2 Days 2 Provinces 2 Races

WOW man was this a tough weekend!! Two very tough days out on the bike, both mentally and physically straining.

Early Friday morning I made my way up to Pretoria with my dad leaving at 04h00 to get registered and prepared for the MTN National Marathon in Cullinan on Saturday, around 40min drive outside the city. The small community originally formed around the diamond mining industry looked to be a spectacular host, with a very old world feel to the race village filled with antique shops and places to eat!

Saturday morning dawned, and a crisp, early morning saw us arrive at the foot of the mines for the start of our race. After the Riders in both the Ultra Marathon and the Standard Marathon were long gone, it was time for our race and we were scheduled to start at around 08h30.

With race favourite James Reid overseas, the race seemed open to anyone. Ryan Ellis and I sat back for the first few kilometers to see how the race would plan out. After a few attacks from the other riders and then Ryan made his move. I sat back and let the other riders do the chasing, and once they had tired I began to bridge across to Ryan. Upon catching up we hit a thick sandy section which lead to my first disaster of the day. While powering out of the sand my front derailleur slipped sideways and made it impossible for me to pedal. I stopped to correct the problem, but was unable to fix it with my bare hands. Fortunately after around a minute or so a trailing 75km rider was able to loan me his multi tool. Once the problem was sorted I got on with the race, but by now I was well out of the top 10. I managed to catch the lead group once again and shortly after, made my attempt to close the gap to Ryan once more. Another rider was able to follow me and we began to close on Ryan ever so slowly. Unfortunately the derailleur slipped again with around 8km to go. This time I had to use every muscle in my body to try force it back into place as I didn't have the multi tool any longer. Luckily I hadn't tightened it properly and was able to move it after a couple of tries. This put me out of contention for any top placings, and was well out of the top 10 again.

Approaching the final 2km's I began to reel in the riders that had passed me. Passing 7 riders was only good enough to get me up to 6th overall. A disappointing result but a good learning curve! Well done to Ryan on his win!! Then it was time to pack up and start heading home so that I could repair my bike in preparation for the Howick Highlander in the morning.





Today was the Howick Highlander, and after the disappointing result of yesterday I had decided to give it a bashat the last minute. We had arrived back in Maritzburg at about 17h00 and the bike had been cleaned and then my Team mate Craig Paul checked the bike over.
Racing on back to back days is never easy, but I thought it would be a good idea to test the legs out to see how they'd cope.

We arrived at the race bright and early as I still had to enter and the usual the usual top guns started making their appearance soon after. Craig Paul and Andrew Warr looked to be the firm favourites, and would definitely make racing hard. We were off at 08h30 and up the first climb Andrew upped the pace, only to be countered by Craig.... ON A DOWNHILL!!!! Luckily I saw it coming and jumped on quickly. A small group of 4 formed with Craig, Andrew ,Tyrone White and myself. My legs were definitely squealing in agony from the previous days travelling and racing. On the climbs I would get dropped but some how managed to turn myself inside out on the flats to get back. But to no avail. The 3 rode off into the distance, and so the solo chase began. I time trialled for the remainder of the race, and came within 5 or so seconds of Tyrone on a few occassions, but in the final 2 or so kilometers I blew my legs off at the hips. It honestly felt like my muscle had been vapourised and replaced with jelly.

Luckily I had a big enough gap to seal 4th overall and 1st junior, as the other young guns also had the hammer down and were racing on fresh legs. Craig rode brilliantly and won it in a sprint to the line with Andrew!





The organisers of both these races did a fantastic job! Now its time to prepare for Hill2Hill. My final major race of the season.

Until then
B

Engen Dynamic Road Race

This weekend it was time to swap the wide nobly tyres and suspension, for some skinny slick tyres and rigid frames for the 2010 Engen Dynamic Cycle Challenge in Durban.

Man is road different from Mountain Biking in quite a few ways, firstly the start time is WAY earlier! Our race started at 06:03 and covered a distance of 113km in a big loop from Durban to Pinetown, then out towards the old Airport (The Bluff area) and back towards Durban.

The Moses Mabhida Stadium Played host to the race village and start finish straights, and really lived up to my expectations as an amazing venue! The Stadium was simply staggering in real life!But this amazing work of art had to wait until after the race.

After a good warm up we Craig Paul, Ryan Ellis and Myself took our places amongst the Pro/ Elite riders. The Pro Teams such as Team MTN Energade, Medscheme and House of Paint were in full abundance! The first few Kilometers were very nerve wrecking, due to a couple of VERY inexperienced riders taking chances in the big bunch. We then hit the main climb of the day, the M19, a beast of a climb that went basically from the beaches of Durban to Pinetown. Ryan and I went to the front of the bunch to try form a small break, but the more experienced Elite riders countered the attack as soon as the gap was closed. This put me into the hurt box BIG TIME but I managed to hold onto the bunch until we crested the climb. On the descent I simply couldn't hang onto the bunch, as I was grossly not used to the Junior Gear Ratios that I had to race. I spun out and soon found myself in no mans land, with one other junior sitting snugly in the elite group.

After a solo effort for around 15km I was caught by the main bunch where a few top elite riders as well as Ryan and the other Juniors were sitting. I jumped into the group and started working ferociously with the guys. We began to claw the gap back and were sitting around 40 seconds off the Elite group up front. Unfortunately we were sent down the wrong road, and lost about 3 minutes of time on the other group according to the Medscheme team manager.

After turning around we began to slowly claw our way back up to the front group. at the Half way mark they were out of sight, but we were still closing up to them. The big group that we were in began to get tired, and only a few of us were able to ride up front. Most of the other juniors chose not to come through to the front. I was one of the few who chose to work with the other elites, along with Ryan and Aston Davies and it was a great experience.

With 2 kms to go we caught the group with the leading junior, but I was quite frankly shattered! My legs were cramping in the quads and hammys, but I decided to follow the attacks of the more 'fresh' juniors. Myles van Muschenbroek made the move along with Rhyno Beukes. I bridged the gap, and managed to form a gap over the other Juniors. I tried to attack with 150m to go but my legs simply had nothing to give. I crossed the line as the 3rd junior home, with only 200 hundredths of a second separating the top 3 juniors.

I must say it was amazing to learn from the pro/elite riders such as Jean Spies (Toyota Cycle lab) and Clint Olsen (Team NRC/Burg Wheelers). A huge thanks needs to go out to them for their support and encouragement!

Well done to Craig for winning the bunch sprint. Unfortunately he missed the winning break! Ryan suffered severe cramp very near to the finish, but he rode and awesome race, contributing hugely to the bunch and helping us to close back up to the lead group.

We were all done by 09h30 and settled in for a nice NINO's brunch and coffee before going up the arch of the stadium. What an experience.

Now it's off to Cullinan this weekend before getting a shot at another road race.

Harburg - Tour de Krantz

This past weekend was the SUPER FAST, Harburg - Tour de Krantz.

What an awesome venue to have a Super Classic! Everything about the morning was absolutely perfect. The sun was shinning and the the air was warm.

All the top contenders had pitched for the race, guys like Brandon Stewart, Craig Paul, Andrew Hill and David Leiman were some of the big names. The racing was definitely not going to be easy!

After a really sweet warm up, we made our way to the line for our 08:30 start time. Surprisingly the first attack didn't come from joker, Jedson 'Jedi' Tooms. It came from Brandon Stewart almost instantly. I managed to jump onto his wheel, along with Craig Paul, Andrew Hill and Shaun Peschl. We then hit the first short steep climb, and I put in a little move to try and increase the gap over the main bunch. It worked and we were soon out of sight from the main bunch.

Now the punishment began, we hit the first climb of the day. Brandon and Andrew made the move and I managed to bridge across as we went over the top along with team mate Craig Paul. It was now 4 of us up front, with Shaun Peschl left to try chase back on his own. The pace was now really hot, and I found myself hurting just to sit with the guys... Up the next big climb Andrew and Brandon got away once again. Craig dropped off, which now left me alone... I chased really hard on the flats, and miraculously managed to close down the gap that had opened.

Brandon again put in very powerful surge, and left Andrew and I looking for parking. Andrew and I then began to work really well together, and kept the gap to Brandon down to a minimum.

Approaching the final 8km's, I realized things were going to be very tight between Andrew and I. With 5km to go, we hit the final climb of the day, and I made the first move to try and get rid of Andrew. But it turned out to be a major flop! He countered as soon as I eased the pace, and all I could do was watch for the first 20 or so seconds. After a really quick recovery, I gave it everything to try and claw my way back onto his wheel, but it was just not enough, and ended up 3rd overall, just over 1 minute behind Brandon Stewart, and 8 seconds behind Andrew Hill! Well done to Craig who managed to bring home a fourth overall, after a heavy week of training!

Congratulations to the hosts of the race, who really put on a fantastic event!

Nokian Tyres

Hey guys, take a good look at the rubber I've been raving about! The Nokian NBX Lite (XC/Marathon Series) is an AMAZING tyre!
WSquared Cycling and Adrenaline Cycles are stockists!
So get your hands on some now!!

Eston Illovo MTB Marathon

WOW what an action packed weekend!!! BMX Supercross World Championships and Eston all within a short drive from my house! If you missed either of these events, you missed out on one EPIC weekend!!

Well done to all the South Africans at the Supercross, you guys definitely did us all proud!!

Sunday morning saw me at my first Marathon race ever held in the Eston Mid Illovo area. The Youth and Junior age categories were given the green light to take part in the 60km race as up until now we have only been able to do the 40km and 45km races.
There was a big field of some really big names that would be contending the podium. Names like Brandon Stewart, Ben Melt Swanepoel,Marc Bassingthwaite, Renier Bellingham,Craig Paul, Andrew Mclean, Francois Theron and David George to name a few.

Straight off the start it was Brandon who made the pace heat up. We hit the KOM, which was around 2 or so km into the race. The race split up a little, but sewed back up on the descent. The bunch was now really big, taking up the entire width of the road, and went a couple of rows back!

We entered the first single track together, but as we hit the first major climb, I quickly found myself leaving the back door! I hit cruise control for a short while, and then began my chase... miraculously I managed to close down the gap to the group, and had enough time to recover before hitting the biggest climb of the day.

A small group with James reid, Brandon Stewart, Ben Melt, Marc Bassi and Andrew Warr went off the front. This left Craig Paul, Myself, Andrew Mclean, Renier Bellingham, and a few others tustling for the top 10. Craig and I managed to get away and now sat in 6th and 7th with Dave George just ahead. Andrew Mclean made the junction to us on one of the long steep sections of the climb.

We began to work really well together, and managed to keep the lead group within a minute of us. I felt really good, but it didn't last for very long... with around 10km to go, I began to cramp, for the first time ever! I tried to push through it, but couldn't hold the wheel of the two in front of me.

I backed off and tried to bring home a top 10... With 3 or so km to go, Trav Walker and Andrew Hill caught me... I latched onto them, and held on for dear life, I tried to contest the sprint but my legs seized with cramp with less than 500m to go. I brought it home in 11th overall, just 5 secs behind Trav and Andrew and finished 3rd Junior.

I'm ecstatic with my first marathon result! Well done to Ben Melt on a very classy win!

I also want to thank all the people involved in organizing the race. What a fantastic job done by all.

Now the calendar starts getting busy with the longer races since the XC season is over and I will be racing at Harburg this coming Saturday. Looking forward to it.