batch and 2nd in age group. I was really happy with my result as I had achieved one of my goals for my first year as a youth rider.
The course was really awesome, one of the best XC course I have ridden, great single track, slippery river crossings and a tough rock garden/river crossing. Well done to every one who put a great amount of work into the course!
45km Half Marathon:
Over the last two days the Karkloof had seen the Friday night race, the XC and the Dash for Cash. Today was the final races, the 75km Marathon and the 45km half marathon.
I had a game plan for the race and was really eager to get started at 09h00. The start was very fast and I was really surprised that no one came with me as I soon found myself out in front on my own as I had put in attack very early effort to draw out the faster riders in my batch so that we would have a clear run at the course and hopefully a good race on the day.
I then decided to settle into a comfortable pace and soon had Travis and another rider with me, but we still had a long way to go. The first big climb of the day drew close and both Travis and I put in an attack in order to drop the other rider.
I sat on the front of the break away for most of the race with Travis just sitting on my wheel and not really helping to work to stay ahead of a hard charging Jedson Tooms.
Then at about 30km or so into the race, my juice bottle was empty and I knew I had made a big mistake by only taking 1 bottle for the race!
I knew had to go with Trav for as long as possible, but I could feel myself needing some energy. He opened a small gap on me on the bottom of the KOM (king of the mountains) I gave chase but slowly began running out of energy.
A little while after this, Jedson caught me and I gave chase as long as I could, but I had completely blown all my energy.
With only 8km to go I blew completely and could only try and stay on the bike and nurse my body to the finish.
I definitely learnt from my costly mistake!!!
Well-done to the organizers once again, the course was a lot tougher than last year, but was absolutely awesome.
A big thank you to Andrew Nicholson, Barry Hullett, Bruce Mackenzie and Rene Stubbs for all their hard work in putting this great event together. It was really awesome! Thanks loads!!!
Saturday saw the second race of the festival, the XC (cross Country) and this also doubled up as the final race in the KZN XC cup series. The racing for this race was a little different from the previous XC’s as you had to race in your age group not in your chosen batch. This placed me in the C batch and my race was off at 9:30 am.
The start was off on time. As we took off Travis Walker came to the front and sat in front off me. I sat behind him and let him pull for quite a while we opened a gap on the rest of the field and we sat with each other until we caught up to the back markers of the previous batches.
Travis managed to squeeze through a couple of gaps and broke away. I waited until I could find a gap in the single track and I took every chance after that to try catching him again.
I pushed hard every lap and felt that my times were consistent but the gap between Travis and I continued to increase slightly each lap. I still went as hard as I could and I managed to get into a group of the faster elite riders and let them pull me, which enabled me to conserve some energy.
In the end I could not close the gap enough, but I still managed to grab 2nd overall in the Youth championship, 2nd in batch and 2nd in age group. I was really happy with my result as I had achieved one of my goals for my first year as a youth rider.
The course was really awesome, one of the best XC course I have ridden, great single track, slippery river crossings and a tough rock garden/river crossing. Well done to every one who put a great amount of work into the course!
45km Half Marathon:
Over the last two days the Karkloof had seen the Friday night race, the XC and the Dash for Cash. Today was the final races, the 75km Marathon and the 45km half marathon.
I had a game plan for the race and was really eager to get started at 09h00. The start was very fast and I was really surprised that no one came with me as I soon found myself out in front on my own as I had put in attack very early effort to draw out the faster riders in my batch so that we would have a clear run at the course and hopefully a good race on the day.
I then decided to settle into a comfortable pace and soon had Travis and another rider with me, but we still had a long way to go. The first big climb of the day drew close and both Travis and I put in an attack in order to drop the other rider.
I sat on the front of the break away for most of the race with Travis just sitting on my wheel and not really helping to work to stay ahead of a hard charging Jedson Tooms.
Then at about 30km or so into the race, my juice bottle was empty and I knew I had made a big mistake by only taking 1 bottle for the race!
I knew had to go with Trav for as long as possible, but I could feel myself needing some energy. He opened a small gap on me on the bottom of the KOM (king of the mountains) I gave chase but slowly began running out of energy.
A little while after this, Jedson caught me and I gave chase as long as I could, but I had completely blown all my energy.
With only 8km to go I blew completely and could only try and stay on the bike and nurse my body to the finish.
I definitely learnt from my costly mistake!!!
Well-done to the organizers once again, the course was a lot tougher than last year, but was absolutely awesome.
A big thank you to Andrew Nicholson, Barry Hullett, Bruce Mackenzie and Rene Stubbs for all their hard work in putting this great event together. It was really awesome! Thanks loads!!!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Forest to Falls Half Marathon 03 May 2008
We left early on Thursday morning, on our way to the “thriving metropolis” of Graskop. The road trip wasn’t too bad, Meg driving, Craig watching DVD’s, Pete studying and myself, playing play station. We arrived in the tiny town of Graskop around 14:30. We found our accommodation and managed to settle in just before the miserable weather set in.
The next morning was cold and wet, and so we decided to hit the pancake house for some breakfast and some hot coffee!!! We then took a tour around the minute town, walking in and about all the curio shops that are placed every where among the town. Later Craig, Pete and I went for a ride to Pilgrim’s Rest, a small town/village some 30 odd km’s away. The weather up the climb of the pass was really snotty, the rain was drizzling the whole time, we then crested the climb and had what felt like a 10km dry run almost the entire way down, it was really awesome!!!
Our day ended with us attending another pancake house just across the road from the other one (This was the 2nd pancake house out of the 4 we knew about).
On Saturday came the race, we were up reasonably early, with the marathon off at 8am and my race (35km half marathon) off at 8:20 am. I warmed up with Craig and the guys, and then went to the seeding area, after the marathon had gone we lined up, I was on the front row, I sat nervously on the start. We started on time and had a very long neutral zone, but after the lead car pulled off the racing started.
After a km or so there was a group of 7, Bryce Munro was setting the pace, myself, Jac-Johann Steyn and Arno du Toit sat at the back and in the middle of the pack, trying not to use too much of our energy too early in the race. Soon Bryce, myself and another guy were all together, but at the top of the ‘King of the Mountains’ I couldn’t hold on and I began riding with Arno and Jac, who were working very well together and closed up to me. From here on the three of us worked very well together and about 10km from the finish I started attacking, as I knew both Jac and Arnot both had a better sprint than me.
I got away but they worked together and closed up every time. A couple of kilometers down the road, one of the slower marathon riders that we were passing fell in front of us and I got caught up in the fall while Jac and Arnot seemed to come away relatively unscathed and they saw the opportunity and took off, leaving me to play catch up.
I chased really hard for about 3 km’s and managed to catch both of them again after putting in a really big effort. With about 3km to go they put another attack leaving me to try and chase them down again after having just played catch up and could feel the body starting to talk back and was really feeling the pace, but I still pushed myself to the limit, as we crested into the finish holding as long as I could but was still beaten to the line by a second or two.
I was really happy with my result, being my first major half marathon, against a field of seasoned competitors who have been doing this for a while.
The organization gone into this event was really awesome, the course was really cool but hard.
I would just like to say thanks to Craig, Meg and Pete. You guys are awesome. Thanks for the great weekend!!!
Lastly a big thank you to Dellah Paul, who also made it possible for me to attend.
The next morning was cold and wet, and so we decided to hit the pancake house for some breakfast and some hot coffee!!! We then took a tour around the minute town, walking in and about all the curio shops that are placed every where among the town. Later Craig, Pete and I went for a ride to Pilgrim’s Rest, a small town/village some 30 odd km’s away. The weather up the climb of the pass was really snotty, the rain was drizzling the whole time, we then crested the climb and had what felt like a 10km dry run almost the entire way down, it was really awesome!!!
Our day ended with us attending another pancake house just across the road from the other one (This was the 2nd pancake house out of the 4 we knew about).
On Saturday came the race, we were up reasonably early, with the marathon off at 8am and my race (35km half marathon) off at 8:20 am. I warmed up with Craig and the guys, and then went to the seeding area, after the marathon had gone we lined up, I was on the front row, I sat nervously on the start. We started on time and had a very long neutral zone, but after the lead car pulled off the racing started.
After a km or so there was a group of 7, Bryce Munro was setting the pace, myself, Jac-Johann Steyn and Arno du Toit sat at the back and in the middle of the pack, trying not to use too much of our energy too early in the race. Soon Bryce, myself and another guy were all together, but at the top of the ‘King of the Mountains’ I couldn’t hold on and I began riding with Arno and Jac, who were working very well together and closed up to me. From here on the three of us worked very well together and about 10km from the finish I started attacking, as I knew both Jac and Arnot both had a better sprint than me.
I got away but they worked together and closed up every time. A couple of kilometers down the road, one of the slower marathon riders that we were passing fell in front of us and I got caught up in the fall while Jac and Arnot seemed to come away relatively unscathed and they saw the opportunity and took off, leaving me to play catch up.
I chased really hard for about 3 km’s and managed to catch both of them again after putting in a really big effort. With about 3km to go they put another attack leaving me to try and chase them down again after having just played catch up and could feel the body starting to talk back and was really feeling the pace, but I still pushed myself to the limit, as we crested into the finish holding as long as I could but was still beaten to the line by a second or two.
I was really happy with my result, being my first major half marathon, against a field of seasoned competitors who have been doing this for a while.
The organization gone into this event was really awesome, the course was really cool but hard.
I would just like to say thanks to Craig, Meg and Pete. You guys are awesome. Thanks for the great weekend!!!
Lastly a big thank you to Dellah Paul, who also made it possible for me to attend.
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