I was super excited to be able to venture deep in the beautiful remote Cederberg mountain range to take part in the inaugural 3-day mountain bike stage race, Ride the Rock. No cell phone reception meant for some much needed relaxation and down time, however, unfortunately my wife wasn't able to come along for the trip so we had to revert back to the good old days and make use of a phone-card phone. The event was based in the shady camp site of Sandrif and the organizers, Stillwater Sports put together an awesome race village!
With some decent training and some races in the legs by now this would prove to be a good test over a multi-stage event. As this was the first staging of the event there was a relatively small field of participates, however, there was certainly no shortage of decent riders on the start line to mix it up front over the 3 days. This made the racing a lot harder than I had anticipated and there was generally a solid bunch of about 8 to 10 guys fighting it out up front.
Day 1, 82km:
David George and Kevin Evans of 360Life set a hard pace from the start and made it difficult for the bunch to stick together once the climbing began about 18km into the race. I just got tailed off the back of the 360Life duo towards the top of the climb and after a short while of descending I was joined by Nico Pfitzenmaier (Robert Daniels), Erik Kleinhans (Contego) and my team mate from Blend Property, Charles. Unfortunately shortly after settling together the extremely rocky terrain got the better of my tyres and I got a puncture. In the meantime Erik had also punctured leaving the race completely split up again. After fixing it up I was back on two wheels in pursuit with no-one in sight behind or in front of me. We had to negotiate a crazy descent that was very steep and composed of very loose razor sharp rocks down into the valley to a small town called Wuperthal before climbing out the valley on the other side. I managed to put in a big effort and catch back up to my team mate Charles from which we rode a solid pace to finish the day together in 4th and 5th a couple minutes back from the winner Kevin.
Day 2, 60km:
With the usual bunch forming after the initial kilometers of the stage we experienced a bit of chaos as expected when we encountered a ladder fence crossing. Now as usual when such obstacles come up you have to get there within at least the first 3 guys of the bunch, however, everyone has the same intentions making it all the more difficult. Having said this I wasn't one of those first 3 and after getting to the other side and crossing a river I found myself chasing frantically to try catch back up to the front again. Soon after we began the major climbing of the stage and I was about 45sec behind the leading group of 6 riders. The 360Life duo rode a hard pace from the beginning of the climb causing the bunch to split up. I felt strong and managed to work my way up the climb and catch up to 3 guys in the chasing group. Not long afterwards we encountered yet another awesome climb and I was feeling good and could see the leading pair of Kevin and David up ahead. I rode a hard pace leaving the group behind. Erik managed to catch onto me just before descending the other side, which was great as we worked well together and made the junction to the leading 360Life pair with about 15km still left in the stage. Unfortunately for Erik he punctured which left just 3 of us in the lead. I worked hard with Kevin and David to try and gain time on some of the others and in the end managed to also cross the finish line in front to take the stage win!
Day 3, 45km:
Being the shortest day, however, the most technical of the 3 days with some amazing stretches of the rockiest single track imaginable, I knew it was going to be difficult to make up time to try get onto the overall podium as I was in 4th place by 1min30sec. With this in mind I still went hard from the start line as the only real climb of the day started about 200 meters into the stage. This resulted in a group consisting of the top 5 guys overall making the initial front bunch of the day. Soon afterwards we entered a long very technical single track, which further split up the bunch. Too much training on the road bike of late has clearly left my technical mountain biking ability almost non-existent and I found myself chasing from then on. Fortunately I had Dan Hugo along side me and we worked nicely together to catch up to my team mate Charles. It was great to be racing next to Dan again bringing back some memories of the past when we raced triathlons against each other as juniors. With a bit more climbing and some awesome jeep track descents in the last 15km, Charles and I rode at a rapid pace not easing up at all until the finish to cross the line together in 4th and 5th again.
After the 3 days of magnificent racing in the Cederberg I had to settle with 4th place overall. A bit disappointing to just miss out on the podium, however, I was very happy with my form over the 3 days and obviously the highlight was winning the second stage! Apart from the great racing, the whole event was extremely well organized with incredible food and nice finishing touches that always make a difference. The award winning Cederberg winery and David Nieuwoudt the generous wine maker, supplied some fantastic prizes as well as an interesting wine tasting experience! A great vibe was maintained throughout the whole event (night and day...) and also thanks to Bokomo, I now have a kitchen cupboard stocked with breakfast goodies!
With some decent training and some races in the legs by now this would prove to be a good test over a multi-stage event. As this was the first staging of the event there was a relatively small field of participates, however, there was certainly no shortage of decent riders on the start line to mix it up front over the 3 days. This made the racing a lot harder than I had anticipated and there was generally a solid bunch of about 8 to 10 guys fighting it out up front.
Day 1, 82km:
David George and Kevin Evans of 360Life set a hard pace from the start and made it difficult for the bunch to stick together once the climbing began about 18km into the race. I just got tailed off the back of the 360Life duo towards the top of the climb and after a short while of descending I was joined by Nico Pfitzenmaier (Robert Daniels), Erik Kleinhans (Contego) and my team mate from Blend Property, Charles. Unfortunately shortly after settling together the extremely rocky terrain got the better of my tyres and I got a puncture. In the meantime Erik had also punctured leaving the race completely split up again. After fixing it up I was back on two wheels in pursuit with no-one in sight behind or in front of me. We had to negotiate a crazy descent that was very steep and composed of very loose razor sharp rocks down into the valley to a small town called Wuperthal before climbing out the valley on the other side. I managed to put in a big effort and catch back up to my team mate Charles from which we rode a solid pace to finish the day together in 4th and 5th a couple minutes back from the winner Kevin.
Day 2, 60km:
With the usual bunch forming after the initial kilometers of the stage we experienced a bit of chaos as expected when we encountered a ladder fence crossing. Now as usual when such obstacles come up you have to get there within at least the first 3 guys of the bunch, however, everyone has the same intentions making it all the more difficult. Having said this I wasn't one of those first 3 and after getting to the other side and crossing a river I found myself chasing frantically to try catch back up to the front again. Soon after we began the major climbing of the stage and I was about 45sec behind the leading group of 6 riders. The 360Life duo rode a hard pace from the beginning of the climb causing the bunch to split up. I felt strong and managed to work my way up the climb and catch up to 3 guys in the chasing group. Not long afterwards we encountered yet another awesome climb and I was feeling good and could see the leading pair of Kevin and David up ahead. I rode a hard pace leaving the group behind. Erik managed to catch onto me just before descending the other side, which was great as we worked well together and made the junction to the leading 360Life pair with about 15km still left in the stage. Unfortunately for Erik he punctured which left just 3 of us in the lead. I worked hard with Kevin and David to try and gain time on some of the others and in the end managed to also cross the finish line in front to take the stage win!
Day 3, 45km:
Being the shortest day, however, the most technical of the 3 days with some amazing stretches of the rockiest single track imaginable, I knew it was going to be difficult to make up time to try get onto the overall podium as I was in 4th place by 1min30sec. With this in mind I still went hard from the start line as the only real climb of the day started about 200 meters into the stage. This resulted in a group consisting of the top 5 guys overall making the initial front bunch of the day. Soon afterwards we entered a long very technical single track, which further split up the bunch. Too much training on the road bike of late has clearly left my technical mountain biking ability almost non-existent and I found myself chasing from then on. Fortunately I had Dan Hugo along side me and we worked nicely together to catch up to my team mate Charles. It was great to be racing next to Dan again bringing back some memories of the past when we raced triathlons against each other as juniors. With a bit more climbing and some awesome jeep track descents in the last 15km, Charles and I rode at a rapid pace not easing up at all until the finish to cross the line together in 4th and 5th again.
After the 3 days of magnificent racing in the Cederberg I had to settle with 4th place overall. A bit disappointing to just miss out on the podium, however, I was very happy with my form over the 3 days and obviously the highlight was winning the second stage! Apart from the great racing, the whole event was extremely well organized with incredible food and nice finishing touches that always make a difference. The award winning Cederberg winery and David Nieuwoudt the generous wine maker, supplied some fantastic prizes as well as an interesting wine tasting experience! A great vibe was maintained throughout the whole event (night and day...) and also thanks to Bokomo, I now have a kitchen cupboard stocked with breakfast goodies!
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