Howick Super Classic-7 June 2009

Hey Guys, well this past week was one of my favourite super classics. It was held at the Howick High School and went into all the forest just above, and behind the main town.

We arrived at the venue pretty early and MAN was it cold!!! Only a couple of degrees!! Pretty soon it started raining which made the cold a bit worse. Fortunately the rain would help settle the dusty course that lay ahead.

The Start started a little earlier,being at 08:30. After a good warm up we took our places on the line. The first two or so km's there was a neutral zone, as soon as the lead vehicle peeled off it was peddle to the metal. I put in a good attack and managed to split the field slightly, unfortunately as we hit the first downhill I sliced my back tyre and this forced my pace to slow slightly. After the tyre had sealed I began to charge hard again to close up the leaders.

Eventually I made contact with James Reid in one of the single track sections. Pretty soon it became a three way battle between Trav Walker (DCM Chrome) James Reid (Mr Price Scott) and myself. The pace was super fast, and it did force some mistakes in the single track from all of us. After the first big climb, we crossed the Currys Post road and entered a long flat single track. James got in first and immediately upped the pace, however, he came into one of the sandy corners with a bit too much hot sauce, and got a face full of sand. He got up quickly only to clip his peddle on a stump a little further on, this time hitting the deck really hard.

Eventually we hit the main climb of the race, about 25km in or so, and we were still all together. Unfortunately, after taking one of the turns too tightly, I punctured again, but this time I was left for dead. I bombed the tyre and got going as fast as I could, but with it being on open roads, Trav and James were able to work together and managed to open up a gap.

I pushed on as hard as possible, and by the time we reached the top of the big climb, they had opened near 2minutes on me. Going down the most technical single track of the day, I went absolutely to the limit, I could hear the gap was closing, as I could hear the rattling of their bikes in the corners below me. But as soon as they hit the open roads again, the gap just kept on stretching. By the end of the day I was 4minutes down, and in third overall.

I was pretty stoked with the result, despite having the problems, but I guess that's what comes with the sport of Mountain biking! I was still able to win my age group, and claim the third spot, so all in all, pretty good days racing.

This coming weekend is the Sardine Classic,one of the best races to go to if single track is your forte! See you there!

Ciao

some images from the weekend

Mtunzini Super Classic

Hey guys, sorry about updating the blog soooo late, have been super busy with school.

This past weekend was the Super Classic down at Mtunzini on the coast. We left early Sunday morning and arrived at the venue at around 07:30. This race being 50km was slightly longer than most of the races I have done this year, and I knew from the previous year, that it was not going to be very easy, mainly because of the very flat roads with no places to recover.

After a good breakfast, it was warm up time. A nice proper warm up got the legs ready for the long race ahead. On the start there were a couple of big names that would contend for overall honours, Dave Leiman,Shaun Peschl, Shan Wilson as well as James Reid.

The start was relatively chilled, but after the first little climb, Dave attacked and opened up a gap on the bunch. James Reid (Mr Price Scott) closed down the gap. The Bunch sat together for the next 5km or so, until we hit a really tough power climb. Dave once again attacked like a man possessed and opened a good gap on us. The energy sapping climb split up the race a chase bunch consisting of Shaun, James, Shan and myself formed.

As the race progressed, we slowly began to reel Leiman back in. As we approached the 25km mark He was within reach. As we caught we hit a very short yet steep climb, everyone pushed super hard, but Dave once again opened up a small gap with Shaun in tow. It was now up to James and I to closethe gap, as Shan would sit behind us. The gap stayed really consist ant. We raced super hard, and the pace just seemed to get quicker and quicker.

Unfortunately approaching the 40km mark James hit a stick, which in turn jumped up and ripped my brake hosing out the frame. I stopped abruptly to fix the problem. I straightened the hosing and popped it back into the housing brackets. I now had to race full tilt to close the gap on James and Shan. The chase through on the forest roads was super hard, as Both James and Shan Being good roadies, had a high tempo going. James tried to slow the pace as much as he could without losing time to the leaders. When I made contact with the I was seriously hurting. The brutal chase had drained my energy. We then hit the SSS climb which was unbelievably steep. I hung on as long as I could but James was just too strong.

With the final push to the finish I was right behind Shan. As we entered the final single track I got really caught up with some back markers and lost a lot of time. With a couple of km to go I pushed with all the energy I had left and managed to close the gap slightly on the guys. I ended up coming home with a 5th overall and 1st youth.


This next weekend is the Howick Super Classic, and is always a favourite of mine, So we'll see how it goes!

until next time
ciao

Thats a Wrap- SA National XC #5 Fountains,Pretoria

Hey Guys

Well Saturday was the end of the National XC Series. We Arrived at the track on Friday Morning and went straight on to check out the course. The course had changed a lot from the previous year. It was super tight in sections and the single track was really technical. It was a flat out powering course, with only one or two nasty short little climbs.

After practise we went straight to the accommodation and chilled. Back at accommodation I tried to stay as chilled as possible to get to the race well rested on Saturday Morning.

After a really good nights rest I felt good for the days race and slowly got ready for the race. With my race only being at 13:15 i took my time in getting ready. We pulled into the Fountains Nature reserve at around 11. We unpacked the car, set up our feeding zone and then began to get ready. The nerves really kicked in, as the reality of how much was riding on the race hit me.

I went for a warm up with 30min to go before the start, and started ride the course through my head. With 15min to go we got called onto the start shoot, luckily having had a good season I was called up 2nd and had the perfect line on the start.

As the whistle went,the pace was hot. It was a mad dash down to the first corner before hitting the single track. Arno (series Leader) was in the lead with myself sitting on his wheel. I sat his wheel through out the course. Luke Roberts made contact with us, and it soon became a major three way battle. The positions chopped and changed through the course of the 2nd and 3rd lap,however, as we caught a much slower rider, Arno managed to sneak past the rider, causing him to unclip and stop in front of us. This gave him a considerable lead and Luke and I were forced to chase down hard. We slowly began to eat away at the lead, but we were again slowed down by a slower rider that would not move. Arno jumped at the opportunity and really pushed the pace opening up a really big gap on us.

Going into lap 4 Luke opened up a gap of two or so bike lengths on me in the one single track, feeling very anxious I felt forced to push to close the gap. This proved to be costly, and caused a small slit in my tyre. I tried riding as much as I could, to try avoid stopping, but by the time I reached the first technical climb, my tyre was flat. I bombed it and pushed hard to close down the gap. But with only one lap left to go I had to settle for 3rd overall.

Unfortunately, the 3rd position didn't allow me to wrap up the championship, but I still managed to take 2nd overall for the season. Congrats to Luke who managed to get 3rd overall in the season. Arno rode an exceptional series this year, winning 4 out of the 5 races and placing 3rd at Cascades.

All that's left to do now is African-Continental Champs later on this year at Mankele in Nelspruit. This weekend is the Super Classic in mTunzini, we'll see how that one goes.

Until Then
Ciao

Breakfast at Villiers

Hey guys!

Just a quick update, we left for Pretoria for the last round of the National MTB series this morning. Boy is it freezing in this part of the world, it was only 3 degrees when we climbed out the car here in Villiers. We're sitting at the Wimpy for a quick breakfast before the final leg of the trip.

I'll keep you guys up to date with what the course is like.
Ciao
B

Karkloof MTB Festival- 2009

Well this years Karkloof festival has come and gone, with some pleasing results for Team Jeep SA. I sat out the night relay and the XC on Saturday, as I had already won the KZN Championship, and thought it'd be a good idea to try and save my legs.

Then came the u16 Red Sprint Shoot out on Saturday afternoon. The course was set over a very short grass track on the polo fields, and was littered with different obstacles. The qualifying went off pretty well, and I was tied for first after a decent run. Then came the final. The start was really hot from the word go with Jac-Johan Steyn leading it up front, but unfortunately, nearing the end of lap #1 0f 6, Jac made a crucial mistake and bought a big piece of some Karkloof Property.

I jumped on the anchors really hard to avoid the accident and this gave Arno du Toit a really good opportunity to pass on the right and take the early lead. He Managed to open a couple of bike lengths on me, and I was forced to chase him down. Eventually after two laps of brutal sprinting I latched onto him, and managed to catch him off guard going into one corner on lap 4. On lap 5 I decided to really push, and managed to open a very slight gap. I came onto the last bridge really hard and made a bad mistake, jumping to the bottom and nearly crashing in the process, this really scrubbed off all my speed and I was even more surprised to find out that they had made the race 5 laps and it was now a print to the finish. I got my speed up as quick as possible, and Arno and I crossed the line together, a photo finish with the chief commasaire deciding the final result as it was such a close call. The win went to Arno and I was placed second. With that result in the bag, we headed for home , to return the next morning for the 40km race.



We arrived real early at the polo fields on Sunday morning for the main events of the weekend, the Karkloof Classic 75km and 45km. The temp was only 4 degrees and I really felt sorry for the marathon riders leaving at 8:00am!

At around 8:45 we were eventually let onto our start after what seemed like a really long wait. The start this year seemed way slower than the years before, with all the top junior and youth riders being there, as we were just waiting to see who'd brake the ice. As soon as we hit the district road, Adriaan Louw (DCM Chrome) attacked and the bunch split up really quickly, with about eight of us in total giving chase.

The bunch reduced to about seven of us as we climbed the first climb on Renee Stubbs' farm and to tell the truth my legs were feeling the hurt after the sprint shoot out the previous afternoon. But I hung in and at the top of the long, sluggishly slow climb I came to the front and pushed hard in an effort to try split the teams that were with us. The pace was heating up all the time and the attacks showed no signs of stopping.
Luke Roberts (maverick) and I needed to separate the teams before they really began to work with each other to drop the us. Luke rode the climbs really hard but the guys kept clawing their way onto the back of him.
On the really rough technical stuff, I would manage to brake up the line of riders but the teams would work together and catch back up on the open sections again and the pace remained relentless the entire time.
Unfortunately Luke dropped off just after Half way, and I was left to fend for myself against the two teams of DCM Chrome and Mr Price Scott, each consisting of 2 very capable riders. I countered every surge and attack that came, but as I would catch one rider, the others would attack from behind. As we hit the King of the Mountain (KOM) I dropped off from the bunch. I rode comfortably at a pretty fast pace, just to try find my legs and hopefully claw my way back into the bunch again at a later stage. Luckily there was a really long single track after the KOM and I slowly closed the guys down. With 5km to go I was totally border line outta control through the single track. This section rade so well and I let it all hang out but 2km or so to go,I was caught behind back markers from the 20km going through a mud puddle. Adriaan(DCM) and Arno(Mr Price Scott) opened up a gap of about 40sec gap on me at this stage.

When I got the chance I got passed the slower riders and I pushed myself to the absolute braking point and managed to finish in 5th place just under 20 seconds behind Arno. Travis Walker (DCM Chrome)claimed the honours on the day ahead of James Reid (Mr Price Scott) with Adriaan, Arno and I rounding up the top 5.

The race was absolutely brutal from start to finish, and the pace was blistering. The racing was also really tight, and the high quality of racing was certainly seen by all.

Congrats to Andrew Nicholson and his team for putting such an awesome event together and a special thanks to Rene Stubbs,Bruce Mackenzie, Blake Makenzie, Guy Solomon and Sappi for allowing us to ride on there farms.

Maverick Super Classic - Cascades

Well today was the Maverick Super Classic, held at Cascades. I was pretty unsure of how the race would go today, as I did a pretty hard 4 hour ride yesterday down at the coast by doing the two gorges in the Lake Eland area down at Oribi Gorge to round off a week with some serious hours in the legs and as a result I was worried about having the legs to go the distance on the day.

Living about 1km from the venue I was able to sleep in, and only crawled out of bed at around 7am. At around 08:00 I took a chilled ride down to Cascades. I met up with good friend Trav Walker sporting his new colours of DCM Chrome, and we headed off for a good decent warm up before the 09:00 am start. There were one or two big names including Brandon Stewart and Craig Paul that were entered as well so I had to ensure the legs would be warm when the flag dropped.

At 9 sharp we were off and the pace was pretty quick and I tried to find a good rythm. But pretty soon Craig Paul ( Team Jeep)and Brandon Stewart came to the front and the pace really heated up. The bunch split up realy quickly and soon it was Craig, Brandon, Trav and I in the front.

Craig really pushed hard and it really made life on the bike hard as I had to dig deep to stay in touch. A couple of kilometers into the race I came to the front in one of the single tracks and pushed the pace as hard as I could to see if anyone in the group would drop off. Craig and Brandon stuck to me but we'd managed to get a small gap on Trav before the first major climb.
After the relatively short steep climb we'd opened up a bigger gap on Trav, but Brandon and Craig didn't let up the pace, it was relentless!!

The three of us hit the half way mark in 45 minutes flat and we were still all together, but pretty much as soon as we crested a steep sharp climb after the water point, Brandon launched his attack. At this point I was hurting and at first I had no legs to respond and neither did Craig, but it was a make or break situation and I decided to try push through the pain.

I slowly closed the gap and caught up to Brandon again after a really big effort. Brandon was now really on fire and I was struggling to stay with him and when we hit an open road, Brandon came into his own and just rode off the front. I gave chase and tried to catch up again but he was just far too strong.

I was hoping that Craig would come through again but had unfortunatly lost touch of us for a short while and then took a wrong turn and he got lost, so I was left to chase down Brandon by myself. We were now reaching the closing stages of the race and with Brandon having opened up just over a minute I had to crank it up a notch.

With 5km to go I hadn't closed the gap at all, but I kept pushing to open up the gap on 3rd as nI was unaware of who was behind me and how far behind they may be. I pushed down the technical single track and sprinted to the finish line, and crossed the line with just over a minute behind Brandon. I was super stoked with the result as I had improved my best result overall in a Super Classic to second place.

Congrats to Craig who worked his way back up to fourth position after taking his wrong turn. The organisers also deserve a shout out for an amazing coarse. It was a real mountain bikers event and despite not being the easiest race I thouroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Well done to all involved!

Results: Overall

1st- Brandon Stewart (DCM Chrome)
2nd- Brendon Davids (Team Jeep SA)
3rd- Travis Walker (DCM Chrome)
4th- Craig Paul (Team Jeep SA)
5th- David Louw