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.