MTN marathon national #1 Barbeton

And they're off... let the series begin!

The first MTN ultra marathon national of 2012 also marked the first time I made an appearance on the start line in Barbeton (well over due I must add!). Traveling to this side of South Africa (from my home town Cape Town) for the weekend to race is well worth it! The landscape is perfectly sculptured for mountain biking and the Advendurence guys do a superb job in making use of this and providing us with a world class event consisting of about 3000 meters of climbing over 120km.

Its a long day on Friday beginning with the usual early morning last minute packing and rushing to the airport before chilling and reading a book on the plane for 2hrs followed by organizing a car, building and packing bikes and driving from Joberg only to arrive at our accommodation in Barbeton just before 5pm. Needless to say the evening spin to check the bike is all good and try loosen up the legs felt horrendous especially with the sight of the soaring mountains behind Barbeton knowing that's what is in stall for us in about 12hrs time...

Saturday 06h50 (10min to the start):
The start area is over flowing with incredibly talented mountain bikers from around the country. The nervous feeling inside of me was over-shadowed by the excitement and eagerness to get racing. As soon as the neutral zone came to an end there was no doubt the racing had begun. We scrambled through the first tight section of jeep-track to exit onto some gravel road with a front bunch of about 20 guys, which was short lived as we started the 14km, 1000m ascent. What a spectacular climb! I was taking a bit of strain in trying to keep up with the pace set early on the lower slopes. Reaching the first tech zone on the other side of the mountain I found myself a bit isolated about 2min behind the leaders. I continued to hold a solid pace through the many river crossings trying to take note as I knew we would be repeating this section again in the latter part of the race. One thing I certainly took note of was a monster of a snake that my wheels (and ankle) came within an inch of as I went round a corner! It was so fat that it would have had no problem at all in swallowing a skinny mountain biker like me! I was rather skittish after that as everything I saw looked like a snake and was a little nervous to have to pass that same point again later in the race. Fortunately for me the next time round I was accompanied by my team mate Charles (Blend Property) and Adrian Niyonshuti (MTN Qhubeka) along with masses of other riders from the shorter marathon race. Hence I didn't see the creature again.

With the fast pace up the first climb and my steady tempo riding seemed to have played in my favor as we encountered the second major climb of the race after 80km. Each corner I went round I saw a fellow rider in front of me and I managed to ride a solid pace and pass 5 guys going up the climb. This put me in 8th position at the third tech zone with about 25km to go and followed closely behind after getting two punctures earlier in the race and chasing back was my Blend team mate Charles. After about four and a half hours of racing, the endless river crossings and short sharp climbs began to wreak havoc with my legs and I just couldn't hold onto the back wheels of Charles and Adrian on one of them towards the end, therefore crossing the finish line in 9th place.

I was happy to have placed in the top 10 especially with such a quality field of riders, which makes for a good start to the series and something to try keep up and possibly build on as the year progresses. Its great to have my Blend Property team mate Charles back this year to race with along with the new younger addition to our team Ruan du Toit. Also an often over-looked member of our team who plays a vital role is my number one supporter and wife, Jayde. She does a fantastic job behind the scene making sure all we have to do is ride our bikes as hard as we possible can as well as our sponsors Blend Property for making it all possible for us and Gu Energy supplements keeping us properly fueled.

Attakwas MTB race 2012

The 120km Attakwas is a crazy mountain bike race! I just felt the need to get that off my chest...

But it is also one of the most awesome races on the calendar and one which every mountain biker has to do (to be able to call themselves a true mountain biker... haha only joking)! Last year I unfortunately had to miss the race due to my illness (read here). Therefore standing on the start line I had only a few faint nightmarish images of what lay ahead.

The route is composed of some proper mountain biking for the first 70 odd kilometers taking in the relentless Attakwas Kloof while the remaining 50km consists of gravel roads with tons of serious climbs on tied legs to the finish in Groot Brak River near Mossel Bay.

I started out conservatively allowing the other guys to set the pace and just made sure I stayed on the wheels in front of me. I knew there was a very long way to go and I wanted to preserve some energy for the Kloof as this is where the race would most likely split up. The first support zone came at 45km where I got see my loyal supporters and receive a crucial water bottle to get me through the Kloof. We were still a group of about 10 guys at the time with only Renay Goustra 2min up ahead. This didn't last long, as expected once going through the Kloof the group simply blew into pieces! I felt fine and managed to hold a position round about 5th with relatively small time gaps.

After exiting the Kloof and very happy to have survived I had my Blend Property team mate Charles Keey along side me to work together. We were able to gradually eat into the time gaps to those ahead, while only Matthys Beukes (MTBdestination) seemed to have other ideas and had powered his way into the lead building up a gap of 3min with 25km to go. After catching up to some of the others along the way our group of 4 consisting of Philip Buys (Contego Giant), Neil Macdonald (RECM), Charles and myself (Blend) were chasing, however, my legs started to shout terrible things at me...

With just 15km to go as we started the second last major climb our group of 4 disintegrated as Charles powered away from the rest of us up the climb in pursuit of the lone leader Matthys. I just couldn't hang onto the wheels of Philip and Neil which left me fighting the last 15km into the wind by myself with a very beaten up body.

In the end Charles was just unable to make up the rather large time gap Matthys had built up thus finishing in a very impressive 2nd place while however agonizing it was for me to see the other 2 just a bit further up the road over those last kilometers I couldn't catch up to them and had to settle with 5th place.

Overall a great race and start to the 2012 year especially for team Blend Property!


1. Matthys Beukes (MTBdestination) - 5:09
2. Charles Keey (Blend Property) - 5:13
3. Philip Buys (Contego Giant) - 5:17
4. Neil Macdonald (RECM) - 5:17
5. Dave Morison (Blend Property) - 5:19