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!