My 20th Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour

Where's Wally... with a little help from the added circle there's me in the bunch on the front cover of the bumper 35-year edition of the Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour magazine (along with the other 20 guys haha).

The 35th year of the Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour also marked my 20th consecutive one! Yes, I'm 27 years old now and that means I did my first one when I was a mere 8 years old and never missed finishing one since. A lot has changed since then and now I'm racing competitively in the elite bunch.

This elite bunch is rather large (I'd say too large for professional road racing consisting of over 200 participants and judging by the time gaps amongst the entire group at the finish) and I normally try and stay out of trouble for the first half of the race avoiding the inevitable crashes (which did happen in a big way at the bottom of the infamous early fast descent of "hospital bend"!). Without doing much road racing this season I found it difficult to hold a decent position in the bunch as handlebars and bums touched while guys squeezed through gaps all at 50km/hr to get closer to the front of the bunch and the big name teams controlled the pace.

I stayed patient until just before Chapmans Peak where I put in some extra efforts and squeezed my way through the bunch to get a bit closer to the front. The pace until this point was slower than the previous year so I knew a bit of tactics amongst the big teams might have been the reason for this and therefore there would be some strong legs in the bunch to really up the tempo over Chappies and Suikebossie to the finish!

Chappies was exactly that as the intensity increased as we neared the top and then continued on the descent as a small break away bunch of about 10 guys had a gap. I found myself hanging onto the back of the main chasing peloton as we swooped around the corners at 60km/hr. It seemed like a blink of an eye and we were already standing up pedaling over little Suikebossie. The main Suikebossie climb was just a blur. I always enjoy climbing, however, this kind of climbing in a road race is very different to the climbing in a mountain bike race, especially having done very little road racing recently! Here they are short lasting only about 5min in which you have to stand up and push out huge watts for the duration, while in mountain biking you are normally forced to stay seated and use more technique and endurance pedaling for a longer time to get you up the climb efficiently.

So, I managed to stay in the main chasing peloton over Suikebossie while the small break away bunch were still a couple of seconds ahead of us. This was to remain until the finish, which at least relieves the pressure off the bunch to sprint for the win at the end (although some of the guys do still sprint for 12th place...) and I was able to cruise over the line to finish my 20th Cycle Tour satisfied with another top elite bunch finish in a time of 2h37m (slower than last year...).

Dissapointing times, MTN National #3 Sabie, UCI World Cup Event

Sabie is one of my favorite stops on the MTN National marathon mountain biking series. The course suites me with its endlessly long climbs. With the excellent work put into organizing these National Series events by the Advendurance crew paying off, this race was incorporated into the UCI World Cup marathon mountain biking series and therefore UCI points and a spot on the start line at the World Marathon Championships in France later this year were all up for grabs! This also attracted some international riders such as the Bulls team none other than Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm together 3x winners of the ABSA Cape Epic!

Having said this the race started at a relatively steady pace unlike the previous few races frantic scuffle in the beginning. I think this is because as you start here in Sabie you also start to climb the monstrous climbs! About 10km into the race on a steady ascent Kevin Evans decided the pace was too easy for him and picked it up. Only his team mate David George and two others were able to follow him. I then found myself in a decent position in the chase bunch of about 7 guys with my team mate from Blend Property Charles and the Bulls guys. We settled into a solid rhythm and slogged our way up the 8km infamous mamba switchbacks climb. As we went over the top at about 25km I felt good and comfortable, however, not for long as all was about to change...

The recent rainfall had wreaked havoc with the steep mountain tracks and were nicely eroded with lots of loose sharp rocks. I came to realize this very quickly as I went round the one corner at quite a speed (it was a steep downhill...) and lost control. It was a bit of a blur to me at the time but I got back up (nothing seemed broken!) and straightened out a few things on my bike and continued riding. However, I started realizing that I was hurting quite a bit and my bike wasn't working quite so well. I managed to fix my cleats that were loose from having ripped the screws out from under my shoes somehow from my crash. Otherwise I had fallen far back in the field by the time we started the second half-marathon part of the route and I just continued rather slowly to limp over the finish line a long time after the winner Kevin Evans who put on a phenomenal performance!

It was obviously very disappointing for me as it was a big race with a lot at stake in which I was doing well at the time! I suppose that's the way the sport goes and I just got to mend myself both physically and mentally to look forward to the next race.

I had my number one supporter Jayde there with me throughout the race and helping me with everything afterwards as I was a bit immobile until, the doctor started stitching up my arm and she started feeling dizzy and had to leave the room before she passed out, hehe.

MTN National #2 - Tulbagh

Finally a "home" race, apart from the 1hr30min drive and a one-night stay over on the Friday before the race, this weekend was personally well anticipated after the endless traveling over the past month and because it was also the second leg of the National mountain biking series. This would be my first time racing in Tulbagh of which I've heard endless mountain biking stories about. There is something about racing in the winelands that I really enjoy. I'm not sure if it because I simply feel like I'm on home soil or if its the privilege of riding on some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world amongst the fine wine producing vineyards.

The start was as usual for the National series events jam packed with the whose who of South African mountain biking and everyone was possibly a little more at ease after the racing season had already began a few weeks ago MTN National #1 Barbeton. Although there was a former world champion and Olympian, Burry Stander in the mix to shake things up!

Hence things got out of hand early into the race and the first King of the Mountains (KOM) climb saw the race split up. The almost "vertical" gradient composed of loose rocks made the riders look like we'd all enjoyed one too many bottles of the regions fine wine before the start as everyone swerved back and forth across the path trying to find traction to stay upright. At this point my chain unfortunately slipped off and got stuck between my cassette and spokes forcing me to hop off and put it back on. However, the steep gradient made it difficult for me to get back on the saddle and peddling again and I was left to run most of the way up. There after it was tough going with the constant change in pace navigating all the tight corners through the vineyards coupled with the short sharp change in gradients. The rough terrain was as unforgiving on the bike as to the body. A number of riders experienced mechanicals through this section before the first tech zone and unfortunately my Blend Property team mate Charles crashed out. I was welcomed to the first tech zone by my number one supporter to refuel positioned just outside the top ten.

Later in the race soon after the second tech zone in which I had roughly held my position and time gap to the leaders I then had to stop twice to inflate my front tyre. From here on the conditions became even harder as the heat became an additional factor to this already grueling race and the time gaps began to multiply. I had finished all my drinks and was desperately looking forward to the next oasis of tech zone 3. These ultras are all about pushing through various physical and emotional stages to get to the finish and this is what I did as we encountered some tough climbing in the last 30km. I saw quite a few riders ahead of me and managed to slowly overtake a few and by the time I reached the third and final tech zone to receive a much needed water bottle from Jayde I had worked my way back into the top ten. Unfortunately that wasn't to last as my body had given in within the last 5km and I experienced some leg seizing cramps and had to watch as our new Blend Property team mate, Ruan and Waylon Woolcock (RE CM) rode past me with 2km to go to the finish resulting in me crossing the finish line in 12th place.

Burry Stander (Specialized) managed to just overcome Kevin Evans (360Life) by a wheel length in the finishing sprint to take the win in an exciting fashion clearly displaying the healthy state of South African mountain biking at the moment. This is also due to the awesome work the Advendurance crew do in putting on these events for us to compete against each other in.

Next up its some worth while traveling to the other side of the country to Sabie, one of my favorite stops on the National calendar for the third round of the National series doubling as the first leg of the World Marathon mountain biking series. Expect some big names and even more exciting racing!

Ride the Rock 3-day MTB stage race, Cederberg

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!

The Herald VW Cycle Tour

Conditions don't look that bad... mmm...

One of the classics in the country and the same as last weekend (MTN National Barbeton) yet another debut attending this cycling weekend in Port Elizabeth.

It was very unfortunate that the weather didn't play its part and the heavy rain in the days leading up to the weekend made for some ridiculous conditions and the organizers had to completely revise the 80km mountain bike route in order for us to still have a race! Having driven up from Cape Town for the weekend it was definitely not an option to skip the race because of this although the thought did cross my mind at one stage due to the maintenance and repair my bike would need afterwards...

Not even 5km into the race and we were already ducking and diving all over the road to try avoid the "lakes" and mud, however, some were unavoidable and when you see the guy in front of you disappear waist deep in water all I thought of doing was holding my breath...


Not long into the race the field had split up and I found myself in the front group of 5 guys as we encountered the first big climb. Kevin Evans (360life) set a solid pace in the beginning which got increasingly faster and harder as the climb went on. I held in there until just before the top and was then able to reconnect on the descent on the other side. However, the muddy conditions began to catch up with my bike, which then started to become like a stubborn donkey and refusing to move. My chain got jammed on a slight incline and forced me to get off and run to the top. After this we went down some very slippery single tracks which reminded me of going down those super tube rides in Sun City. After this I never saw the leaders again and at one stage in chasing as best I could I rode through a huge puddle at speed and lost my bike from underneath me. This left me with a nice big cut to my shin and a broken front derailleur and shifter. Unfortunately this marked the end of my race at about 65km.

Although there was much disappointment in the end, at least I managed to still go out there and try my best! Well done to Kevin Evans (360life) for taking the win on the day, he really knows how to handle all kinds of conditions! Read more here: Herald VW official report

Not a pretty sight!

I then had the road race to contend with the following day before heading straight back to Cape Town and lets just say that also didn't go to plan...

Next up, I'm very excited to be heading into the magnificent Cederberg mountains the following weekend for the 3-day Ride the Rock mountain bike race.

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.