A very cold morning greeted us at the isolated Kwa-Ximba Mtb Super Classic at the end of a 4 x 4 track that took for ever to get down. The race was situated just outside Camperdown in literally what seemed to be the Valley of 1000 Hills. The race was scheduled to start at 08:00 am, so we left our place bright and early to get to the registration. Due to the number of people still coming in at 07:50 the start of race was delayed by 30 minutes.
The race started at 08:30 and was quite a relaxed start. But half way up the first climb the pace opened up, a break away of about 7 or 8 guys were in front, luckily I managed to go with them. A little further up the climb Pete Smith, Jedson Tooms, Chris Wolhuter and I had been dropped, along with Dave Louw and Gary Flint. Chris, Pete, Jedson and I formed the chasing bunch and we began to work well together. We came to the first single track section and Pete picked up the pace but I managed to go with him and we managed to get a small gap, but Jedson and Chris closed it down just after we exited the single track.
Directly after that Jedson put in an attack on a steep climb and I decided to go with him as he is a strong climber. We worked really well together and pushed the pace up a bit breaking away from Pete and Chris.
We eventually came past some members of the front bunch when Andrew Hill punctured at about ±19km mark and we got an indication from him that the front bunch was not that far ahead of us
The toughest and steepest climb of the day came, and I noticed Pete had really upped the pace, as he was closing on us. About half way up he caught us and really put down the hammer. I again found myself to be with him, and noticed both Jedson and Chris could not hang on to the pace and I wondered how long I could go with him but was eventually dropped after about 5 minutes.
I then lost touch of Pete and upon entering a single track, a pack of hunting dogs forced me to stop while they were crossing the road. I was really worried that they would chase me, so I stayed where I was until their handlers came to the rescue. Now being really frustrated I gave it my all and I then ended taking a wrong turn, but soon realized my mistake and only lost about a minute. Approaching the river crossings I saw Pete on the far side, and I tried to push and really catch him, but I was unable to close the gap.
A couple of kilometers later Carl Calverly and Dave Louw caught me again. As Carl caught me he put down the pace and I once again found myself in a small break away. Suddenly, Nico, Team Jeep, came past us, (he had been leading the race) he had obviously also taken a wrong turn and was going like the clappers. Eventually with about 5km to go Carl broke away and I had to settle with a 6th overall, and 2nd in the youth category finishing in a time of 2hr14mins.
The Race is by far the most difficult race I have EVER done, 7 absolutely grueling climbs. One climb was 8km on it’s own and the course was also extremely steep and grassy. The course was very cool, but extremely difficult for a 50km.
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