On Wednesday I made my way down to Clear Water trails with Johann Wykerd as well as my best friend and a couple of other people who are coached by Johann. We arrived at the trail centre and accommodation after a quick two or so hour trip, and straight away we were keen to hit the trails.
After getting a little settled, we suited up and 11 or so of us took to the 'Super 8' track, which was around 500m long. Here the guys were shown different techniques when entering corners, as well as how to approach, enter, and exit a berm. We then had a fun elimination race, which definitely got the blood pumping.
We hit the Beaver Creek coffee shop that afternoon, and we definitely abused the system of bottomless coffee! I think I ended up drinking a total of 8 cups, and each cup was a different coffee! It was truly epic!and I would recommend anyone in the area or visiting the area to stop here. It is definitely worth the stop.
That night myself and good friend, Adriaan Davel had to braai some chicken, it was a really chilled atmosphere and everyone generally had an awesome time.
Thursday:
This was probably one of the most difficult days of training I had ever experienced. Johann told all of us to pick a gear which we felt we could ride the whole day, we had to take in account for up hills to make sure the gear would not be too hard, and on the downhills we had to make sure the gear wasn't too easy. We then proceeded to ride for close to 3 hours, and up two monster climbs, which really put me in the hurt box!I also took a HUGE bail when one of the younger riders pulled in front of me, in an attempt to avoid colliding with him I swerved and found myself going off a vertical drop. I could only wait for the impact. I landed pretty heavily on my left hip and shoulder, but fortunately I was able to continue to ride.
By the time we reached camp, I was utterly shattered, but had had one of the best rides of my life, having ridden what must surely be rated as the sweetest trails in the country!
Friday:
Saw Luke Roberts joining us. We had an awesome 3hr ride planned for across the valley in the Transkei. Myself, Candice Neethling, Lee Penderis and Adriaan decided to ride down to the point where we were going to meet up with the rest of the crew, just to try get in some extra time. Unfortunately about 5km in my front derailleur slipped and left me unable to pedal. I told the others to continue on. I then ran around 5 or so km in total and jumped in the bike at every downhill to try and get to the crew as fast as possible.
I eventually reached Johann and the others and he was able to help me, as I need a 'torx' tool for the bolt on my derailleur. The ride then went very smoothly. We did some heavy exploring in the Transkei, finding some awesome unridden foot paths. We eventually got back to where the car was and some of us elected to ride back to the trail centre. Again disaster struck, we were on a descent when my chain dropped off the front chain ring. This some how bent the chain and snapped my derailleur at the back. We were far from the camp site and the only thing I could do was push my bike up every hill. Luckily Lee was carrying a phone, and Johann came to my rescue with the Landrover.
When we got home we quickly made a plan to get the Rear mech working for the next days ride. A huge thanks needs to go out to Johann for that.
Saturday:
We went across the valley again to try and find the single track that rode along the cliff face, which we were able to spot from the camp site. Eventually we found it, and MAN was it so worth the wait! Towards the end of the long flowing single track, came some insane switch backs, chicanes, and awesome rock gardens, much to mine and Luke's liking. We were in absolute heaven.
It was such an awesome ride to end of the week of hard training!
That night saw Luke and Lee have a WRC (world rally championship) death match on the PSP to see who would sleep in our log cabin, and who would sleep in the tent. In the end Luke was the winner, and Lee had to settle for sleeping under some canvas.
Sunday:
This was race day. The Sardine Super Classic had arrived and I knew my legs were going to be hurting after such a heavy weeks training. There were a lot of big names, such as Burry Stander, Ben Melt Swanepoel, Craig Paul, Trav Walker, Luke Roberts, Arno du Toit and Andrew Warr.
Out the blocks I managed to feel pretty good and soon found myself with Burry, Craig and Arno. We rode up front for a while, until Trav bridged the gap and brought luke along with him. I felt fine until around the 15km mark. All of a sudden my legs completely gave way, and began to feel very sluggish. I then began to take things easy and to see how the race would unfold, and to take the race as a hard training ride. Melt then came past me at a rapid rate of knotts. The gap to the others began to grow and by the half way mark they were around 3 minutes ahead of me.
With around 13km to go I decided to push as hard as possible to see if I could make a dent in the gap that had been opened. I pushed super hard down the very technical descent towards the pont. By the finish I had managed to come within a minute of the guys in front of me.
It was really an honour to race against the guys like Burry and Ben Melt, having finished second to Burry at the same race a year ago, but then I did not have a hectic week of riding in the legs !
A huge thanks needs to go out to Jono Downham for fitting my derailleur and my chain on the morning of the race! Thanks dude!! Also a huge thanks to Jono's crew for putting together such a great event. Nothing ever seems to be too much for these guys. Well done!!
Another big thanks to Johann and Allegra(my coach) Wykerd! as well as Willie Pelser for all their help throughout the week! It was fantastic spending this time with you and learning the valuable lessons to tried to teach us. Much appreciated! Still cannot get used to washing tuna dishes though.
Till next time
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