Saturday saw us to the Eston club for the Illovo Eston Marathon and Half Marathon. This race has grown from 180 riders, to the biggest one day mountain bike race in the country. The weather was extremely cold in the morning, but still sunny, typical winter weather.
The line up for the 40km Half Marathon was a fierce one, all the guys were here, Tim Stark, Travis Walker, Jedson Tooms and James Reid, along with two Elite, House of Paint roadies. Our start was off at 08:30, and the start was fast from the word go. There was a big bunch of us until the KOM (king of the mountains) came. From there it broke up into a pack consisting of Travis, Tim, Jedson, James and myself, with Tim coming out with the KOM victory. After that the pace grew really fast and Tim began feeling sick, after really putting in a really big effort earlier. It was now the three maverick riders and I. Upon the next climb, Wattle Hill, I struck a huge “unlucky” rock and punctured. I stopped to bomb it and there was no chance left for me to get to the leading pack by myself again. After that incident I chased really hard and the two elite riders from House of Paint caught up to me. We worked together trying to catch the leading pack, and it started to pay off, as we were closing on them. Eventually the one broke away, leaving myself and his team mate.
Just after the first water table I managed to drop the one roadie and began to close on his team mate which I caught and passed in the single track. I now had my sights set on the leading bunch, but was caught in no man’s land on my own. Their gap was just too big and the three of them worked phenomenally well together. I ended up settling for 4th overall in a time of 1hr 40 and 3rd youth for the day.
Well done to James who had an exceptional ride and took the honors, Travis in second and Jedson in third. Another big thanks to the organizers who made the course and venue such an awesome experience. The course was really cool, with one or two tough climbs and some awesome single-track.
