Lighthouse 2 Lighthouse mtb race

The 2010 Lighthouse to Lighthouse mountain bike race was a first for me. It was one of those races I've always heard about and thought it would be nice to do it. It is also one of those races that doesn't seem to attract a large field of top riders, however, a few good riders always turn up but you never know who they are until you standing on the start line.

This time it was the whole Fairbairn Private Bank team, a newly formed team from my very own multisports club - ATC Multisport against myself of Blend Properties. They have put together some decent mountain bikers that are competing in many of the regional races and some of the national races as well.

Day 1: (85km)

The race started from right underneath the Danger Point lighthouse at the tip of Gansbaai and headed in the direction of Cape Agulhas, the most southern point of Africa. There was a Northwesterly wind blowing, which meant a tail wind for the entire 85km of racing! There was an easy tar section for about 4km, which was nice to get the legs moving after the 2hr30min drive there without much of a pre-race warm up! The tar then lead into a rocky jeep track along the shore where a front group of riders formed. We encountered a short beach section before hitting a long, straight flat stretch of tar road for about 12km. During this time we had a group of nine riders, four of which were Fairbairn Bank riders. We took a left turn in the direction away from the coast and were now on a heavily corrugated gravel road. With this came the first climb of the race and the end of the group of nine riders! At the top of the climb was two Fairbairn Bank riders, Cornelius Muller and Louis, and myself.

Not far from there after just over an hour of riding, we encountered another climb that was a little more rough. I rode a steady pace up there and when at the top I looked behind me to see that I had opened up a substantial gap on the other two riders. At this point I had to decide whether to ease up and wait for them to catch back up to me or to just carry on riding relatively hard and see what happens. My only concern was that it was rather flat and they would probably work together to bring me back. After a while of riding in the front I had built up a gap of 3min on the two Fairbairn Bank riders. This gap turned out to be nothing compared to local knowledge as we entered the Agulhas Nature Researve! This is where the sand really started, which is one of the aspects this race is famous for. I was struggling through the incredibly soft sandy jeep track having to get off my bike and run some sections then get back on my bike to only have to get back off again to run! about half way through the reserve I all of a sudden saw Louis come flying past me. He had done this race before and knew that you can't ride on the jeep tracks as the sand is too soft but there were paths that had been cut out from people trying to ride off the jeep track over the years of this race. They are difficult to spot as all the vegetation there was burnt to the ground and the paths are not clearly visible unless you know they are there.

I quickly got onto these paths and caught back up to Louis and followed his line. My hardtail bike did pose a very rough ride through the burnt vegetation as I followed Louis riding smoothly seated on his full-suspension bike. As soon as we left this section of the reserve I managed to open up a gap on Louis only to get lost with lack of route marking and local knowledge. Louis thus caught back onto me as I got back on track again just as we entered the beach. WOW! I've never done a mountain bike race where you have to ride some much on the beach! It was truly amazing! Though tough at times when having to ride through the rocks, however, bringing the only bit of technical aspect into the race, which was good.

Again, I opened up a gap on Louis and was now just riding along the coast expecting to see a marshal or signage to tell you when to go up off the beach. During this time Cornelius was trailing and Louis had broken his rear derailleur. After a very long time on the beach and a few slowing down and unsure moments where to go, I stopped and thought that I must be going wrong. I looked back to see Cornelius starting to cut back inwards off the beach! I had to quickly run through the dunes and bushes to meet up with him! This was very frustrating as it was just too much of getting lost towards the end! We then ended up riding back to the finish under the Cape Agulhas lighthouse together. A nice gesture from Cornelius was to have them put my name first on the results as I was in the lead for most of the way and got lost many a time over! The lack of route marking and marshals towards the end was largely due to the fast pace (29.3km/hr ave spd) and finishing time (2hr56min) of the race aided by the tail winds and the organises therefore not being ready in time as they have to travel a long way round from Gansbaai to get to Agulhas.

Day 2: (105km)

Sure enough, being the lighthouse 2 lighthouse, we began day 2 at the base of the Cape Agulhas lighthouse and headed off in the direction we came from the previous day. Unbelievably, the wind had switched direction, which meant that we would have a tail wind for almost the entire way back!

We started out on a flat gravel road before encountering the beach section. It was as soon as we hit the beach where the field was strung out and again it was the two Fairbairn Bank riders, Cornelius and Louis, myself and this time joined by Jan Schutte. I rode through some dune bushes and they got wrapped around my cassette! I thus had to make a quick stop to untangle them. This saw the other three riders get a gap on me and I had to chase back hard as I wanted to catch them before we left the beach because we would then be entering the Cape Agulhas Nature Researve with the sandy jeep tracks again. I needed to be able to follow their paths off the sandy jeep tracks through this section! I managed to catch them before we left the beach and then stuck to my plan of following their paths. Louis punctured, which left it to just three of us at the front. As we left the reserve we went up a bit of a hill that saw Jan drop off of Cornelius and I. This left the race between Cornelius and I as we worked together for a very long way.

70km into the race we took a left turn and headed up a rather long climb. At the base of the climb I put in a steady effort and continued to increase the pace a bit and about half way up I looked behind to see Cornelius had dropped off and was quite a long way back already. This made me go harder as I knew that this was the only place where I would be able to get a gap before the finish as it was flat from then on. Going over the top and heading down to the long stretch of tar road we come out on the previous day, I had built a gap of about 2min on Cornelius.

I thought that I just had to go steady and get off this stretch of road with a comfortable gap and I would have a good chance of making it to the finish in first place. I was starting to get rather tied at this point in time but still had a decent gap. I had a lead marshal on a quad bike behind me while making my way back along the coastal jeep track towards the Danger Point Lighthouse. However, there were a few occasions where the track would split and on one occasion I took the right hand split only to have the marshal on the quad bike go down the left split! I was able to ride down some bushes to get back on track again and was hoping that the marshal would simply drive in front of me so that I would know exactly where to go! However, this was not the case and before I knew it he was gone and nowhere to be seen! After a while I came across some sections that were very sandy and I had to keep getting on and off my bike to run some of them and I couldn't remember that happening yesterday on the way out! I could see the lighthouse right in front of me when I realise that the quad bike would not have been able to have gone where I was and I heard a road above me. I realise that that was the tar road we started out on yesterday so quickly hiked up through the dune bushes and as I got onto the road I saw Cornelius coming along the road right behind where I joined on! I couldn't believe that this could happen in both days and was so frustrated! By this time I was also rather tied and Cornelius came past me with the finish line in sight! I therefore had to settle with second place.

Day 2 saw another fast pace of 29.1km/hr average speed and a finishing time of 3hr35min for the 105km. In the end I was happy with the way I rode and my ability over the two days, however, I would obviously like to have come out with the win!

(Photo's still to come...)