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!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Karoo to Coast
This would be my second year at the Karoo to Coast mountain bike race. After doing the race last year for the first time it is truly a highlight on the mountain biking calendar.
The race takes you 95km from the Karoo town of Uniondale down one of Thomas Bain's many master pieces in South Africa, the Prince Alfred Pass to Knysna. It is said to be a downhill race due to the fact that you start at a higher altitude (730 meters above sea level) than where you finish (sea level), however, there is 1700 meters of climbing thrown in, which is a decent amount of climbing for a 95km mountain bike race!
The race starts with the hardest climb of the day, "Ou Wapad". This is a 4km climb that is rather steep with a very loose, rocky surface. The pace is always very hard up this climb as the field gets strung out. I took a bit of strain getting going up this climb but managed to limit the damage quite well and remain in the top few positions not far off the leader Kevin Evans (MTN) who rode unaccompanied up the climb as no-one could match the pace he set. On the other side of the climb I started to find my legs and was able to catch up to my team mate from Blend, Charles. Erik Kleinhans (Mr Price, GT) was not far behind us and rejoined us on the decent of Prince Alfred Pass.
The descent of the Prince Alfred Pass is a 14km descent, which we went from the top to the bottom of the valley in a time of 17 minutes (ave spd of 50km/hr) with reaching speeds of over 80km/hr at some points. On a steep winding gravel road on the edge of the mountain this makes for some exiting riding and is definitely one of my highlights of the race!
The three of us rode at a solid pace with a gap of about 2 to 3 minutes behind the two leaders Kevin and Matthys Beukes (Scott). Erik eventually dropped off Charles and I as we rode hard up the long drag to Buffelsnek. At this point Charles and I really picked up the pace and were riding hard! At the 70km mark we were about 1 minute behind Matthys and 3 minutes behind Kevin. We kept pushing the pace as we crested the penultimate climb before descending into the Gouna River valley. All that was left was one more 3km climb out of the valley to Simola Estate before reaching Knysna.
During this descent into the Gouna River valley only 12km from the finish line, the spooks of the Karoo caught up to Charles and I. For some unknown reason the most unlikely scenario that I don’t think has ever taken place before occurred. At the exact same time my team mate Charles and I each broke our chains! As I slowed down to stop and turned to tell Charles that I had broken my chain he asked me if I had a quick-link (piece used to rejoin the chain) for him. I couldn’t understand why he was asking me for a quick-link when I had broken my chain, only to realize that he had also broken his chain. This was a bit devastating as we were so close to the finish and were going at such a good pace!
Erik came flying down the hill past us as we were on the side each fixing our chains. I was able to get mine fixed but Charles was struggling to get his quick-link connected as it was rusted. I had to leave him behind as he waited for the next rider to get another quick-link from them.
Once getting back on my bike my legs felt dead after going hard and coming to an abrupt stop for a few minutes. Fortunately I was able to make it to Knysna without anyone else catching up to me and therefore only lost one position due to my chain mishap. Unfortunately for me this happened to be the last podium position! Charles was however less fortunate than me by having to wait for the next rider to fix his chain. This turned out to be a long wait of over 5 minutes as we had built up such a decent gap.
Otherwise I was happy to finish in 4th position as it could have ended a lot worse than that. It was a good race with an average speed over 1km/hr quicker than last year.
The race takes you 95km from the Karoo town of Uniondale down one of Thomas Bain's many master pieces in South Africa, the Prince Alfred Pass to Knysna. It is said to be a downhill race due to the fact that you start at a higher altitude (730 meters above sea level) than where you finish (sea level), however, there is 1700 meters of climbing thrown in, which is a decent amount of climbing for a 95km mountain bike race!
The race starts with the hardest climb of the day, "Ou Wapad". This is a 4km climb that is rather steep with a very loose, rocky surface. The pace is always very hard up this climb as the field gets strung out. I took a bit of strain getting going up this climb but managed to limit the damage quite well and remain in the top few positions not far off the leader Kevin Evans (MTN) who rode unaccompanied up the climb as no-one could match the pace he set. On the other side of the climb I started to find my legs and was able to catch up to my team mate from Blend, Charles. Erik Kleinhans (Mr Price, GT) was not far behind us and rejoined us on the decent of Prince Alfred Pass.
The descent of the Prince Alfred Pass is a 14km descent, which we went from the top to the bottom of the valley in a time of 17 minutes (ave spd of 50km/hr) with reaching speeds of over 80km/hr at some points. On a steep winding gravel road on the edge of the mountain this makes for some exiting riding and is definitely one of my highlights of the race!
The three of us rode at a solid pace with a gap of about 2 to 3 minutes behind the two leaders Kevin and Matthys Beukes (Scott). Erik eventually dropped off Charles and I as we rode hard up the long drag to Buffelsnek. At this point Charles and I really picked up the pace and were riding hard! At the 70km mark we were about 1 minute behind Matthys and 3 minutes behind Kevin. We kept pushing the pace as we crested the penultimate climb before descending into the Gouna River valley. All that was left was one more 3km climb out of the valley to Simola Estate before reaching Knysna.
During this descent into the Gouna River valley only 12km from the finish line, the spooks of the Karoo caught up to Charles and I. For some unknown reason the most unlikely scenario that I don’t think has ever taken place before occurred. At the exact same time my team mate Charles and I each broke our chains! As I slowed down to stop and turned to tell Charles that I had broken my chain he asked me if I had a quick-link (piece used to rejoin the chain) for him. I couldn’t understand why he was asking me for a quick-link when I had broken my chain, only to realize that he had also broken his chain. This was a bit devastating as we were so close to the finish and were going at such a good pace!
Erik came flying down the hill past us as we were on the side each fixing our chains. I was able to get mine fixed but Charles was struggling to get his quick-link connected as it was rusted. I had to leave him behind as he waited for the next rider to get another quick-link from them.
Once getting back on my bike my legs felt dead after going hard and coming to an abrupt stop for a few minutes. Fortunately I was able to make it to Knysna without anyone else catching up to me and therefore only lost one position due to my chain mishap. Unfortunately for me this happened to be the last podium position! Charles was however less fortunate than me by having to wait for the next rider to fix his chain. This turned out to be a long wait of over 5 minutes as we had built up such a decent gap.
Otherwise I was happy to finish in 4th position as it could have ended a lot worse than that. It was a good race with an average speed over 1km/hr quicker than last year.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Another MTN national marathon
This time we visited the diamond mining town of Cullinan just outside Pretoria. This event was number 5 in the series and number 4 for me. After deciding that this year I would give it a go at these national races as I wanted to compete against the best mountain bike riders in the country I had a fairly decent start to the year with a 14th position at the first race of the series, the Attakwas. The next two races where races much to be forgotten about due to extreme mechanical and bodily failures. However, this time I was able to get in a decent race and result with 12th place.
Most of the top contenders were on the start line, one of who was Kevin Evans (MTN Energade) fresh from competing in the world marathon mountain biking champs in Europe, needing one more victory to take the overall title in the series with two races still to come. As usual in this part of the world it was going to be hot! And I've come here from my every faithful Cape Town winter weather, so I was expecting a little shock to the system later in the day. The racing was fast in the beginning as there was no real climbing so the bunch was trying to tail off the lesser mortals with a rapid pace. This indeed turned out to be successful as we encountered very soft sand that exposed one of the key skills of mountain biking among the riders.
After the flatter sandy areas, the rough, rocky savanna terrain that highveld mountain biking races are renowned for and, which resulted in the complete destruction of my body in the previous race in Clarens, began. I tackled this section of the route feeling strong and riding most of the time with my team mate from Blend Properties, Charles. We managed to drop a few other riders along the way and were within 6min of the leaders at the 65 kilometer feed zone.
Soon after this point we turned to continue with the half marathon route (the ultra marathon consisted of 105km of which 70km was the marathon route and the other 35km was the half marathon route). It was here that I started struggling to hold the pace of Charles, as my back was beginning to hurt from the constant jarring of the rough terrain and I was unable to get the power out of my legs that was needed to drive the peddles. I was then left to fight with my body for the last 30 kilometers, to keep me going to the finish. Fortunately we had built up a solid gap on the other riders behind us and no one passed me during this time. At the finish I crossed the line in 4hr30min and ended up loosing 10min to Charles over those last 30 kilometers where he went on to finish 10th. I was happy with the race, it just would have been nice to have finished strong and in the top 10.
Next time...
Most of the top contenders were on the start line, one of who was Kevin Evans (MTN Energade) fresh from competing in the world marathon mountain biking champs in Europe, needing one more victory to take the overall title in the series with two races still to come. As usual in this part of the world it was going to be hot! And I've come here from my every faithful Cape Town winter weather, so I was expecting a little shock to the system later in the day. The racing was fast in the beginning as there was no real climbing so the bunch was trying to tail off the lesser mortals with a rapid pace. This indeed turned out to be successful as we encountered very soft sand that exposed one of the key skills of mountain biking among the riders.
After the flatter sandy areas, the rough, rocky savanna terrain that highveld mountain biking races are renowned for and, which resulted in the complete destruction of my body in the previous race in Clarens, began. I tackled this section of the route feeling strong and riding most of the time with my team mate from Blend Properties, Charles. We managed to drop a few other riders along the way and were within 6min of the leaders at the 65 kilometer feed zone.
Soon after this point we turned to continue with the half marathon route (the ultra marathon consisted of 105km of which 70km was the marathon route and the other 35km was the half marathon route). It was here that I started struggling to hold the pace of Charles, as my back was beginning to hurt from the constant jarring of the rough terrain and I was unable to get the power out of my legs that was needed to drive the peddles. I was then left to fight with my body for the last 30 kilometers, to keep me going to the finish. Fortunately we had built up a solid gap on the other riders behind us and no one passed me during this time. At the finish I crossed the line in 4hr30min and ended up loosing 10min to Charles over those last 30 kilometers where he went on to finish 10th. I was happy with the race, it just would have been nice to have finished strong and in the top 10.
Next time...
Friday, August 20, 2010
Transbaviaans - 230km!!!
230km is a very very long way. That is what the Transbaviaans mountain biking race (from the little karoo dorpie called Willomore through the beautiful but painful Baviaanskloof all the way to the surfing mecca of Jeffrey's Bay) consists of.
Team Blend Properties consisting of Charles, Stuart and myself were all first timers at this race. It was a little daunting knowing that you will be venturing your body into unknown territory as we would be out on the bike for about 9-hours (if all goes to plan)!
The night before consisted of detailed planning. There was a lot to think about for this race unlike most races where you just hop on your bike in the morning and go flat out from the gun. We needed to make sure we had all the supplies necessary from nutrition to tools and spares for each feed zone/check point along the way! Then strategically place these items either on our bikes, in our pockets or the crates supplied by the race organisers that would be taken to each point through the kloof. After everything was sorted, well we hoped, we were able to get to sleep in our small, spooky karoo cottage surrounded only by little karoo bossies in the middle of nowhere!
Race day came. We placed our crates in the truck to be taken into the kloof and after being nice and relaxed before the start we unfortunately had to line up right towards the back of the field. This was obviously not ideal as there was no way of trying to make our way closer towards the front until the gun went off. The madness begins! We had to frantically weave our way through about 600 odd riders before we got to the narrow jeep track about 3km from the start. Hence this was near impossible and we had to do some rough riding through the jeep track to try make up ground. After about 15min of hard effort and risking punctures we had made it into the front bunch and were able to settle down nicely.
With a front bunch consisting of about 10 teams and fast flowing gravel roads the pace was generally high and higher at times similar to a road race for the first 100km with an average speed of about 33km/hr. Just after 100km we entered the first check point and feed zone. Without any form of back up we quickly found our crate and took what we needed. I thought we had done this quickly and efficiently and we were back on our bikes within 2min. This, however, wasn't quick enough compared to the two teams (Supercars and Marsilio Projects) already over a minute up the road who had support vehicles. We chased hard for the next 10km from 105km to 115km when we hit the first big climb. As we started climbing we saw the two leading teams together about 200 meters in front of us. At that moment Stuart started to feel the effects of the hard effort and began to cramp. This made the going through the kloof rather tough as Charles and I took turns in pulling Stuart as we didn't want to stop. We just needed to get through the kloof so that we could recover on the long decent on the other side.
Although we lost ground to the leading team Supercars, we did manage to catch up to Marsilio Projects at the top of Bergplaas. However, the big climb to the top of Bergplaas really killed me as the tough going through the kloof took its toll. It was a long struggle up to the top! When I got to the check point and feed zone at the top I was blown! I was hurting and couldn't think straight as I had to take what I needed from our crate to get me to our next feed zone as well as put my light on my bike. During this time Marsilio Projects whom we had caught up to had another quick stop and were able to get ahead of us again.
At least we knew there was a long downhill to recover until our next check point.
The next check point came at about 176km. This was the first time we saw our back-up driver! A similar scenario occurred here as the previous check point where we had just caught back up to Marsilio Projects and after a quick 2 minute stop they managed to get back on their bikes a little quicker than us. We chased them down and shortly after the check point when we started climbing the last major climb of the race we passed them with ease. They were unable to respond and follow us as we got a gap on them.
At this stage of the race, although I had recovered and was not feeling blown I started to suffer with some cramp as we made our way up the climb. Once over the top I was able to recover. We didn't have to stop for long at the final check point and were on our bikes tracing through the farm lands behind Jeffrey's Bay. I could smell we were getting close to the finish, however, we were unable to see Jeffrey's Bay.
The time of day was just before 6pm (almost 8 hours of racing) and the sun had set over the horizon. It was finally time to put our lights on to see us through to the finish. Knowing this I was feeling good and able to push it as hard as possible. Charles was doing a great job of reading the directions to get us to the finish! And after a slight hiccup of taking one turn too early and having to back track a little we crossed the finish line in second place 8hr31min later, what an amazing feeling!
Will I do it again next year? ...For sure!!!
Results:
1st - Supercars 8hr15min
2nd - Blend Properties 8hr31min
3rd - Marsilio Projects 8hr38min
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