Contego Wines2Whales 3-day mtb stage race report

The much anticipated Contego Wines2Whales 3-day mountain bike stage race powered by Maserati (nice!) is a great opportunity to race on "home" soil in the most spectacular environment made for mountain biking! This unique event organized by Stillwater Sports has a fantastic concept and it usually comes as the last race of the year before a little break from the hard training and racing regime that one's body is put through for months prior and therefore it is a race to give everything you have in the system to make it count. This year I partnered up with a fellow Stellenbosch rider, Christiaan Kriek to form Team Blend. With the usual strong local contingent of riders mainly the cross-country mountain biking specialists participating, we thought a podium position would be a respectable outcome with a win being the ultimate goal.

Day 1 didn't get off to an ideal start for us. This was due to us arriving at the start in Lourensford after a good warm-up ride (much needed to get the blood flowing to the legs) just a couple of minutes before take-off, only to find the start chute already packed with riders and therefore having to start right at the very back of the bunch! This meant we had to work really hard to try make our way through all the other riders to get up to the front on the bunch. After some really hard efforts of ducking and diving and weaving our way through we were nearing the front when the guys started lifting the pace and the race began to split into pieces. We were then situated in 3rd place with the two leading teams about 1min/1m30s ahead (thanks to my wife, Jayde, my number one supporter for the important on-route info!). We began to settle into our pace nicely and eventually caught up to the 2nd place team of Contego Giant. We passed them and continued our pursuit of the the leading team of Matthys Beukes and Dominic Calitz of MTBdestinationcom. We were never able to catch up to them, however, we crossed the finished line in Grabouw 1min44sec behind them and 3min48sec ahead of the 3rd place team after a solid days performance.

Day 2 saw us arriving at the start and being on the front line! We were feeling good as we got under way and the main GC contending teams all pushed the pace early on. The stage consists of about 60-70% single track trails around the magnificent area of Grabouw, Oak Valley, Paul Cluver, Thandi and Lebanon. Although this makes for fantastic mountain biking, it also makes for a very cross-country-like mountain bike race and as I am not a cross-country mountain biking specialist like the other top GC contenders we were racing against, I knew personally that it wasn't going to be an easy day. We were flying through the single tracks faster than I have ever gone before and I was constantly pushing the boundaries! I had to play catch-up quite a bit of the time and the high level of concentration need for this kind of riding eventually began to take its toll on me and I started making a few mistakes nearer the end. One of them left me on the ground with some nice "roasties". I managed to bounce back quickly onto my bike and catch back up to the front bunch again, however, the last 5-10km proved a little too much as all the efforts and mishaps lead us to loose some time to the leaders. Christiaan help to get me through the final kilometers and limited the damage by finishing in 4th place and still holding on to our 2nd place on the general classification after the 2 days.

Day 3 personally was a much anticipated day from what I remember of last year as it is far more suited to my riding style being a bit longer than the previous too stages and with some more climbing involved along the way as the route goes from Grabouw to finish on the beach in Onrus. However, mother nature denied us the opportunity to contest the stage as the skies opened up with extreme rainfall and covered the mountains around Grabouw with snow! The race officials deemed the conditions too dangerous to send the riders out on-route and were therefore made to cancel the stage. This is obviously very unfortunate for many reasons, however, I can't imagine what is must be like to be in that situation of having to make that kind of decision and thus deserves the respect. Personally I would always go out in any conditions to finish off a race and I was waiting anxiously in my kit for the start! I had my number one supporter there in full spirits, which would have also made for some added incentive along the way and the best reward to in having her at the finish on the beach after a hard few days of stage racing!


However, there is nothing one can do in this situation other than look forward next years race... The race therefore ended with the positions as of the second day, which meant that Christiaan and I of Team Blend finished in 2nd place ahead of Team Contego Giant taking 3rd and first place going to Team MTBdestinationcom. Thanks to my sponsor Blend Property for making this all possible and thanks Christiaan for a great ride!

New and exciting times ahead

For all the years I've been competing in triathlons and cycling I have never had a coach. At times I've had a running coach purely for running and a swimming coach for squad swimming, otherwise I have simply been my own coach for cycling and triathlons.

There have been numerous reasons for this. Most notably is that I am a science student at university and therefore I enjoy working and exploring data, statistics and data analysis methods. Thus I'm very analytical and enjoy applying the methods I acquire from my university work to my sports training. However, in order to be able to do such things one needs data. This is no problem for me as I have kept a log of everything I have done every day of my life for the past 9 years! From the amount of sleep I get a night, to my body weight every morning and obviously everything associated with the kind of training activities I did each day and race performances. This has provided me with loads of information which I have used to fine tune my training over the years.

Now that I am only concentrating on one discipline (cycling/mountain biking), I have come to realize that it is quite a bit harder to do the fine tuning necessary for my performance to reach the highest possible level, especially in a rather competitive sport where at times only small things can cost you not only a podium position but a top ten position! I have found that there are so many influencing factors and began to doubt myself more often and simply felt the need for some guidance at times.

I always thought that I have become very good at listening to my body and being aware of how I feel, and thus always thought that it would take an outsider a little while to get to know me. However, I am pleased to be completely mistaken as within the very first week I am amazed at how my new coach knows me! I can now definitely see how important it is to have someone telling you what to do and not just deciding for yourself.

I also had quite a few suggestions from some people telling me that I needed a coach to provide me with the extra edge and for one I would like to thank my amazing wife for helping me make up my mind and finally go through with it!

So from now on, I'm under coaches orders!

Slanghoek off-road triathlon

I decided to delve into my roots and take part in a triathlon. Being a mountain biker and ex-triathlete, an off-road triathlon sounds like the perfect thing to do for some fun this time of year.

With minimal swimming or running training finding a time and place in my cycling training schedule my objective apart from having a fun race was to simply go out and ride the bike leg as hard as I possibly could to get some speed work in before the last race of the season in two weeks time. Therefore the objective for the swim and the run was simply... hang in there and survive!

Survive I did in the swim and exited the water about just over a minute behind the leader. My lack of triathlon participate over the last two years came to show in the often forgotten 4th discipline of triathlon... the transition. I made the amateur of all amateur errors and lost my bike in the transition that resulted in me running around the rather large transition area like a lost fart in a thunder storm (in my defense the officials had, however, allowed the participants of the shorter route who were starting later into the transition area to rack their bikes, which meant that there were lots of people all around the transitions area). Otherwise all was fine after finding my bike and I headed off in pursuit of the 4 guys ahead of me. I managed to catch up to the leader after 6km and continued to keep pushing the pace. From what I could tell I had built up a sizable lead going into the run.

I felt good on the run and was most please with how I was going until I got to 7km. The run ended up being just under 13km and I started to take some major strain after 7km. I started to get very stiff and my muscles were hurting. However, "hang in there and survive" to the finish I managed and topped it off with first place by just over 10min!

As I write this two days after the race I feel as if my entire body should be wrapped in plaster-paris in order to limit my movements as everything hurts so bad! In conclusion to run 13km at full pace without any training is not a good idea.

Seweweekspoort mtb race

This years edition of the Seweweekspoort mountain bike race attracted some big names to the start line as it occurs just 2-days before and serves as a good warm up race to the Cape Pioneer Trek 6-day mountain bike stage race taking place in close proximity (which is exactly what we did last year).

They made a slight change in the route this year and added in an extra 2km loop of jeep track to make the total distance 82km of great mountain biking in the Klein Karoo region of Ladismith. There was quite a wind on the morning of the race, which didn't make the going any easier.

It was one of those days for me where I maybe wasn't feeling quite as good as I would have liked (simply by comparing to how I've felt in a few past races in recent weekends) and I suffered throughout the entire race! The attacks happened from the start and the race split up into pieces! In mountain biking (and road racing), if you snooze for one single second you can be caught out and miss a split in the race and end up way out of contention! As the race got a little more established and we exited the first section of jeep track and were then heading along the gravel road through the poort, 4 guys including my team mate from Blend, Stu and I found ourselves making up the chase pack behind the two leaders of David George and Kevin Evans from team 360Life. We all rode hard and almost caught up to them as we exited the poort on the other side.

The loop on the other side of the poort proved to be rather challenging due in part to a section of the track that was submerged by a very full dam alongside. This saw us trying to ride through Karoo bossies and I managed a slow motion flip over my handlebars to land on my feat. The race once again spread out here and on our return through the poort Stu, Ruan Du Toit and I chased hard and caught up to the leaders.

We then remained as a lead group of six until David George put in an effort and surged away from the group. I was really suffering and was only just hanging onto the group. As David increased his lead on the 5 of us I knew the last big climb at 73km would be the race decider. Unfortunately I just didn't have the legs and as we hit the climb our group split up completely and remained that way until the end.

David George managed to take the win 30 seconds ahead of his 360Life team mate Kevin Evans and Ruan Du Toit making up the podium. Ben-Melt Swanepoel crossed the line in 4th 2min after the winning time followed by Stu a few seconds behind in 5th and then myself another 39sec afterwards in 6th place.

My hardcore wife, Jayde, continued her excellent mountain bike racing exploits after her successful Karoo to Coast and completed not the short route option of the Seweweekspoort, not the medium 45km route but the full 82km marathon distance! Shortly after finishing it was time for us to head straight back to Cape Town to sleep a couple of hours only to wake up at 4am to get out to Wellington to race the One Tonner 152km road race with my Double Century team!

MTN Marathon mtb National - Crater Cruise

Never failing as probably the most competitive mountain bike race in the country for numerous reasons, my second year back in Parys for the Crater Cruise was different from the previous year in that it was even more competitive than ever before! It really does live up to the expectations of a final event of an annual national series fantastically organized by Advendurance.

I remembered the route very well from last year as well as how the race usually pans out. Thus my game plan was to just sick in the bunch with a decent position for the first few tight sections and then make it over the main technical climb just before the half way point with a strong group. This I managed and as the race began to split into pieces up the climb I was well positioned with a few other top guys. Unfortunately for me I had to stop at the top before descending the other side of the climb to pump up my back tire as it had lost a fair amount of air and I wouldn't have been able to descend down the rough track with it that way. At the bottom of I saw a small group of about 3 guys 1 minute ahead of me and I was isolated as I couldn't see anyone behind me.

So with 60km still to go I pushed on at a solid pace and still never saw anyone catch up to me from behind and the gap to the guys in front of me remained around the 1 minute mark as I got the time splits from my amazing number one supporter (my wife).

I was able to catch up to and pass two guys along the way and finish exactly 11min after the winner Kevin Evans (who won the race for the 3rd time in a row!). I was happy with my performance and felt I had a solid race. Unfortunately I was not happy with my position as I didn't improve on the previous year and finished 17th. However, when looking over the results from the day I am a little more satisfied due to the large amount of competition and small time gaps separating the top 20 positions! I can honestly say that I have never done a mountain bike race in South Africa with such a strong field before! This is great for the sport in the country!

A big thanks has to be mentioned for Jayde, my wife and my number one supporter who did a fantastic job in seconding me and being there with me, it always makes a huge difference!

Karoo to Coast 2011

It was time for one of my favorite mountain biking races of the year, the Karoo to Coast from Uniondale to Knysna. This race has grown incredibly over the last few years and must surely rate as one of the most popular mountain biking races in the country. This is my third time back doing it in a row and after just missing out on the podium to finish 4th last year with a broken chain towards the end http://davemorisonbiking.blogspot.com/2010/09/karoo-to-coast.html it would obviously be nice to try get onto the podium. However, this would be my first real test after recovering from my knee injury http://davemorisonbiking.blogspot.com/2011/09/where-have-i-been.html and thus my true form relative to the other competitors was uncertain. There were a number of top riders lining up this year, most notably Neil MacDonald and Waylon Woolcock of the RECM team from Joberg.

I knew the beginning part up the Ou Wa Pad was going to be the usual killer and things would settle a bit thereafter. My plan was to keep it together and try hang on for as long as possible without going to far into the red. About halfway up I could feel I was starting to fall off the pace a bit and then simply put my chain into an easier gear stayed calm and rode a steady tempo. Shortly after, the few guys that had started to pull away began to split up and I slowly started to real them in before the top of the climb. At the top of the climb I found myself in a group of 5 riders chasing the two RECM guys who managed to get a gap over the top.

Now that the first obstacle was done, it was time to recover and settle into the race before encountering the remaining 1400 meters of climbing still to come. After descending the pass and as we began to climb out of the valley, the two leaders were only just visible in front of us. I went to the front of our group and set a steady tempo up the climb. About halfway up I looked back to see that two of the guys had dropped off and we were left with only three of us now to chase. However, our chase was not succeeding and hearing a few sketchy time gaps along the way, we weren't making up any more ground on them.

At 57km, I started to get itchy feet and pushed the pace a little. This caused our group of three to split up. I thought it was still quite a long way from the finish with just under 40km to go with quite a lot of climbing still to come to be isolated, however, I felt good and decided it was time. From then on I put my head down and rode flat out.

I started to get a little tied going along the Kom se Pad section with about 20km to go. I couldn't afford to ease up too much but I had to try conserve a bit on energy otherwise I would blow going up the last daunting Simola climb. At one stage I glanced behind and could see Ruan du Toit. I kept it together and put in a few harder efforts now and then and by the time I started dropping into the valley before climbing back out up to Simola he was out of sight again. I was able to ride up the Simola climb at a solid pace and from there it was simply freewheeling 80km/hr down the road and into the beautiful town of Knysna.

My pacing throughout was perfect to hold onto third place. Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch back up to the two leaders, but in the end I managed to pull back about a minute and a half on them after going solo around the 57km mark. Otherwise it was a very successful come back race and I look forward to the next few weeks of racing!

Next up is the Oudtshoorn 3-day mtb race starting Friday!

Making a come back

I decided after building up my training for the past 6 weeks I wanted to do a training race to see where my level is at. I was wanting to do this before the Karoo 2 Coast mountain bike race later in September, as this is normally quite a competitive one. This would also help me to get a rough feel for what I can expect of myself. So I loaded up the bakkie with my racing steed including Jaydes trusty mountain bike and we headed for Caledon to take part in the Staalwater 60km mountain bike race held by AMA Rider and Dirtopia.

What a fantastic race it turned out to be! The route designed by Meurant Botha was awesome and much more interesting than I had expected. I also didn't expect to see some names like Erik Kleinhans and Christiaan Kriek on the start line, which meant it was going to be a proper race and a lot harder than I had in mind being a come back training race.

Christiaan provided a true welcome-back-to-racing from the gun with a cross country mountain bike like start. The pace soon settled and after a steep climb at a solid tempo it was only Erik, Christiaan and myself out up front with no-one in sight behind. We rode nicely together until the climb with about 15km to go to the finish. I was basically on my limit and hanging on when the gradient of the road suddenly kicked up round a corner and Erik dropped a gear, stood up and powered his pedals. Being on the limit I was unable to respond and Christiaan managed to go with him leaving me behind. As we went over the top of the climb I was a few seconds behind and tried to catch back on to them, however, they worked well together and rode hard making sure I wouldn't see them again before the finish line. Therefore I ended up crossing the finish line about 2min behind them in 3rd place.

I could definitely feel that I didn't quite have that upper level of performance in me to match the other two throughout the race, however, I was satisfied with my performance at this point in time. This turned out to be a very successful trip for me as it provided me with exactly what I wanted, a great race on a decent course with good competitors providing me with a bench mark from which to build in the coming weeks of training and racing. And Jayde put on a fine performance to finish 2nd in her age group!

Now for a seemingly very short two weeks until Karoo 2 Coast!

Where have I been?

It is about 4 months since the end of the joBerg2c and therefore 4 months of being out of competition. Basically, I picked up a niggle in my knee about half way through the most incredible 9-day stage race known as joBerg2c. Being a lengthy stage race and the extreme physical demand on your body there was certainly no chance the niggle would go away and thus only got worse and became a full fledged injury.

After 7 days I could barely walk after the stages and with only 2 days to go I just had to stick it out as I was certainly not going to let my partner, sponsors and everyone else down after coming so far and holding a high position over all as well as miss out on the rest of the amazing journey to the sea. The whole time I also believed I would just get through the race and afterwards simply take one or two weeks off to recover and allow my knee to get better and I'll be back to normal...

Little did I know, it certainly didn't turn out that way! The 5th leg of the MTN national marathon series was taking place in Tulbugh on the Saturday, one week after riding onto the beach in Scottburough and it was definitely planned as a must do race in my diary. After taking the week off the bike and being unsure as to how my knee was doing, I went for a spin on the Friday to assess it. It was not at all good and the pain returned within a few minutes of riding. It was obviously not better yet and I had another race, the 100miler the following Saturday. Now I had to make the decision to unfortunately miss the national on the Saturday and give my knee another week to heal so that I can at least give the 100miler a good go. This I did and come the following Friday I went for an easy spin to assess it once again. Yet again the pain returned after only a few minutes of riding! This devastated me and I had thoughts of just trying to do the 100miler regardless as it was also the last race of the season and I have unfinished business with this race after leading last year and being overtaken with 1km to go thus finishing 2nd. However, this wouldn't have been wise as there was obviously something seriously wrong with my knee and it needed some attention as simple rest was not working.

So, the doctors appointments and MRI scans began to appear in my dairy instead of any sort of training. It turns out that I developed a chronic case of tendonitis in my knee. The only thing I could do was simply to give it time and rest. Finally I had to accept this and the days all of a sudden became long and the weeks even longer. I couldn't think ahead or plan any races as I had no idea when the tendon would decide to get better.

Another disappointment came when Jayde and I had entered to do a 3-day mountain biking stage race in the beautiful region of Knysna. I was really looking forward to this as it meant spending some fun time on the bike in my favorite part of SA with the most beautiful girl in the world! What more could I ask for! This would have been our first mtb stage race together. However, my knee was still not better and I didn't want to sacrifice all the weeks I had already taken off the bike up until this point to be back at square one again. I also needed to think ahead for the coming months in preparing for the next few races during the second half of the year.

The next race to come and go was the Knysna mountain bike and road race. At this stage I had taken 8 weeks off and my knee was still not better! It was now only 4 weeks until my next scheduled race, Die Burger mountain bike race in Stellenbosch, which is another big event on the annual calendar. As it got nearer I was still unable to do any training and thus obviously Die Burger passed by without me on the start line.

It was now 12 long, frustrating and depressing weeks since the end of the joBerg2c. I'd been driving Jayde mad by this time with all my frustration and anxiety, however, I tried riding and my knee seemed to be ok (not 100%). I was advised that I should at this point start training and building up slowly and see how it goes. There was nothing else really that I could do as it had been so long now and I was also at the stage where if it wasn't better yet then I would almost have to right off the rest of the year!

The first 2 weeks of being back on the bike went by and I had built up to just over 10hrs of training in the week. To my surprise my knee actually felt like it was progressively getting better as I kept building up the mileage in the weeks! The only disappointing thing at this point was to see yet another big anticipated race on the calendar pass by, the Transbaviaans 230km mountain bike race, which was another race we came 2nd as a team last year and obviously were intending on chasing the top spot on the podium this time round. However, at lease I was back on the bike.

It has been 6 weeks of gradually building up my training now and so far so good. With throwing in a little bit of intensity training only in the last week I have at least manage to build up to a 20hr week last week. It has been really hard to finish off 2010 well and with such exciting goals to look forward to chasing in 2011 and then being held back from doing all that. So for the 100miler, the Transbaviaan, the Knysna and Die Burger as well as the MTN national marathon series in which a large portion of my annual goals lay, I can only hope 2012 will be a lot different to 2011!

For now, although it will be a little early in my build up, however doable, the excitement is focused on one of my favorite races and this time round it will be my comeback race on 25 September, the Karoo 2 Coast mountain bike race.

Table Mountain awareness ride

Sunday 28 August 2011 was the first time back for me after about a 6 month absence from riding the slopes of Table Mountain. This has been due to a few reasons. Firstly, not long after Jayde and I got married in November 2010 we moved from our flat in Rondebosch to a beautiful house in the green leafy southern suburbs neighborhood of Bergvliet. This positioned me at the foot of the Constantiaberg mountain and thus plenty of fine mountain biking with the likes of the renowned Tokai trails a few minutes ride from our front door. I no longer ventured round the mountain and into the Rhodes Memorial and Table Mountain region as often as I did when we were staying back in Rondebosch. The second reason, which probably compliments the first is that I do most of my training alone and with the notable increase in crime incidences on the slopes of Table Mountain in 2011 it became, quite honestly less desirable to venture into that territory and risk loosing my valuable steed!

I have to admit that I was missing riding there and the change in terrain and scenery did, however, cross my mind a number of times. I often thought of how I used to ride all round Rhodes Memorial and Table Mountain in the dark early hours of the morning and late evenings armed with only my bring light to help me see where I was going.

After three months off the bike due to injury and now in the easy building up phase of training, the Table Mountain Bikers Association awareness ride was the perfect opportunity to return to the slopes of Table Mountain. It was great to see so many mountain bikers out there, I also dragged Jayde along too. Although it is unfortunate that these kind of things need to take place, however, it is truly awesome to see the motivated people out there willing to take a stand against crime and do something about it. Take a look at there website, http://www.tablemountainbikers.co.za/ write the important phone numbers down and support the organizations of these people in aid of safer environment for us all.

joBerg2c 9-day mtb stage race (race report)

The second year running of the joBerg2c 9-day mountain biking stage race saw some fierce competition on the start line in Heidelberg on Friday 29th April 2011. This was due to the large prize money up for grabs for the team crossing the finish line 9 days later on the beach in Scottburgh with the fastest accumulated time.

Stu and I were ready for the challenge after feeling good and having an easy 114km none-racing day 1 (due to the dragon boat crossing of the Vaal dam).

The first race day arrived on day 2 and for some reason I had a bad day and felt very flat! Stu was feeling good and had to drag me through the stage, which turned out to be one of the worst days ever for me on the bike! We managed to finish the stage in 4th position a few minutes behind the leading 3 teams. I managed to regain my legs a bit the next day and race the majority of the long 124km stage to Sterkfontein Dam with the leading bunch of 4 teams (RE:CM, Fed Group Berg and Bush, MTN Do It Now, and team Blend Property). I, however, wasn't completely recovered from the previous day. Once again we finished 4th a few minutes behind the first 3 teams.

The next day was another big day and I seemed be feeling better each day especially seeing that the real climbing was about to begin. Unfortunately for us after the first climb early in the stage Stu broke his chain. This ended up costing us a lot of time to fix and further lost time and frustration from being stuck behind hundreds of riders on single tracks in trying to catch up again. We rode a good consistent stage from then on and ended up finishing in 6th place only about 3min behind 4th and 5th place, therefore doing a great job in limiting our losses.

The next day (day 5), we overcame a huge physical and mental barrier to finish the stage in 3th place! This would be our first podium of the race. From this day onwards we gained momentum as we were both riding strong and enjoying ourselves as we mixed it up with the other 3 leading teams and continued to increase our lead over the 5th placed team on the overall standings.

Our consistency prevailed as our podium on day 5 ended up being our first of 5 podiums for the remaining 5 stages of the race! This came even after having another day of mechanicals on the second last day (day 8) where Stu punctured and we had to stop a number of times to pump up his rear tire.

The final day was a real show down for an exciting finish on the beach in Scottburgh. Stu and I were feeling good and racing strong up front. The stage came down to the last two kilometers where there was a tussle to enter the last bit of single track and onto the beach first for a sprint finish. Stu and I managed to claim our 5th consecutive podium of 3rd place. Although we had caught up quite a lot of the lost time from the first few days over the last 5 days, it wasn't enough for us to overtake the 3rd place team of MTN Do It Now in the overall standing and therefore we finished up the 9 days in 4th place.

In the end we were pleased to come in the top 5 and even more happy about our 5 consecutive podiums in the last 5 days. The riding was magnificent and the organization of the event was flawless. Stu and I gained some valuable experience and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! A big thank you goes out to Venetia our support crew and most importantly to Martin from Blend Property for making it all happen!

Tokai Mast Challenge by davemore at Garmin Connect - Details

Tokai Mast Challenge by davemore at Garmin Connect - Details

Tokai Mast Challenge

I consider Tokai forest as my back garden because all my mountain bike training incorporates some riding on the forest trails. Much of my hard hill training is also done in Tokai as there is a long grueling climb that takes you all the way up to the mast on top of the Constantiaberg mountain at an altitude of 930 meters above sea level. Once a year this climb plays host to the First Ascent Tokai Mast Challenge, where mountain bikers and runners battle it out to see who can get up to the top in the fastest possible time.

The race therefore only takes place over a short distance of about 11km and is in the formate of a time trail. Due to this formate there would be no easing up along the way as I knew I would have to just go as hard as I possibly could as one does not know who might do the fastest time until everyone was finished and back down the mountain.

Unfortunately the weather didn't play along on the day as the gale-force south easterly wind was gusting near the top half of the climb such that at times you were almost standing still and about to fall over! This made for some even more challenging conditions and slightly slower times than anticipated.

I felt good and managed to put in a big effort to get up to the top in a time of 40min26sec with a average speed of 16.7km/hr. I then had to wait until just before prize giving to see how I shaped up against all the other competitors. I have always wanted to win this event as firstly it is a nice title to win, being the fastest person to get to the top and secondly because it is my back garden. To my relief I ended up with the fastest time overall and had the privilege of lifting the trophy! (Garmin connect file above and photos soon to follow).

SA Marathon Mountain Biking Champs 2011, KZN

Most likely the biggest race on the calendar for the year is the South African Championships as all the best riders turn up to race for the national title. This years event was held at Inanda Dam in the vicinity of the valley of a thousand hills in KZN. This would be the first time I would ever venture into this region. It was quite something driving to the race in the morning down the steep winding road into the valley. I really felt like I was in the heart of Africa and it was quite hard to believe that we were only 15min from Hillcrest!

The race was set over a shorter distance than usual for the elites, 84km as apposed to the standard ultra marathon distances of over 100km. The intention was that the route was more technical than usual and was still expected to yield a winning time of over 4hrs. The route profile also shows that the race consisted of many shorter sharp climbs and therefore resembled more of a cross-country like formate. This doesn't really suite me as I prefer the big longer climbs and cross-country mountain bike racing is not my strong point. However, it was SA Champs and I was there to give everything I had to get me to the finish line in the best possible position.

The first 15 odd kilometers of the race was very intense as the guys raced to get to the technical single tracks in a good position. I was struggling to hang on to the fast pace from the gun, but just kept it consistent. After 20km I managed to settle down and caught back up to quite a few guys.

At one point in the race I was cruising down one of the steep descents and then couldn't slow down in time for a sharp turn that was to take us off the gravel road onto some single track. Needless to say I tried making the corner but failed and went straight over my handle bars into the bushes. There happened to be some community kids watching at that point and of coarse they found this very amusing! I quickly straightened up my saddle and remounted as a small group of guys came up from behind me.

I stuck with this group for some part of the way until about 25km to go we came across a very steep climb. I was on the front of the group and made the mistake of not changing from my front big chain ring into the smaller chain ring in time. My only option was to push hard in the big blade and simply attack, which I did. Once I got to the top I had quite a big gap on the others and then thought that it was time to put my head down and keep going as hard as I possibly could to the finish.

This turned out to be a great move as I caught up and passed 4 riders. I then caught up to Ben Swanepoel who stayed with me for the last 10km. However, this part of the course consisted of lots of technical single track and I was starting to get rather tied from my hard efforts. I started making a few mistakes on the single track that caused me to loose the wheel of Ben and therefore finishing about 30sec behind him in 11th place.

My finishing time was 3hr40min (15min after the winner Burry Stander of Mr Price Specialized) and therefore much quicker than the anticipated over 4hr winning time of the course! Just shows how good the standard of mountain biking is in South Africa at the moment and therefore after just missing out on the top 10 I could still be very happy with my performance (as I was just 4min after 7th place). What also made a big difference for me was that I had my wife, Jayde there for support and to provide me with much necessary backup along the way!

Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour (AKA Funriders World Champs)

Ten days ago I was standing on the Blouwberg beach front about to start the Grape Escape 3-day mountain biking stage race, then I went into the Tour de Boland 4-day road stage race from Tuesday to Friday and now finally the Argus Cycle Tour on Sunday to finish off my week of racing 8 out of 10 days. Needless to say its been a tough week, but there I was ready and amped to fight out my 19th consecutive Argus Cycle Tour amongst the South African pro teams all aiming to be the first across the line in Green Point a little while later.

The conditions were perfect, however, we had a very large first (Invitational) bunch of 217 riders that set off in the dark at 06h15 and headed out of the city center. Things were a little edgy as usual in the beginning as everyone remained together and jostled for positions within the large bunch of riders. I tried my best to stay within the front half of the bunch, not wanting to miss out on any of the action up front.

As soon as we hit Boys Drive the attacks really began and the pace lifted in a big way as no-one was letting anyone get ahead up the road. I managed to stay with all the surges and the group still remained relatively large as we went over Smitswinkel.

I knew it was all going to come down to Chappies and Suikebossie! As we approached Chappies I somehow found myself too far back in the bunch and I therefore had to work really hard up Chappies as the group strung out and I had to make up ground. I fortunately managed to get over the top hanging onto the back of the lead bunch of riders. Now the group was whittled down to much fewer riders as we approached Suikebossie.

Suikebossie we hard! Some of the none sprinters (eg. mountain bikers) went very hard up there to try get away and leave the faster finishers behind. A group of about 10 guys managed to get a small gap over the top and I was just behind. Of coarse as you start descending this gap increases very quickly and I found myself in the chasing group a few second behind. We quickly caught back on a few kilometers down Suikebossie before we reached Camps Bay. Now the race to the finish line was on!

The pace was so fast I could only just hang in the group which now only consisted of about 40 riders! I could only watch as the teams, particularly MTN Qhubeka who were driving the pace, organized themselves to position their key sprinters in the right position for the last few hundred meters dash for the line.

In the end it was Tyler Day of Team Bonitas that took the sprint and I came in a comfortable 28th position with the same winning time of 2hr32min (average speed: 43.1km/hr). I was very happy to finish up with the very front bunch that consisted of a little over 40 riders after starting with over 200 and therefore a great way to end my hard week of racing!

Tour de Boland 2011

The Le Coq Sportif Tour de Boland (TdB) has taken over from the Giro de Capo in 2011. This would be my first road racing multi-stage race. As it is classified as a professional event I would have to race for a team, in which case the Marties Team kindly gave me a spot on their team. This race was included as part of my ambitious week of racing 8 out of 10 days. Therefore after only one days rest since the third and final day of the Grape Escape I would start stage one of the TdB with three days of mountain bike racing already in my legs.

Stage 1: 147km, Paarl-Bainskloof pass-Wolseley-R44 loop

Soon after the start in Paarl, after a few incidences in the first few kilometers due to the slick road surface from light rain we were to start climbing Bainskloof. This was going to be the first real test for my legs to assess their condition and set the stage for the next 4 days. Unfortunately they weren't feeling quite up to what they should be and therefore I took strain trying to hang on to the main bunch towards the top of the climb. However, with taking a few risks on the decent, a few other riders and I were able to catch back on to the main bunch. A fairly large break away group of about 10 riders managed to get away. As we headed back towards Wellington along the R44 the wind came from the side and resulted in some hard "gutter" riding as the main bunch split into 3 groups. However, everything came back together before Wellington except for the breakaway bunch whom still held about a 2 minute gap on the main pelaton, which is how the stage ended after 3hr38min of racing in Paarl.

Stage 2: 135km, Paarl-Du Toits Kloof pass-Worcester-Bainskloof pass-Paarl

Only 6km from the start of todays stage 2 we approached the bottom of Du Toits Kloof pass and then it would be a long 14km climb to the summit. I knew today's stage was going to be a tough one especially after how my legs performed yesterday on Bainskloof pass. None-the-less I took major shots going up the pass and got dropped by the main bunch about half way up. This meant that there was still another 7km to go to the top! This was unusual for me as I normally like the long climbs and this was one of the reasons why I always wanted to do this race. However, having done the Grape Escape before hand my condition starting this race was definitely worse off than most of the other riders. There was still a long way to go to the finish of the stage after Du Toits Kloof but fortunately for me there was a decent bunch of riders who were also dropped up the climb and we could therefore work together. We did so for a long way until we almost caught back up to the main bunch at the bottom of Bainskloof where unfortunately there was a minor crash as the bunch entered a narrow bridge section. This resulted in the convoy of backup vehicles behind the bunch coming to a standstill and blocking the bridge for us to get through and join onto the main bunch. After getting through and across the bridge we had already put in a big effort in trying to catch up to this point and it was difficult to make up the further lost time on the main bunch from then on up the climb of Bainskloof. From there it was a relatively easy run in to the finish where I finished with a group of guys in a time of 3hr41min, 14min after the main pelaton.

Stage 3: 125km, Paarl-Franshoek pass-Villiersdorp-Franshoek pass-Paarl

This stage was supposed to consist of a loop of 167km from Paarl to Franshoek, over the pass through Villiersdorp to Worcester and over Du Toits Kloof pass back to Paarl. However, shortly after the neutral zone just before we reached Franshoek, racing came to a halt and we were informed that we could not go over Du Toits Kloof pass because it was closed due to a fire. The organizers and everyone quickly discussed a new route for the day and it was decided that we would carry on through Franshoek, over the pass and then in to Villiersdorp where we were to make a u-turn and come back the same way. Well done to the organizers and traffic department for coming up with a quick solution such that we could continue racing! I felt a bit better today but I could also see that some of the other riders were starting to feel the effects of the last two days of racing. This was good for me as I then ended up having a much better day of racing than the previous day. A small group of riders had got away on the return trip over Franshoek pass and I found myself within the main pelaton. We rode very hard from Franshoek to the finish in Paarl where we were doing speeds in excess of 60km/hr on the flat roads with a tail wind. I was hanging on for dear life to the wheel in front of me as some guys towards the back of the bunch were getting dropped (it's not often you see riders at this level getting dropped along a flat road with a tail wind!). We ended up finishing the stage about 2min behind the front breakaway group.

Stage 4: 65km, Paarl 5x15km laps

Lets just say that stage 4 simply didn't happen for me. Together with the level of fatigue I was experiencing at this stage after 6 hard days of racing prior and a very difficult intense lap race ahead it was never going to be easy. I was very happy to make it through each stage and get to this point of the race as in the beginning on Tuesday morning there was just over 110 riders starting the tour and on this, the 4th and final stage of the race saw only a little over 60 riders on the start line! (There is a time limit where you have to finish in a percentage of the winners time each day otherwise you get eliminated and you're not allowed to continue the following day). What actually made this final stage not happen for me was that there was about 3km of pure gravel on the laps! Now I would normally like this sort of thing as I am a mountain biker, however, I had just purchased a very nice and pricey set of wheels! After the first lap, feeling the way I felt and not wanting to ruin my nice new wheels I called it quits. Along with this decision was the Argus Cycle Tour in two days time, which I had in the back of my head. I wasn't to feel too bad about this 4th stage as out of the 60 odd starters, less than 30 riders finished all 5 laps without being eliminated from lap to lap!

At the end of the 4 days of racing I can at least say that I got some good experience along with an extremely tied body! I finished 55th in the overall classification, 31min23sec behind the winner Darren Lill (DCM). Now it was time to put the legs up and recovery before Sundays Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour!

Columbia Grape Escape 3-day mountain bike stage race

A new race on the calendar and certainly one not to be missed as another ever popular 3-day stage race comes onto the local scene. The inaugural Columbia Grape Escape was sure to pose an exciting three days of racing attracting many of the top mountain bikers.

Stage 1: Blauwberg beach - Nelsons Wine Estate, 85km

After a rather lengthy neutral zone of about 8km the heart rate was quick to rise as we left the tar and hit the dirt. The combination of thick sand patches and a red-zone pace lead to the front bunch forming quickly and consisted of about 10 riders. This didn't last long as we came across the first climb of the day and the group thinned out even more. Many riders unfortunately experienced flat tyres due to the large amount of thorns. I was just unable to hang on towards the top of the climb and therefore went over the top a few seconds behind the front group of 5 riders. Never fear I thought as I would try and catch back up on the decent. However, this proved not to be all that easy after almost coming terribly short on the rocky single tracks. I eased off the pace a bit in order to get down safely. After which I was about just over a minute behind the front guys.

I had to work incredibly hard and for a long way of about 15km by myself to try and catch up to the group. I didn't want to give up the chase as I couldn't see anyone for a long way behind me. Time trailing above threshold and trailing with a gap of about 30 seconds for a long time, I almost wasn't able to catch back on until there was a slight increase in gradient and I put in one more huge effort. This made it a now or never situation and fortunately for me I managed to latch on.

The guys were working well together rolling through and I had to do my bit to contribute to the high tempo. However, I never really got the chance to recover from my big effort I put in to catch up. After Burry Stunder was forced to stop to fix a puncture it left just 4 of us up front (Kevin Evans and David George of 360Life, Karl Platt from Bulls and myself).

I was able to keep it up until 60km when Kevin put in a bit of an effort up a small incline and I just didn't have an extra gear to go with. This left me out on my own with another 25km still to race to the finish! I kept my head down and pushed hard to the finish and ended up crossing the line 4min after the winner Karl Platt (Bulls) and about 4min ahead of 5th place. My partner from Team Blend Properties, Stuart Marais (Stu) came in a respectable 8th place.

Stage 2: Nelsons Wine Estate - Boschendal, 78km

I was rather nervous going into today’s stage after having a good day the day before and also not quite sure how my legs were going to respond after yesterday’s hard effort.

All seemed good as we started climbing after about 30km and again the same contenders as the previous day were setting a hard pace. I was able to follow for part of the way up until the gradient really kicked in and I was unable to hang onto the wheel in front of me.

This lead to a similar situation as the previous day as I was left alone just behind the front bunch of 5 riders, however, this time there was still about 40km to go to the finish!

Again I just rode hard and tried to keep my pace as high as possible. I could never see anyone in front or behind me. With 10km to go I was 5min behind and I lost about 3min in the last 10km to the leaders as my rear tyre was going very flat and almost rolling off the rim around every corner, however, I didn't want to stop at that stage of the race as I knew it was so close to the finish so I just kept pushing on. I managed to get to the finish about 8min after the winner and maintaining my 6th position on the day about 2min ahead of 7th place, who happened to be my team mate Stu after a fine performance.

Stage 3: Boschendal, 59km

On the start line of the final stage I was sitting in 5th position overall on the GC. All I needed was a solid consistent race and I should be able to maintain my top 5 placing at the end of the 3 days. However, this was not to be.

After the usual fast hustle and bustle of the first few kilometres when we hit the first proper climb of the stage, David George (360Life), Kevin Evans (360Life) and Karl Platt (Bulls) took off into the lead leaving Marc Bass (Garmin) and myself following a couple of seconds behind. Then disaster struck! As I changed gears my chain sucked up and got jammed between the front chain rings and the bike frame and in the process pulled my rear derailleur and snapped my hanger clean off. I couldn’t believe my luck. I thought my day and the past two days of hard work was all over. However, at least it was just the hanger that was broken and fortunately I always carry a spare one with me so I was able to fix it up and get to the finish.

It took me a very long time to fix it all up. I first had to get the chain free from between the chain rings and the frame then take off the bits of broken hanger from the frame and derailleur and put the new hanger on, then put together my chain. After 23min on the side of the course I managed to get going again, however, my rear derailleur was very skew, but other than jumping gears every now and then it worked.

I now had to weave in and out of all the masses of riders, which proved rather challenging and one time while trying to pass a slower rider on a section of single track I went flying over my handle bars! Fortunately I survived the encounter unharmed and bounced back on my bike within a few seconds to continue with my pursuit.

It was very unfortunate that that had to happen as I felt really good throughout the stage and then ended up finishing about 30min after the winner David George (360Life), which gave me a riding time of just 8min off the winning time. Stu had a very good stage finishing in 6th place.

Thanks very much to the organizers for a superb event as well as the sponsors, Columbia! It's always nice to have a mountain biking event that is so well marked leaving no uncertainties along the way. I look forward to the event next year again!

And then I would also like to say a special thanks to my beautiful wife Jayde, for all her outstanding support and help throughout the 3 days of racing and making life during the event that much easier!

(I am still awaiting the official final results of the 3 days, and will post them up as soon as I get them, but well done to Kevin Evans of 360Life for taking the overall title after a consistent 3 days!)

Now it’s time to recover as quickly as possible in one day before I start the Tour de Boland on Tuesday where I’m in for some hard road racing for 4 days!

MTN National Marathon #4 - Sabie Classic

A good field of riders is always assured on the start line at the Sabie Classic due to the mountain biking paradise the event takes place in. There was extra incentives for the top riders as it was the last race on the national circuit for a while and one in which valuable UCI points were up for grabs.

It was a solid 10 hour journey from when I left my front door back home to when I arrived in Sabie! After flying to Joberg then catching the Gautrain into Sandton (which was an experience in itself with a large bike bag, 29er wheel box, luggage bag and hand luggage backpack!) to pick up the Audi A4 to get me to Sabie. Worst of all I didn't have my number one supporter, my wife Jayde accompanying me on this trip. Never-the-less my bike and I arrived all fine!

The race was set over 110km and included just over 3000 meters of vertical climbing! With this in mind there was no wasting time as the race started we began climbing. The first major climb came at 11km of which we reached the summit at 1814m in altitude another 14km later. The pace was hard as always but I managed to hang in there. My Cannondale Flash 29er 2x10spd was going like a dream! About halfway up the climb I found myself in the front group of four riders consisting of Karl Platt (Bulls), Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN), Philip Buys (Garmin), and myself. I glanced back to notice that we had dropped the other riders. Although the pace was hard I managed to keep it up all the way to the top of the climb, however, I had to still keep in mind that my GPS was telling me that there was still another 80 odd kilometers to go.

I unfortunately struggled to stay in contact with the other riders on the way down the treacherous decent as I think my tire pressure was too hard and almost lost traction a couple of times. Therefore I had to take it a little easier to avoid going down which is not how I would have liked to end my race after traveling so far to get here! This cost me some time on the leaders, however, I managed to settle into a steady rhythm, which I told myself to keep at until the end of the first 75km loop and then give it everything I had on the last 35km loop.

The last 35km ended up being an exciting battle between Ben Melt Swanepoel, Marc Bassingthwaighte (Garmin), Thomas Zahnd (DCM) and myself as we diced each other’s fatigued bodies to the finish line. I ended up coming in just a few second behind them to take 9th position in a time of 5hrs08min.

1st: Karl Platt (Bulls)
2nd: Philip Buys (Garmin)
3rd: Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN)