System breakdown

I very rarely get sick and I mean properly sick like the flu. I’m not talking about the flu that most people commonly get where you have a snotty nose or maybe a sore throat, I’m talking about the flu where you have a high temperature (>380C), your whole body aces, you feel cold but you sweating like a pig and you too week to even sit up in bed. I’m one of those people that only missed two days out of 12 years of my school career for being sick and have never missed a day of work for being sick either.

There is a very good reason why I have such a strong immune system. My father is a Pediatrician working in a South African government hospital and as he is exposed to so many viruses and sicknesses on a daily basis his body naturally builds up antibodies against all these sicknesses. As he comes into contact with the rest of the family back home it is all passed on to us in a similar manner. Sounds a bit far fetch maybe, but trust me that’s the way it works.

This scenario has been very different for me as I felt like I was in one of those medical drama series with doctors trying to discover what is wrong with me. Due to my father being a specialist in the medical field for so many years I’m very fortunate to get to see so many different specialist doctors to help me out.

After getting married and while on honeymoon I started coughing quite a lot and had a very tight chest. As usual I thought I’d just picked up a bit of a cough, I felt fine so all was good. A few days later in the week I seemed to be coughing more and my chest felt even tighter. I was beginning to become a little concerned about this only because I was scheduled to race the Double Century (a 202km team road cycling race ) on the coming Saturday and not because of my actual condition. It would take a lot for me to pull out of the race and let the rest of the team down. Other than the coughing and tight chest, which is obviously not ideal to have for a race, I didn’t feel sick so I believed I was good to go. Well I can now honestly say from a personal perspective the seriousness of racing when you are not 100% healthy!

The Sunday evening after Saturday’s race my coughing had progressed to an uncontrollable manner! I phone my father and he said I need to go on antibiotics immediately (pharmacy visit number 1). Relief I thought as that would fix me up in just a few days… little did I know…

Monday evening the fever hit me. My body was acing and my temperature rose above 380C. I felt exhausted as I wasn’t getting much sleep during the nights because of the persistent coughing. Now I was taking Panardo to help fight the fever.

Tuesday was no different as I was still feeling sick and coughing endlessly with a phenomenally tight chest. However, that afternoon I started to notice something very strange. My legs had swelled up in a big way, turned very red and were incredibly itchy! All my scares from my cycling and mountain biking expeditions had puffed up as well. I showed my father and he told me to stop the antibiotics immediately as I was having an allergic reaction to them! Now I was thinking how am I going to get better? I’ve never been allergic to anything in my life before so I couldn’t understand where this all of a sudden came from? So I had to resort to an antihistamine for the allergic reaction (pharmacy visit number 2).

Wednesday things were looking a little better on the allergic reaction side as the swelling in my legs decreased a bit and the itchiness was gone but they were still as red as a Ferrari. I still felt rather sick and nothing was changing in the department of my chest and uncontrollable coughing.

Thursday the swelling in my legs was gone but they were still Ferrari red. I was feeling better but there was still no change in my coughing and tight chest. I have never felt my chest like this before where every breath is a struggle. By this time now my ribs are hurting so much from all the coughing and my stomach muscles are stiff as well. Now my farther thinks its time for me to get my chest X-rayed to try figure out what’s going on. So I’m off for a hospital visit. I get my chest X-rayed accompanied with a complete examination by a Physician. “You got Pneumonia and you going to have to take it easy for a few weeks” is not what an athlete wants to hear! Back to the pharmacy for visit number 3 and I need to report back to the doctor regarding my condition on Saturday.

All is quite the same on Friday. Saturday comes and I’m feeling better but I’m still struggling with my chest. So the doctor prescribes me something else and back to the pharmacy I went for visit number 4!

By Sunday things are beginning to get a little better. So now it’s just a matter of finishing the course of medications and taking it real easy for a little while to recover and ensure I don’t have a relapse.

Basically to summarize, I pick up pneumonia while on honeymoon. I didn’t know this as I simply had a tight chest and a cough. I was feeling ok, so I raced the Double Century. This intensified the pneumonia and made me to get very ill and feverish. I was on antibiotics, which I got an allergic reaction to and therefore had to stop those. I then got my chest X-rayed and examined by a Physician to diagnose me with pneumonia. Now I have to take it easy in December to recover.

In all of this at least the Physician pointed out from my chest X-ray that I have an athletes shaped heart and huge lungs!

Double Century 2010

Photo: Torque Pics (www.torquepics.co.za)

This year would be my second Double Century (DC). Last year was my first and I raced it with the Club100 Elite team where we came forth by 45sec! It was a little disappointing to just miss out on the podium. This year I got the opportunity to race it with the Anderson Transport team. This was very exciting but at the same time a little daunting as Anderson Transport are the defending champions! I’m always up for a challenge and this year I feel much better prepared for the DC based on the endurance mountain bike racing I’ve been doing over this year compared to last year.

The only problem was that I would have just finished a relatively long season of racing and just gotten married. Therefore the last two weeks leading up to the DC have been rather easy weeks for me. However, I was not worried as I believed I would still have a good base fitness in me and all it would mean is that I will be nicely rested for the race.

With these thoughts in mind I was good to go. But, there was one other worry in the back of my mind. I seemed to pick up a chest infection during the week prior to race day while on honeymoon. I felt physically fine but my chest was rather tight and I just could not stop coughing! (more on this…) But pulling out of the race with only a few days to go to the start was not an option for me as I didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity and especially let the rest of the team down!

Traditionally with the DC there are just over 200 teams consisting of 12 riders in each. You have to have six riders from your team finishing together with the time of your 6th rider counting as your team’s time for the overall positions. It is a staggered start with each team starting individually apart from the other teams, similar to a time trail. Being the defending champions, we were the last team to start.

We were doing fine with an average speed for the first 20km of 42.1km/hr. After the first climb and a minor mechanical issue that needed to be fixed causing us to loose a couple of minutes, we still had our full team of 12 riders together. After the next big climb and leading into Montagu at about 100km we had lost one or two riders. I was still feeling fine at this stage, but from after the 100km mark things started to go a little pear shaped. It was tough going along the road between Montagu and Ashton as the road is very narrow and congested with riders and team support vehicles. We mostly had to ride on the other side of the white line into oncoming traffic, which weren’t all that considerate! This made for some dangerous encounters and a few very close calls! After this I could feel I was starting to get tied. I kept pushing on until my legs gave in at Bonnivalle, 163km with 40km to go to the finish. I dropped off the back of our team and tried desperately to hang on but I had nothing left in me. I was blown and that meant that there were only 7 riders still together in our team. One other rider dropped off after me before they got to the finish resulting in only 6 riders finishing together and therefore just making it with enough riders to the finish and take third place overall.

I continued to make my way slowly to the finish with a lot of difficulties, but I wanted to complete the race. I ended up crossing the finish line about 20min after our team of 6 riders. We were obviously not all that happy with our performance as being the defending champions and only coming 3rd, but that’s the way it goes, at least we were still on the podium and there is always next year to fight back!

Wines2Whales

It’s been a while since the race and this post is long overdue I know, but I always say better late than never! The week after this race was one that led to one of the most important and exciting days of my life, the day I got married to the most beautiful girl in the world! So my mind was very busy on other things, and then after that was a special week away on honeymoon.

So back to the Wines 2 Whales 3-day mountain bike stage race…
I was coming out of a period of serious recovery since the DCM Cape Pioneer Trek and I believed I was feeling ok by now and ready for the race. It has, however, been quite a long season of racing for me and I could definitely feel that a bit of time off the bike was in need.

None the less this was a race I had really been looking forward to, being a nice 3-day stage race in my back yard. This time I paired up with Stu, my other team mate from Blend Properties.

Day 1: 68km Lourensford – Grabouw, 1800m climbing

Time: 3h39m
Position: 4th
Heart rate (ave/max): 158/183

Starting in Lourensford on the Somerset West side of the Hottentots Holland Mountains and finishing in Grabouw on the other side of the mountains obviously meant that we had to get over there somehow. Doing this off-road forced us to portage up the old ox wagon trail above Sir Lowry’s Pass. This is a short but incredibly steep stretch straight up and over the mountain, which consists of big rocks and bushes! It is incredibly challenging simply trying to walk up there, let alone with your bike, which felt like it weighed 30kg! How the voortrekkers took their ox wagons and oxen over there I can’t imagine! It is amazing to see that there are still grooves in the rocks from where the wheels of the wagons carved there way under the loads they carried.

I knew this was going to be a very technically challenging day through the mountains above Somerset West and into Grabouw! The pouring rain didn’t do anything to help in this regard either! After a solid start and settling down after the first climb out of Lourensford we were together with a small front group consisting of 3 teams (Contego Elites, Mr Price GT and ourselves Blend Properties). We were feeling good and riding nicely until Stu’s chain broke at 38km. we lost about 3min trying to fix it as the muddy conditions made this rather difficult. We lost one position in the process as a team came past us while we were stopped. We worked quite hard after this to make up time, however, this was difficult to do over the short distance remaining in the stage and I started to struggle towards the end.

Day 2: 77km Grabouw – Grabouw, 1700m climbing

Time: 3h35m
Position: 5th
Heart rate (ave/max): 148/170

Today I felt flat from the start and was dropped by a larger than yesterdays front group from the gun! I had to work really hard to catch back on as Stu was up there. I had an upset stomach after yesterday’s stage and between then and this morning I dropped a kilogram from my starting weight, which is not good during a stage race as that is valuable energy reserves lost. This was probably the reason for me feeling so flat from the start. I managed to come right a little in the middle of the stage but could still not get my heart rate up to where it should have been (as my average HR for the stage was only 148!). At this point the front bunch had split up quite a lot and we were leading. But the worst was still to come as I blew so badly at about 55km with 22km still to go! I was finished and had nothing left in me. Stu had to drag me the whole way back to the finish. It was not a pleasant time!

Day 3: 84km Grabouw – Onrus, 1500m climbing

Time: 3h48m
Position: 6th
Heart rate (ave/max): 141/173

Today was a less technical day with more descending than climbing as we headed from the mountains to the coast. However, there was a southeaster wind to contend with! From the start I could feel a huge difference compared to yesterday as we went up the same small climb out of Grabouw in the beginning. Instead of being dropped and hanging on for dear life from the front group, I was leading the bunch and comfortably setting the pace up front. I had obviously regained that energy I had lost from my stomach issues over the previous two days.

Stu and I were going strong with a slightly bigger front bunch than the previous two days due to lesser climbing to split everyone up. We were out of contention for the top spot overall but I was amped to finish with a stage win and end up on the podium overall. However, as luck would have it on the rocky descent from the Houwhoek Inn down into the Bot River Valley at 30km, I punctured. This was very unfortunate as I was using Kendar Small Block 8 tyres, which I swear were developed during World War 2 with the intention to ride over landmines! After fixing the tyre with a plug and remounting our saddles we had lost about 4min. We rode hard to make up the lost time. I had my favorite girl supporting and doing her usual superb job of giving us time splits on the leaders. We were making up time and I was certain we could catch them back up as there was still a fair distance to the finish line. However, with about 40km still to go Stu blew! This was probably due to him dragging me for the past two days as well as just having an off day. Our pursuit on the leaders and hopes for a stage win came to an end at this point and it was a long struggle to the finish. This time the tables had turned and now it was my turn to drag Stu to the finish.

In the end it was a very technically demanding race in one of the best areas for mountain biking in the country. It seemed like Stu and I just couldn’t get it together over the 3 days. We didn’t do as well as we would have liked by coming 6th overall but this wasn’t too bad based on the way things turned out for us over the 3 days.

Now it was time to get married!!!

Back on the Road

After the Cape Pioneer Trek (CPT) I decided to take part in the last two Spring Classic road league races. I thought these would be good to keep the racing in my legs until the Wines 2 Whales 3-day mountain biking stage race.

My body was rather broken and tied after the CPT so I took it easy the following week. However, this was still not enough and I quickly realized two things as I started the Durbanville league race. This also happened to be my first road race and in that case the first time back on my road bike for quite a few months!

1. My body had still not recovered properly after finishing the CPT one week ago. I was therefore feeling very tied and sluggish. I found myself hanging on for dear life towards the back of the group from the start. Fortunately I was able to hang on and warm up a little and get into the race better.
2. One needs speed for the road! And the CPT wouldn’t have done me any good in this regard!

It didn’t even turn out to be a fast race with an average speed of just over 39km/hr over the 90km. This obviously worked in my favor this time round and I was able to hang on until the end and finish with the front bunch.

The following week was the last race of the year and I could tell that I was starting to feel better and more recovered two weeks down the line of finishing the CPT. Thank goodness because this was a much faster race! This time I even tried to attack the bunch and get ahead up the road. I got a chance to do so, however, I didn’t have anyone else come with me and was left alone. Therefore I didn’t last too long ahead before the bunch swallowed me up again. The bunch kept a high pace for most of the way and no body was able to get away on a break. I had a much better race than the previous week and felt more involved with the actual racing. We covered the 85km route in 2hr1min, with an average speed of just over 42km/hr. That’s quite a big difference compared to the 5 or 6 hour days of the CPT!

Next up, the Contego Wines 2 Whales 3-day mountain biking stage race before a little time out to get married and recuperate before starting with some base miles for next year.

DCM Cape Pioneer Trek

I finally got the chance to race a proper mountain biking stage race. Training and racing leading up to the race was all going well but it still ended up being unbelievably tough! I suppose that’s what mountain biking stage racing is all about!

The DCM Cape Pioneer Trek presented by KHS took place over 6 days in one of the best environments for mountain biking. The race covered vast distances through and over the Southern Cape mountain ranges, nature reserves and farm lands, from the Klein Karoo to the scenic coast, along the beach, crossing rivers and the Groot Karoo. It truly is an appropriate area for mountain bike stage racing. However, very challenging!

As with most mountain bike stage races it is a team event completed in pairs. I got to race with Charles, my fellow team mate from Blend Properties Cycling Team. I've included a few stats with the summary for each stage of the race below. I have also put the time gaps between us and those teams we were swapping positions with on the GC throughout the 6 days as this shows how things can change dramatically from day to day.

Day 1: 136km Oudtshroon – Mossel Bay, 2900m climbing

Time: 6h13m
Position: 5th
Heat rate (average/max): 151/176

This was a very long day! We all knew it and it was certainly the most feared day of the race as we had to traverse the infamous Attakwas Kloof! We didn’t get off to the best of starts as within the first 30km I thought that I had broken a spoke as I head a loud “clang-clang” sound from my back wheel. I stopped to check it out and fortunately only found a large stick lodged in my spokes that I was able to remove. However, I felt my rear tire was a little flat. I quickly got back on to regain contact with the group and got a pump and stopped again to pump up my tire. This turned out to be unsuccessful and had to get going again to catch back up to the group. Once I regained contact Charles and I stopped to bomb my wheel. After doing this we once again caught back up to the group! In the process wasting valuable energy each time! Until just before entering the Attakwas Kloof we crossed a river and my rear tire gave in on a rock and went flat. This ended up being a longer stop of about 4min to try and fix it once and for all! The bunch soon split up completely as everyone made there way through the incredibly tough Attakwas Kloof. After the Kloof it was a long way back to Mossel Bay, which started to take its toll on my legs. I had to ride through serious cramp towards the end of the stage. In the end we had a total of 5 mechanical stops!

General Classification:
3. DCM 2 (Jacques Janse Van Rensburg, Brandon Stewart) -26min
4. Toyota Supercycling Cyclelab Vets (Andrew Mclean, Bruce Diesel) -2min
5. Blend Property Group 1 (Charles Keey, Dave Morison) 0min
6. Mtbdestination.com (Matthys Beukes, Gerrie Beukes) +27min
Specialized-Songo.Info (Christoph Sauser, Silvio Bundi) +58min

Day 2: 110km Mossel Bay – George, 2500m climbing

Time: 4h32m
Position: 3rd
Heat rate (average/max): watch wasn’t working

After a few hard efforts, firstly along the beach, the front bunch was chiseled out early into the race. Then the climbing began and Charles and I had to put in some hard efforts to stay in contact with the top 3 teams. After only about 40km Charles got a flat tire, which we had to stop to bomb. This only cost us about 2min but then we had to work really hard to catch back up again. We managed to do this and then had a decent ride until things heated up with about 10km to go. We were in 5th place, however, two teams ahead of us seemed to go the wrong way and we ended up finishing in 3rd place for the day! It was great to be able to get up on the podium that evening at prize giving!

General Classification:
3. DCM 2 -24min
4. Blend Property Group 1 0min
5. Toyota Supercycling Cyclelab Vets +20min
6. Mtbdestination.com +34min
Specialized-Songo.Info +60min

Day 3: 106km George – De Rust, 2450m climbing

Time: 5h18m
Position: 7th
Heart rate (average/max): 133/162

Today we were to leave the cooler coastal plain, ride over the Outeniqua Mountains and into the warm drier Klein Karoo. The climb up Bergplaas was done at a decent tempo until the last section which got very rough and split up the bunch. Charles and I found ourselves trailing very close behind the leaders as we started one of the most challenging sections of the entire 6 days, the climb over the Kamanassie Mountains! At this point I suppose it's reletive to say that this was when "the s*%^t hit the fan". When descending the treacherous other side of the Kamanassie Mountains Charles got a stick the size of my baby finger lodged through the top of his tire and out the side-wall! This took us 10min to fix and get going again. After carefully feeling the inside of the tire and pulling out loads of thorns we put a tube in and obviously this didn’t last very long as there were so many thorns it just got punctured shortly after getting going. Fortunately we were able to make it to the next water stop where the technical assistance put sludge in the tube, which would see us to the finish. The only problem was that we were left in no-mans-land with no-one to be seen ahead of us or behind us and a 40km stretch of gravel road into the wind all the way to the finish in De Rust. We lost about 16min due to our mechanical stops, however, we would have lost a significant amount more riding by ourselves for the last 40km as well as valuable energy! Therefore we lost our 4th place on GC.

General Classification:
3. DCM 2 -29min
4. Toyota Supercycling Cyclelab Vets -8min
5. Blend Property Group 1 0min
6. Mtbdestination.com +19min
7. Specialized-Songo.Info +32min

Day 4: 109km De Rust – Prince Albert, 1800m climbing

Time: 5h13m
Position: 7th
Heart rate (average/max): 134/182

From the Klein Karoo to the Groot Karoo! We started through the beautiful Meiringspoort and then took a left into the rugged mountain tracks where the pace was high. The usual front bunch remained together until we got to the section of dried up river bed and the big technical climb that was to take us into the Groot Karoo. Just before the river bed Charles chain broke. I just couldn’t believe that we were to have another mechanical, now one each day for 4 days in a row! This cost us about 4min to fix after which we had lost contact with the front bunch. I must add that it was once again some truly awesome riding over these mountains! However, in the Karoo on the other side it was a very long 55km of hard riding into the wind to the finish in Prince Albert. Team DCM 2 had some major mechanical problems as well and therefore dropped behind us on GC resulting in us moving back up into 4th. However, the other teams gained a significant amount of time on us!

General Classification:
3. Toyota Supercycling Cyclelab Vets -27min
4. Blend Property Group 1 0min
5. Specialized-Songo.Info +1min
6. Mtbdestination.com +8min
3. DCM 2 +17min

Day 5: 106km Prince Albert – Calitzdorp, 2200m climbing

Time: 4h12m
Position: 5th
Heart rate (average/max): 132/159

After a quite over night stop in the Groot Karoo it was time to go back over the mountains and into the Klein Karoo again. This meant heading over the towering Swartberg Pass! By this time in the race I wasn’t just experiencing fatigue like I felt at the start and during each day. It had gone beyond that and was now chronic fatigue! We were unable to stay with the leading 4 teams up the Swartberg Pass and rather settled into a solid rhythm as it was a long way to the top! At the intensity we were climbing at on a normal day I would have estimated my heart rate to be somewhere around 170bpm. After analyzing it at the end of the day it was incredible to see that it was only about 140bpm! That just shows you how fatigued I was. I felt like I was going so hard but my heart rate was so low as I was too tied to go any faster and get it any higher! The climb was about 12km long and has an altitude gain of about 1000m (summit at 1550 meters). The climb took us 51min, going over the summit about 2 to 3min behind the leaders. On the way down Charles got a slow puncture again. Fortunately it was a quick stop to fix it and with the help of Stuart (our other team mate from Blend Properties, who was now racing solo after the withdrawal of his partner due to illness) we were able to catch back onto the group we were with (2nd bunch behind the leading bunch of 4 teams). The rest of the day went smoothly and ended up being the shortest ride time out of the 6 days. We lost our 4th place on GC, however, we managed to maintain the 1min advantage over Christoph Sauser and Silvio Bundi of Specialized-Songo.Info.

General Classification:
3. Toyota Supercycling Cyclelab Vets -27min
4. Mtbdestination.com -1min
5. Blend Property Group 1 0min
6. Specialized-Songo.Info +1min
7. DCM 2 +5min

Day 6 (the final day!): 114km Calitzdorp – Oudtshroon, 1900m climbing

Time: 4h50m
Position: 5th
Heart rate (average/max): 126/157

There was no easing up for the final day and we were to cover the second longest distance of the 6 days! I was now unbelievably fatigued and this was clearly evident as we hit the first climb of the day only 17km from the start! It was a hard 7km climb up the Rooiberg Pass and I knew it was going to be a long way home with about 100km of riding still to come! We had a decent group of riders that saw us through to the finish and Stuart did a fantastic job of helping us get through the stage. It was one of the longest days of my life but an amazing feeling eventually crossing the finish line in Oudtshroon! It is crazy how I struggled to get my heart rate over 130bpm! This is less than a normal training ride! We lost our top 5 spot on GC as Specialized-Songo.Info put in a huge effort and gained a massive amount of time on us and moved up into 3rd overall!

General Classification:
3. Specialized-Songo.Info -22min
4. Mtbdestination.com -14min
5. Toyota Supercycling Cyclelab Vets -7min
6. Blend Property Group 1 0min
7. DCM 2 +8min

I included my heat rate averages and maximums for each stage as it is one of the most interesting things about stage racing and definitely the most important thing to analyze and take into consideration for future experience. You can see how these values progressively drop each day as I became more and more fatigued. The key is to be able to recovery as quick as possible from day to day so that you can keep a high intensity each day and clearly I was unable to achieve this. My body just spiraled deeper and deeper into worse fatigue each day. However, this was my first proper stage race in which valuable experience was gained and to take into the future!

Over the 6 days we covered a total distance of 681km with 13750 of vertical climbing meters. We completed it in a time of 30h20m and placed 6th overall. It was truly an awesome experience with top class organization. Thanks Dryland and DCM for the event as well as thanks to my team sponsor Blend Properties and my partner Charles and all those who helped out along the way!

Seweweekspoort 80km MTB challenge

Photo: Oakpics (www.oakpics.com)

A trip consisting of 9 days away racing with team Blend Properties kicked off with the Ladismith Cheese Seweweekspoort Mountain bike challenge. This has been a race that I have always wanted to do. I now finally got the opportunity to compete in it and it would act as a solid warm-up race two days before the big daddy (The 6 day DCM Cape Pioneer Trek) began.

The race starts amongst some farms about 25km outside of Ladismith (in the Calitzdorp direction) near where the gravel road leaves Route 62 and heads into the “spooky” Seweweekspoort. It covers a distance of 80km taking you through the poort around a small technical loop on the other side then back through the poort again and through the farms back to Ladismith. It is believed that the ghost of one of the first toll gate keepers still wanders around the ruins of the original toll house at the northern entrance of the poort. On dark stormy nights, a couple of motorists have been stopped by a man with a lantern and as soon as they approach him he disappears.

The pace wasn’t very fast heading out through the Poort with only a few accelerations here and there. A more steady acceleration towards the exit of the Poort on the northern side broke the group up such that it was just Kevin Evans (MTN Energade), my team mate from Blend Properties Charles, Carl Pasio and I together. As we started on the loop on the other side with one relatively short technical climb, I just dropped off of Charles and Kevin. I was only about 10 seconds behind them until we started another climb and Kevin put the hammer down and I was unable to catch back on and the gap grew a little bigger.

This was not an ideal situation to be in as it was a long way back (just over 50km!) from here with a significant amount of gravel road! I was stuck about 1 minute behind the leading two of Kevin and Charles and about 1 to 2 minutes ahead of Carl in 4th place when we got back onto the gravel road to take us back through the poort. At this point I wish that I had seen this ghost man with a lantern as I’m sure I would have ridden so fast that I would have caught back up to the leaders in very little time!

So what do I do? Sit up and wait for Carl to catch back up to me so that we can work together or just put my head down and ride as hard as possible in the hope of catching back up to the leaders? To be honest this didn’t occur to me the second I got onto the gravel road. The only thing I thought of was to go as hard as I could and try catching the leaders and staying away from Carl in 4th place!

It was frustrating not being able to see them in front of me the whole way through the Poort due to all the twists and turns through the mountains. But as we exited the poort (on the South side) I could see them up ahead and was able to time the gap at about 1 minute.

I had to keep the pace up and this continued all the way to the finish as I just couldn’t close the gap. Therefore it ended up being like a 50km time trail for me. The gap remained much the same and I only lost a little more time towards the end as I ended up finishing 2 to 3 minutes behind. I was able to open up a significant gap on 4th place as I finished about 6 minutes ahead.

I held an average speed of 33km/hr for the last 60km and an average heart rate of 166bpm. This was a little harder than what I would have liked to have worked during this race considering what’s coming in two days time! However, at least I was able to finish on the podium in 3rd place.

2010 MTN National Ultra-Marathon Series Round-Up

This was the year I told myself that I would pursue my love for racing my mountain bike and try compete at the top level in South Africa. In order to do this I wanted to participate in the high profile mountain biking events, which attracted the best riders in the country. This would therefore be the MTN National Ultra-Marathon Series.

The series consists of 7 races around the country. However, “around the country” means more “up country” as only two of the races exist south of Lesotho! Therefore, a large amount of traveling would be involved along with its accompanied expenses and logistics regarding work etc.

I am very fortunate to have an unbelievably supportive fiancé, Jayde that accompanied me to all these races. This makes a big difference not only for the much needed backup support during the races but also for the moral support throughout the trips! Also her family for accommodating us in Joburg and happily providing their car for our transport to and from the races making my participation in this series achievable!

Attakwas: 135km, 2600m climbing, 6hr23min, ave spd 21km/hr, 14th position
The first race being the Attakwas was the most local one for me as it was in the Western Cape, however, still a 4 to 5 hour drive away but at least no flying involved. This is dubbed as the hardest one-day race in the country, which I believe it definitely lives up to! I had a decent race with a fairly decent result.

Barberton: did not race
Barberton was one of the races I would have really liked to have done but it is a very long way to travel and the timing of it was very close to the next race at Sabie, which is very close to Barberton and also happens to be the SA Champs race. I therefore chose to skip Barberton and rather do the SA Champs race at Sabie.

Sabie, SA Champs: 110km, 3000m climbing, 6hr03min, ave spd 18.1km/hr, 41st position
Sabie was a long way to go, but it was SA Marathon Champs and what looked to be an awesome course with lots of climbing and therefore definitely worth it. It would be my first race on my new carbon Shimano XT Felt! I unfortunately had a horrendous experience with fixing punctures and therefore didn’t have the race I was hoping for. With a total stoppage time of 45 minutes!!! Therefore this meant that I had an average moving speed of 20.5km/hr. I at least finished and got some points for my efforts towards the series rankings.

Clarens: 98km, 2100m climbing, 5hr41min, ave spd 17.2km/hr, 24th position
This had to have been one of the worst races of my life! I completely blew and came the closest I’ve ever come to pulling out of a race! My body really took a serious beating, but I soldiered on to the finish.

Cullinan: 104km, 1400m climbing, 4hr30min, ave spd 23.2km/hr, 12th position
This race came after a few months break in the series calendar and my moral was a little on the low side due to my past two races! However, I believe that these past two races help me gain valuable experience on how to tackle these ultra-marathon races and I was feeling quite a bit stronger at this stage of the season as my training had been going well. I had my team mate Charles to race with, which we did quite well for most of the way until I blew a bit in the last 30km. However, I was happy to get a decent result.

50 Miler KZN: did not race
This was another one that I would have really liked to have done! It would have been a nice change from the hot, dry and rough Highveld terrain with some decent climbing and therefore would have suited me. However, I had commitments back in Cape Town over the weekend.

Crater Cruise: 104km, 1100m climbing, 3hr51min, ave spd 27km/hr, 11th position
I wasn’t planning on doing this one until I saw that Parys wasn’t that far from Joburg. So it was nice to be able to race the last round of the series against a highly competitive field and come out with my best performance on top of that on a course that doesn’t really suite me.

The series rankings works by adding the points of your best 5 results out of the 7 races thoughout the year. Therefore the more races you do the better advantage you have. In the end I competed in five of the seven races and out of those five I had two very bad races and three decent races. This placed me 13th in the country for 2010. I am pleased with this result as there is a very solid top twenty competitors in the country and a highly competitive top ten! It is definitely a foundation, which I can take into 2011 and improve on especially after improving thoughout the year.

Ride Crater Cruise

The Ride Crater Cruise as I have come to realize is a big event on the mountain biking calendar, however, mainly for the Gautengers and the top pro's of the country. It attracts a large field of competitors due to the nature of the course being suitable for roadies. On the other hand the pro's are attracted to this event for the prize money, as it holds the biggest payout on the racing calendar. This was to be yet another first time event for me this year and the also last round of the 2010 MTN national ultra-marathon series.

Going into this race, I was sitting in 17th position in the series rankings. This is after doing 4 out of the 6 races in the 2010 series thus far and having two dismal performances at two of the races (I will put the link to my next post on 2010 MTN National Ultra-Marathon Series Round-Up here once they have updated the log standings to include the last race).

So now I can say I’ve been to Parys as it was the host town for this race. I’ve never heard of Parys until a few months before when planning to do this race. As normal up on the Highveld I was anticipating a hot and dry day and true to me knowledge temperatures were in the mid-thirties! This places me a bit out of my comfort zone coming from a nice Cape Town winter, but it was definitely good preparation for the following weeks DCM Cape Pioneer Trek.

This race starts off much like a road race, literally as the first 15 kilometers are on tar and very flat. This resulted in a few riders trying to get off the front of the sizable peloton before we encountered the first technical section. I had studied the route map before and saw this particular point of the course marked as the “bunch breaker” and therefore positioned myself right towards the front of the bunch. Going through this section I was well positioned around firth and had to concentrate hard in order to closely follow the wheel in front of me.

After getting back onto the gravel roads the bunch had thinned out a little but it was still quite large for a mountain bike race. It only really split up when we got to the first of only two climbs of the race. I managed to keep up with the relatively hard tempo set up the first climb and the concrete strips. Then the race blew into pieces as we ascended a very steep rough technical climb! I lost a few of the wheels in front of me as everyone scrambled on and off their bikes as we made our way up the climb. After negotiating the technical descent I found myself with two other guys chasing the front group of 8 riders.

We weren’t successful in catching back up to the leaders. However, we rode a solid pace through the searing heat and stayed clear of any other riders behind us.

This performance gave me my best result this year in the MTN national ultra-marathon series with 11th place and 13 minutes behind the winner Kevin Evans of team MTN Energade. This was a nice way to end off the year of racing the MTN national ultra-marathon series, knocking on the door of the top ten. I can now only wait until next year to see how I can shape up and hopefully have improved after gaining valuable experience this year.

Until then, the big one of the season, the DCM Cape Pioneer Trek awaits. But first, the “spooky” Ladysmith Cheese Seweweekspoort mountain bike challenge.

Race Report: Sunday 3 October: De Grendal 45km

Race number two of the weekend started at De Grendal Wine Estate on the Table View side of the Durbanville Hills area. With a fairly fast start on mostly flat and downhill roads of the estate we soon encountered a thick patch of sand, which immediately split the field into pieces. From there we went straight into the climbing that would eventually take us up to the masts and over the other side into the Magic Forest trails.

The climbs were very steep with very loose rocky surfaces and one section that was impossible to ride. It was only Renay Goustra (Mr Price GT), Domonic Calitz (Mr Price GT) and myself that got away early on up the climbs. I dropped my chain at one point and had to work quite hard to quickly catch back on. Renay managed to gain a small gap on Domonic and I towards the top of the climb before entering the long single tracks of Magic Forest.

I lost contact with Domonic through this long stretch of single tracks. After leaving the single tracks I could see him ahead for a while and kept a close eye on the gap. I was able to close it slightly as we climbed back over onto the De Grendal side again. We then rejoined with the shorter distance routes where I lost sight of him and was unable to close the gap any further.

I was happy with how I felt during the race and finished in 3rd place. It was good to be on the podium!

Race Report: Saturday 2 October: Lourensford Classic 55km

The week starts off and then flies by so quickly with all the things I need to get done that take priority over my blog. So it is already Thursday and finally here is some feedback of the last weekends racing. (Only in time to be packing up my bike and heading off to Joburg once again tomorrow for the last leg of the National marathon Mountain biking series on Saturday, the Crater Cruise)

The Lourensford Classic as the name implies is one of the oldest mountain bike races on the Western Cape's mountain biking calendar. Therefore it should be a well contested race with most of the top local riders on the start line. I heard that the course was going to be very technical and I suspected this after the last time I did a race there over a year ago and vowed never to do a race there again unless on a full suspension downhill mountain bike!

The race starts with some decent climbing up the steep farm roads through the vineyards. As we neared the top of the course I was feeling fine, riding with Domonic Calitz (Mr Price GT), about 30sec behind the leader, Renay Goustra (Mr Price GT). Then... I think the little farm roads we were riding on turned into something I can only describe as thick knee-high bushes and rocks that you couldn't see! It was at this point where I started to struggle and made many mistakes, which saw me coming very close to tumbling down the mountain.

I lost quite a few positions in the second half of the course and ended up finishing in 7th position. There is always something to learn from every race you do and this time I realized that I need to touch up a little on my technical riding, as I have been focusing more on the hardcore strength of late in preparation for the Cape Pioneer Trek in October.

Karoo2Coast by davemore at Garmin Connect - Details

Karoo2Coast by davemore at Garmin Connect - Details

Karoo to Coast

This would be my second year at the Karoo to Coast mountain bike race. After doing the race last year for the first time it is truly a highlight on the mountain biking calendar.

The race takes you 95km from the Karoo town of Uniondale down one of Thomas Bain's many master pieces in South Africa, the Prince Alfred Pass to Knysna. It is said to be a downhill race due to the fact that you start at a higher altitude (730 meters above sea level) than where you finish (sea level), however, there is 1700 meters of climbing thrown in, which is a decent amount of climbing for a 95km mountain bike race!

The race starts with the hardest climb of the day, "Ou Wapad". This is a 4km climb that is rather steep with a very loose, rocky surface. The pace is always very hard up this climb as the field gets strung out. I took a bit of strain getting going up this climb but managed to limit the damage quite well and remain in the top few positions not far off the leader Kevin Evans (MTN) who rode unaccompanied up the climb as no-one could match the pace he set. On the other side of the climb I started to find my legs and was able to catch up to my team mate from Blend, Charles. Erik Kleinhans (Mr Price, GT) was not far behind us and rejoined us on the decent of Prince Alfred Pass.

The descent of the Prince Alfred Pass is a 14km descent, which we went from the top to the bottom of the valley in a time of 17 minutes (ave spd of 50km/hr) with reaching speeds of over 80km/hr at some points. On a steep winding gravel road on the edge of the mountain this makes for some exiting riding and is definitely one of my highlights of the race!

The three of us rode at a solid pace with a gap of about 2 to 3 minutes behind the two leaders Kevin and Matthys Beukes (Scott). Erik eventually dropped off Charles and I as we rode hard up the long drag to Buffelsnek. At this point Charles and I really picked up the pace and were riding hard! At the 70km mark we were about 1 minute behind Matthys and 3 minutes behind Kevin. We kept pushing the pace as we crested the penultimate climb before descending into the Gouna River valley. All that was left was one more 3km climb out of the valley to Simola Estate before reaching Knysna.

During this descent into the Gouna River valley only 12km from the finish line, the spooks of the Karoo caught up to Charles and I. For some unknown reason the most unlikely scenario that I don’t think has ever taken place before occurred. At the exact same time my team mate Charles and I each broke our chains! As I slowed down to stop and turned to tell Charles that I had broken my chain he asked me if I had a quick-link (piece used to rejoin the chain) for him. I couldn’t understand why he was asking me for a quick-link when I had broken my chain, only to realize that he had also broken his chain. This was a bit devastating as we were so close to the finish and were going at such a good pace!

Erik came flying down the hill past us as we were on the side each fixing our chains. I was able to get mine fixed but Charles was struggling to get his quick-link connected as it was rusted. I had to leave him behind as he waited for the next rider to get another quick-link from them.

Once getting back on my bike my legs felt dead after going hard and coming to an abrupt stop for a few minutes. Fortunately I was able to make it to Knysna without anyone else catching up to me and therefore only lost one position due to my chain mishap. Unfortunately for me this happened to be the last podium position! Charles was however less fortunate than me by having to wait for the next rider to fix his chain. This turned out to be a long wait of over 5 minutes as we had built up such a decent gap.

Otherwise I was happy to finish in 4th position as it could have ended a lot worse than that. It was a good race with an average speed over 1km/hr quicker than last year.

Another MTN national marathon

This time we visited the diamond mining town of Cullinan just outside Pretoria. This event was number 5 in the series and number 4 for me. After deciding that this year I would give it a go at these national races as I wanted to compete against the best mountain bike riders in the country I had a fairly decent start to the year with a 14th position at the first race of the series, the Attakwas. The next two races where races much to be forgotten about due to extreme mechanical and bodily failures. However, this time I was able to get in a decent race and result with 12th place.

Most of the top contenders were on the start line, one of who was Kevin Evans (MTN Energade) fresh from competing in the world marathon mountain biking champs in Europe, needing one more victory to take the overall title in the series with two races still to come. As usual in this part of the world it was going to be hot! And I've come here from my every faithful Cape Town winter weather, so I was expecting a little shock to the system later in the day. The racing was fast in the beginning as there was no real climbing so the bunch was trying to tail off the lesser mortals with a rapid pace. This indeed turned out to be successful as we encountered very soft sand that exposed one of the key skills of mountain biking among the riders.

After the flatter sandy areas, the rough, rocky savanna terrain that highveld mountain biking races are renowned for and, which resulted in the complete destruction of my body in the previous race in Clarens, began. I tackled this section of the route feeling strong and riding most of the time with my team mate from Blend Properties, Charles. We managed to drop a few other riders along the way and were within 6min of the leaders at the 65 kilometer feed zone.

Soon after this point we turned to continue with the half marathon route (the ultra marathon consisted of 105km of which 70km was the marathon route and the other 35km was the half marathon route). It was here that I started struggling to hold the pace of Charles, as my back was beginning to hurt from the constant jarring of the rough terrain and I was unable to get the power out of my legs that was needed to drive the peddles. I was then left to fight with my body for the last 30 kilometers, to keep me going to the finish. Fortunately we had built up a solid gap on the other riders behind us and no one passed me during this time. At the finish I crossed the line in 4hr30min and ended up loosing 10min to Charles over those last 30 kilometers where he went on to finish 10th. I was happy with the race, it just would have been nice to have finished strong and in the top 10.

Next time...

Transbaviaans - 230km!!!

230km is a very very long way. That is what the Transbaviaans mountain biking race (from the little karoo dorpie called Willomore through the beautiful but painful Baviaanskloof all the way to the surfing mecca of Jeffrey's Bay) consists of.

Team Blend Properties consisting of Charles, Stuart and myself were all first timers at this race. It was a little daunting knowing that you will be venturing your body into unknown territory as we would be out on the bike for about 9-hours (if all goes to plan)!

The night before consisted of detailed planning. There was a lot to think about for this race unlike most races where you just hop on your bike in the morning and go flat out from the gun. We needed to make sure we had all the supplies necessary from nutrition to tools and spares for each feed zone/check point along the way! Then strategically place these items either on our bikes, in our pockets or the crates supplied by the race organisers that would be taken to each point through the kloof. After everything was sorted, well we hoped, we were able to get to sleep in our small, spooky karoo cottage surrounded only by little karoo bossies in the middle of nowhere!

Race day came. We placed our crates in the truck to be taken into the kloof and after being nice and relaxed before the start we unfortunately had to line up right towards the back of the field. This was obviously not ideal as there was no way of trying to make our way closer towards the front until the gun went off. The madness begins! We had to frantically weave our way through about 600 odd riders before we got to the narrow jeep track about 3km from the start. Hence this was near impossible and we had to do some rough riding through the jeep track to try make up ground. After about 15min of hard effort and risking punctures we had made it into the front bunch and were able to settle down nicely.

With a front bunch consisting of about 10 teams and fast flowing gravel roads the pace was generally high and higher at times similar to a road race for the first 100km with an average speed of about 33km/hr. Just after 100km we entered the first check point and feed zone. Without any form of back up we quickly found our crate and took what we needed. I thought we had done this quickly and efficiently and we were back on our bikes within 2min. This, however, wasn't quick enough compared to the two teams (Supercars and Marsilio Projects) already over a minute up the road who had support vehicles. We chased hard for the next 10km from 105km to 115km when we hit the first big climb. As we started climbing we saw the two leading teams together about 200 meters in front of us. At that moment Stuart started to feel the effects of the hard effort and began to cramp. This made the going through the kloof rather tough as Charles and I took turns in pulling Stuart as we didn't want to stop. We just needed to get through the kloof so that we could recover on the long decent on the other side.

Although we lost ground to the leading team Supercars, we did manage to catch up to Marsilio Projects at the top of Bergplaas. However, the big climb to the top of Bergplaas really killed me as the tough going through the kloof took its toll. It was a long struggle up to the top! When I got to the check point and feed zone at the top I was blown! I was hurting and couldn't think straight as I had to take what I needed from our crate to get me to our next feed zone as well as put my light on my bike. During this time Marsilio Projects whom we had caught up to had another quick stop and were able to get ahead of us again.

At least we knew there was a long downhill to recover until our next check point.

The next check point came at about 176km. This was the first time we saw our back-up driver! A similar scenario occurred here as the previous check point where we had just caught back up to Marsilio Projects and after a quick 2 minute stop they managed to get back on their bikes a little quicker than us. We chased them down and shortly after the check point when we started climbing the last major climb of the race we passed them with ease. They were unable to respond and follow us as we got a gap on them.

At this stage of the race, although I had recovered and was not feeling blown I started to suffer with some cramp as we made our way up the climb. Once over the top I was able to recover. We didn't have to stop for long at the final check point and were on our bikes tracing through the farm lands behind Jeffrey's Bay. I could smell we were getting close to the finish, however, we were unable to see Jeffrey's Bay.

The time of day was just before 6pm (almost 8 hours of racing) and the sun had set over the horizon. It was finally time to put our lights on to see us through to the finish. Knowing this I was feeling good and able to push it as hard as possible. Charles was doing a great job of reading the directions to get us to the finish! And after a slight hiccup of taking one turn too early and having to back track a little we crossed the finish line in second place 8hr31min later, what an amazing feeling!

Will I do it again next year? ...For sure!!!

Results:
1st - Supercars 8hr15min
2nd - Blend Properties 8hr31min
3rd - Marsilio Projects 8hr38min

Blend team training camp: George

After a long six and a half hour trip from Cape Town to George, the 5 team players of the Blend Property Group Cycling Team (Shan; Charles; Stuart; Rafeeq; and myself) arrived at our luxury accommodation in Fancourte Golf Estate.

Here we would spend the next 3 days either on our bikes or chilling out watching the World Cup Soccer in style. However, there was a bit of wine tasting and festival atmosphere thrown in as well.

The first ride on Friday morning was an immediate introduction to a mountain biking training camp with a solid 10km of climbing in the first 15km of riding up the Montagu Pass. It was rather freezing on the way down the other side and through the valleys! Stuart had decided to wear short finger gloves and lets just say I haven't seen him wear short finger gloves since then... On the other side we made our way to the ostrich populated town of Oudtshoorn. I always enjoy climbing high altitudes and riding along the winding roads over these big mountain ranges. Having studied honours in Atmospheric Science at university it makes it even more interesting when you cross from one climatic region to another. In this case we went from the greener coastal plain to the more arid Klein Karoo. Altogether we covered some good distance and pushed some hard climbing on the way back.

Then it was time to refuel with some good food, sit back with our legs up and recover until the next morning.

The next day was going to be a ride out along the seven passes route in the direction of Knysna. This took us to a Berg Plaas Plantation above Wilderness. Here there is some good proper mountain biking, which was most enjoyable! The highlight of this ride was the support crew that provided us with an unbelievable refuelling station! It came at a time where we had been riding for almost 4 hours and we were all starting to get rather hungry and wondering when we were going to stop at a shop to refuel. To our amazement our riding partners for the training camp, Ischen Stopforth and Marcel Deacon had arranged for their friends to meet us up in the mountain somewhere behind the Wilderness to provide us with anything we possibly wanted!

We had had perfect weather conditions for Friday and Saturday. However, this was all to change for Sunday, our final day and session. We woke up to the rain, wind and cold. Fortunately for us the rain didn't stick around and we were able to start and also do most of our ride without much rain. Sunday's session was one of climbing and cross-country. We didn't cover much distance, however we climbed up two big climbs in the mountains behind George, Tier Kop and Groen Kop. We also threw in a lap of the Saarsveld national cross-country circuit.

All together this made for a very good, solid and memorable training camp with a great team! Thanks guys, and a special thanks to Martin our team owner from Blend Property Group and his wife Paula for accommodating us and putting up with our strange cyclists behaviour!

WP XC mtb league race #2 - Durbanville

The second race of the WP cross-country mountain biking series took place in the Durbanville hills area. It turned out to be a really nice course with just over 200 meters of climbing for each 5.8km lap. The laps consisted of some decent long up hill stretches, some short very steep up hill sections and some nice fast flowing single tracks with switchbacks both up and down.

The race started out extremely fast as usual. It took the first two laps for me to get more familiar with the course. Then I was able to get into a decent rhythm and was really enjoying myself. I was lying in 3rd position in the elite category for the first 4 laps until the two riders in front of me, Renay Goustra and Erik Kleinhans (Mr Price GT) pulled out. I therefore ended up coming 1st out of the elites. I was however, 5th over all as there were 4 U23 riders in front of me. Those U23's really seem to know how to race these cross-country races! I am fairly new to this kind of racing as this is only my third one ever and I think I'm beginning to enjoy them more each time.

There was only one problem with this race. The cross-country races are normally aimed at an optimal total time of 2hrs +/- 10min from the winners to the back of the field. Like the previous XC race I didn't have anyone to keep anything for me in the feed zone, so I had to take everything I was going to need from energy stuff to fluid along with me. I don't find this too much of a problem as I know the race should only last about 2hrs, which isn't very long and I know exactly what I would need to eat and drink during that time. I also don't want to take extra and have to carry anything unnecessary along with me.

So, I'm not sure what the reason was but the organises made the race 8 laps. As it turned out this was one or two laps too many. I ended up bonking half way through the 7th lap (after about 2hrs10min of racing) and still had one and half laps still to go. They ended up being a very long and difficult one and a half laps as I was rather dizzy and had a slower reaction time that resulted in me over shooting quite a few corners, making quite a lot of mistakes and riding off the single track a few times. At least I didn't end up being over taken by anyone else during this time and is something to consider more in the future.

100 miles on a mountain bike

The AMArider 100 miler mountain bike race was a race that I had been thinking about for quite a long time. Unlike a local PPA race it is one of those races that only happens once a year and thus one that I would like to do well in!

So much can happen in a race this long and you can never really plan out the entire race. You can have a strategy, however, due to the long day ahead and depending on how the race unfolds this strategy is very likely to change. I thought that for a start I would watch Erik Kleinhans (Mr Price GT) as he is the defending champion of this race therefore I was sure he would have some experience and a good strategy. Secondly, I would eat a lot! Otherwise just sit tight, stay with the rest of my team Blend, communicate with them to see how everyone is doing and what we could do as a team until about 130km. Then see how I'm feeling and try push it as hard as possible from there.

The race started with a few climbs in the beginning. The pace didn't seem to be all that fast, as I made sure that I wasn't pushing myself too hard as there was a long way to go! After one of the climbs I glanced around to see only about 12 riders in the front bunch. Not long after this Jacques Roussouw (Cannondale) put in a hard effort, which got everyone in the group scrambling to catch onto a back wheel and then when another small climb started Jacque and David George (SA findit) rode off the front. Not wanting to push myself too hard I just kept a steady pace. Afterwards Jacque dropped back from David George into our group, which by this time consisted of about 10 riders after a few dropped back after the slight changes in pace earlier on.

We rode through the first water point as it was only about 30 odd kilometers into the race and there was no real need to refuel already. The breakfast stop at about 50km there was once again no real need to stop and refuel, as I had made sure I had enough to get me to the second water point at 80km. Soon after the breakfast stop we headed up a decent climb. This created some gaps among our group of riders. I was feeling strong up this climb and didn't really push myself too hard. On the other side of the climb we rode an easy pace and a few of the riders that got dropped up the climb were able to catch back up again. From here we just kept things steady until the refuelling stop at water point two.

After the second water point the race changed slightly as no one was wanting to do any work up front or push the pace. And some tried a few attacks but none were successful in getting away. At this point in the race I was not going to let anyone else get away. David George was still quite a long way up the road (he had a 4min lead at the second water point).

The race took a dramatic change and it all began at about the 115km mark. A few of the other riders that hung back right near the beginning caught up to our group. Among these riders was Erik Kleinhans (Mr Price GT). As they caught up and without us even realising Erik had gone passed at a rapid pace and was already a couple hundred meters up ahead! A few of the other riders and myself put in some big efforts to see if we could close the gap. After a while the other riders gave up the chase and I had to then decide whether to continue chasing Erik. It was a little earlier in the race than I would have liked to have to be pushing hard and trying to make a break, however, it was also that time in the race that I had to make that decision. I was feeling alright and continued to chase Erik and managed to catch up to him. Once catching him I looked back and saw that the rest of the group were quite a long way back.

We worked quite hard together and in no time had caught up to David George. David George didn't seem to be strong as he wasn't able to take turns on the front as Erik and I continued to push the pace. It wasn't long until David George had dropped off and as we were going up a climb Erik attacked at about the 130km mark. I was unable to respond and then got the feeling that I had gone to hard to soon and was blown. I kept a steady pace and ate a Gu while Erik was up the road, however, remaining in sight.

We soon approached the third and final water point at about 135km. At this point Erik had a minute and a half lead on me. I was not feeling that broken as I was able to just swap my bottles and grab a banana while still on the go.

Then the real climbing began! Although the climbing wasn't steep it was long and with tied legs it sure did feel steep! I kept a steady pace and noticed that I was catching back up to Erik. Much to my delight I realised that he must be tied and have tried to break away too soon. I caught him up on one of the many rolling hills after the big climb with about 15 to 20km still to go. He was not able to keep up with me and I continued to keep a solid pace.

I looked at my watch and saw that there was about 10km to go and looked behind to see no one in sight. It then hit me that I was out in front of the race, the race that I had been thinking about for a long time and dreaming of winning. I kept pushing towards the finish line but on the flat gravel roads I was really taking strain! Although taking strain with about 5km to go I looked behind and still couldn't see anyone. I thought that I could do it but I could hardly sit on the saddle and I couldn't stand up as my legs were hurting so much! I looked behind again and was horrified to see someone fast approaching! I thought that it was probably Erik catching back up to me but in no time with only 2km to go the the finish line, Jacque Roussouw came flying passed me!

I couldn't go with him, I couldn't pick up my pace any more and I just had to keep on going to the finish and try not get passed by anyone else! At least I managed that and finished a long, gruelling and very exciting race in second place!

Thanks very much to our team Blend support crew in which my number one supporter Jayde was there to have everything I needed within an instant, taking photos and giving the timing splits! Amazing job, well done my girl!

Difference between first place and the rest

I got to race the Computer Mania Willow Creek Nuy 60km mountain bike race on Saturday. Although it was an ordinary PPA race, it had Computer Mania as a title sponsor and therefore some very decent prizes, which is unusual for a PPA race.

As usual with these local PPA races you never know who is going to pitch up at the start line. However, you know that there will always be at least 4 or 5 decent riders ready to battle it out at the front of the race especially this one as the prize for first place was a nice new HP laptop!

I really need a new laptop! I have been wanting to buy one for quite a few months now but always have other things that I need to spend my hard earned money on, especially things to keep me going in the sport of mountain biking.

It was a fast race as there was not a lot of climbing. The terrain was quite rough with lots of dry fynbos-scratching skinny shiny legs. A small group of about 6 riders were out in front until the first little climb at 20km. The group was then narrowed down to just 3 of us (myself, Greg Knox of UCT and a House of Paint rider who I unfortunately don't have a name for as it didn't show up on the end results). After the decent from this climb one of the others that was dropped on the way up was able to catch back up to us again.

From then on the front of the race consisted of the 4 of us. There were no major hills to break up the 4 of us until the final climb at 45km. This climb was more of a hike-a-bike climb as it was very steep and rocky. All of us had to resort to getting off our bikes to make it to the top. This provided little opportunity to make use of on the bike climbing strengths and everyone summited the hill together. Therefore it all came down to the decent into the finish and the guy that was able to catch back up to us down the first climb earlier on in the race was able to put in the best decent out of us and take the win with Greg Knox in second, myself in third and the House of Paint rider in forth.

Although still a decent result and keeping it consistent up in the top three for the last two weeks now, there was no new laptop for third place. Instead I won a very fancy laptop stand with an integrated keyboard. So thanks to Computer Mania for the fantastic prizes!

Something for Charity

BEN Red Hill Charity Cycle Challenge 2010

I have signed up to take part in a charity cycle challenge (details below). The only problem is that it takes place on the Sunday after the AMArider 100 miler (160km) mountain bike race, which is on the Saturday! Obviously I'm always up for a challenge and would therefore like to do as many laps as I can, however, this will depend largely on the state of my muscles due to the 100 miler.


Dear friends and family.

I have entered an endurance event called the Redhill Charity Challenge to raise money for the Bicycling Empowerment Network ( BEN ). BEN is an NGO that uses donations from all over the world to empower previously disadvantaged communities to become more mobile and self sufficient by using bicycles. Recipients are given free bicycles and helmets as well as safety and bike maintenance training. This costs approximately R2000.00 per person and changes their lives forever. If you would like to read more about the charity, click on this link: http://www.benbikes.org.za/

I am going to see how many times I can complete a 29km lap which includes the tough circuit of Red Hill , one of the toughest hills around to ascend. My goal is 7 laps 203km but you can sponsor me to do more laps and set me a challenge to raise more money for charity. You can sponsor as little as R100.00 for this great cause: please go to http://www.benbikes.org.za/charitychallenge/entrants.php , scroll down to my face and help me change the lives of people less fortunate than us.

To read more about the event go to www.benbikes.org.za/charitychallenge/index.php

Weekends racing round up

Winter in Cape Town is always a hit and miss when it comes to races and weather conditions! This weekend was exactly that with perfect "Tru-Cape" weather.

Saturday was the Tru-Cape Grabouw PPA 50km mountain bike race that took place in perfect conditions, while Sunday saw the weather turn real ugly for the first Western Province cross-country league race of the season in Helderberg.

I have always said that Grabouw is truly a mountain biking paradise! Although races are never really easy, some can be harder than others due to various reasons. Grabouw is always going to be a hard race from its steep hills to the abundance of technical single tracks.

With a different style of starting the race, the only one of this kind I have ever done, everyone lay their bikes down on the ground behind a line and stand about 30 meters back behind another line waiting for the start gun after which dashing to pick up your bike (hopefully not having to find it in amongst all the other bikes!) and jump on and get going as quick as possible! Similar to a Le Mans motor racing start.

After the mad start rush a group of five guys formed out in front consisting of Nico Pfitzenmaier, Adriaan Louw (GT Mr Price), Greg Knox, Charles Keeys (Blend Properties) and myself (Blend Properties). From there it was all about pushing the pace as hard as possible and making sure you don't make any mistakes on the single tracks. After a long stretch of the famous rocky Grabouw single track before the end of the first 25km lap the group of 5 was strung out, I was in 5th place and had some ground to make up as we headed out on the second lap of 25km.

Not far into the second lap and the route began to head upwards! Most of the climbing for the entire race occurred between 29km and 40km with two major climbs of about 300 meters of altitude gain. I was able to put in a hard effort up the climbs and move my way up into 3rd position. Unfortunately for Nico who was in the lead and broke his chain on the technical single track in the final 10km, I was able to move into 2nd position and ended up that way behind Adriaan Louw of GT Mr Price.

Sundays race was a different story all together due to the weather and type of racing. Being a cross-country race and those that my slow twitch muscles can never really adapt to in the first lap, the hard race in Grabouw the previous day certainly didn't help in this regard! Neither did the cold wet stormy conditions. However, after dragging myself out to Somerset West it was a fun race on a very decent circuit.

Cape Peninsular flip over by davemore at Garmin Connect - Details

Cape Peninsular flip over by davemore at Garmin Connect - Details

3x sandwiches
1x hot cross bun
1x Jungle oat energy bar
1x Gu energy gel
3x 800ml bottles of water and energy drink
2x 340ml cans of coke

All this was still not enough!

Eating properly on long endurance rides is like an art. I have bonked so many times before, sometimes so badly that I have had to be picked up (usually by my number one supporter and girlfriend, Jayde) because I wasn't able to make it back home (or to the next place where I could get food). This is purely because I always underestimate how much fuel my body needs to keep me going for such a long period of time. I can go through a three hour ride without having to eat much at all but as soon as I do a ride that is over three hours I have to take my eating to a whole different level and consume a large amount! At least on this ride this food and drink got me through about 5hrs45min and it was only really the last 30min that I was feeling rather depleted and was able to make it home without having to be rescued.

Marathon vs. Cross Country

Cross country racing involves completing a number of laps on a short technical circuit ranging from 6 to 8km in length. Marathon racing involves covering vast landscapes normally over distances in excess of 100km far away from civilization.

Given my background of endurance sports, triathlons and road cycling I was more likely to take up the marathon aspect of mountain biking. Only recently have I come to experience the two very different aspects of mountain biking. Each race took place just one week apart so that experiences from both would be fresh in my mind. Both races were national events on the 2010 MTN marathon and cross country series therefore attracting the top riders in the country. Each race was also extremes in there own categories as the cross country race took place in Maritzburg on a very similar course that the world cup cross country race followed last year, thus it is a world class circuit. The marathon race the following weekend took place in Clarens and turned out to be the hardest race I've ever done!

From my experience cross country racing is shorter and a lot more intense than marathon racing. Marathon races usually start with a neutral zone. This see the riders out of town and usually organizes the bunch of riders before the real racing begins. It is also a nice feature that I find eases you into the race. On the other hand in cross country racing, the second the start gun sounds the frantic rush to the first section of single track begins. With this comes the immediate spike in heart rate and lactic acid build up in the legs as one gasps for oxygen! I could easily get used to this as it is very similar to the start of a triathlon race where it is like a washing machine of everyone swimming on top of each other and being kicked in the face in order to get to the first buoy in a good position.

Once the neutral zone is over in marathon racing and the real racing begins you quickly settle into a rhythm (hopefully with a group of riders) that allows you to pace yourself. There is no such thing as pacing yourself in cross country racing, you just have to go flat out for the entire duration of the race. After surviving the mad rush to the first bit of single track it is then time to focus a large amount of energy towards concentration as one split second error or misjudgment will have catastrophic consequences!

These are the two most important differentiating aspects that need to be applied to these two types of mountain bike racing to ensure a decent finish. For marathons it is pacing yourself in a way that you are going hard without over exerting yourself to early resulting in blowing later on in the race as well as eating correctly at the right times in order to keep your energy levels up such that you don’t bonk later in the race. For cross country racing it is purely the concentration and skill that is key in getting you to the finish line.

Personally I found that I didn’t get as tied in the cross country race like I did in the marathon race. The duration of marathon racing is very tough on your whole body and also involves a large amount of mental strength to get you through certain stages of the race. Cross country racing involves a large amount of skill in order to push your physical limits over the shorter duration of the race. Both races are extremely challenging and exciting in there own separate ways and I would like to master each of them as they both help in preparing yourself for one another.

Hardest race ever!

The last few races I've taken part in have turned out to be mechanically challenged races. This occasion turned out to be a physically challenged race in a big way!

The mountainous country side of Clarens was the setting for the forth leg of the 2010 MTN national marathon mountain biking series. Heavy rain throughout the day and night before made for a very muddy race. As usual the top contenders from the MTN and Garmin teams were on the start line. This is one of my main reasons for traveling to compete in these races. I know I'm not up there contending for the top positions (yet...), however, I strongly believe that the only way to improve and get there is to race against the best and gain valuable experience along the way. Like any business or career, you have to invest something for it to grow.

The race started out mainly on gravel farm roads for the first 10 to 15km. At this point that was pretty much the end of the gravel roads for the rest of the 100km as we headed towards the rough mountainous areas and the Golden Gate Nature Reserve.

The terrain was so rough almost to the point of unridable on a hardtail mountain bike! After riding on this terrain up a very steep hill and then along the top for a while I really needed a short break in the terrain to give my back and most of all my hands a rest. However, this much needed little break in the rough terrain never came and we then started going downhill. At one point while going down my incredibly sore hands and the rough bumpiness got too much to handle and I lost control and came off. Fortunately, myself and my bike (except for a bent break leaver and straightening the fork and steam) were ok and I was able to get back on my way without much delay.

When I got to the tech and feeding zone I was delightfully assisted by my number one girl and supporter who had everything from chain lube, coke and anything else right at my finger tips! This allowed for a quick efficient stop and I was away on my bike in no time!

After about 80km and 4-hours I hit the wall. My entire body was aching and every bump felt like I was being dropped from a building. Every pedal stroke felt like I was trying to tow a two tonne kart behind my bike. With this came the last monster climb! Hence it was a very long struggle between myself and my bike. Impressive as it is, although encouraging to know that the winner of the race Kevin Evans, said that he only just managed to ride up this final climb. I eventually made it to the top and just had to get down the otherside into Clarens, which involved a 300m portage section down some very large sort of stairs.

I eventually made it to the finish in a not so happy, broken and muddy state! I was out there for a very long time of 5hrs41min and finished in a position I’m not at all happy with of 24th. Without much sense of humor, my number one girl and supporter did an amazing job of encouraging and uplifting me. This was well needed as it has been a very hard three months without much race satisfaction due mostly to mechanical failures and this time to physical inability.

It is now time to put these last few months behind me and focus on some solid training for the next few weeks before the next race being the 100 Miler!

I must admit that this race as well as doing the ultra marathon in Harrismith last year, has provoked some self questioning about my equipment. I am definitely considering a duel suspension bike and possibly a 29’er before I compete in another ultra marathon in the Free State again. This would however, have to be on hold until sometime next year. Time to start saving and researching…

First mtb x-country race ever

I often get thrown in the deep end and this time round was no exception that's for sure!

I decided to take part in the second MTN cross-country national mtb event of 2010 in Maritzburg. Cross-country mountain biking is obviously very new to me seeing that this was going to be my first cross-country race I've ever done! As this type of racing is not my main focus I wouldn't have normally traveled to take part, however, I happened to have a wedding in that region that same day. I'm always game for riding my bike, a race or a challenge, I thought I'd take my bike along and participate.

As normal I did a loosen up ride that afternoon before. This time it involved riding the course. This turned out to be a bad idea as now I knew what I was in for and made me doubt whether I should go through with this race! Being one to never pullout or back down from a challenge this was obviously not going to happen!

Being a cross-country race I knew that it would be technical. My general feeling is that my level of technical skills are fine, the single tracks of Tokai are my back garden. But here almost the whole course consisted of technical single track with a few sections of unridable-only-launchable drop-offs and we would have to do this course seven times!

One thing that really struck me was the difference between simply riding single tracks during training (like I only really do as most of the races I take part in don't involve much technical single track) and racing on them! The other thing that struck me was the sudden intense pace from the gun! As I'm more of an endurance person that normally takes a little while to warm up, the first lap consisted purely of adrenaline, burning lungs and muscles. The first few laps also saw some sketchy moments with the near tree collisions, drop-offs and terrain, however, after the third lap I had a decent rhythm and was taking everything the trails threw at me with ease. I felt a lot more comfortable and was really enjoying it! The only problem was that by this time I was quite far behind.

It was an interesting experience and one that I will definitely take into account for my training. I will return to improve on my performance and better my position in some more cross-country races, however, with a bit more practice under the belt.

The funny twist in the tail was that I crossed the finish line at 14h00 exactly and the wedding was scheduled for 14h45!!! With great team work and detailed prior planning, myself and Roan Exelby (who is a cousin of Jayde that we were staying with and also competed in the race and was attending the wedding) arrived exactly on time to the wedding at 14h45!

Holiday in Dubai

One of the many problems with working full time and trying to race competitively is trying to get leave from work that coincides with bike races that need traveling or multi-stage races.

This scenario I was able to organise a week of leave three months in advance. This was the first leave period I was taking in one year and one month! Because I had to organise this three months in advance as well as organising the over seas travel that it also entailed, it is very difficult to find the best time period that fits in with my training and racing schedule as well! There was not much time to think! The leave was granted and the flights needed to be booked otherwise we would loose out on the good air fare rate. Unfortunately this time period coincided with the week of the Cape Epic. At the time of organising the holiday, I wasn't going to be able to do the Cape Epic. Little did I know that much closer to the time an opportunity to compete in the Epic came my way and obviously it was too late for me to scrap all the holiday plans and of coarse all the money that had already been spent.

Jayde and I were off to Dubai. What an awesome holiday it was! I had an amazing time and it was even better that I got to spend it with my number one girl and also to see my sister Tracy and Evan for the first time in 18 months! There is so much to do there and I think we did just about everything in the 8-days we were there!

- Two water parks: Wild Wadi and Atlantis hotel
- Desert safari 4x4 extreme dune bashing
- Indoor snow skiing
- Chilling on the beach at Mamzar, teaching Jayde to body-surf
- Travelling through two of the other Emirates: Sharjah and Fujairah, seeing the desert mountains, swimming and snorkeling around Snoopy Island rock where we swam with a turtle!
- Shopping at 5 different malls
- Seeing the worlds tallest building and the amazing fountain show from all perspectives (even from the 63 floor of the Address building at night!)
- We even got to go tubing behind a boat in the warm blue waters of the Gulf and seeing Dubai from the sea
- We also got to go to Tracy and Evans church and see Evan at his best leading worship

So Dubai was my first overseas holiday without involving some form of racing and what a great time it was! Now getting back home it is time to reduce the calorie intake and increase the time on the bike! Next race MTN mountain biking cross-country national in Maritzburg followed by the MTN mountain biking marathon national in Clarens.