Old Mutual Joberg2C

At the beginning of every cycling season I set aside a couple of races where I want to be on top form. JoBerg2C was one of my goal events. Three weeks prior to the event I heard that my team didn’t have the means to send a team to JoBerg2C anymore. It was a big blow but as a professional you learn to deal with these things and adapt as best you can.

A good friend of mine, Aurelie Halbwachs, came out from Mauritius to participate in this year’s edition of the race and stayed with me a couple of days before the event. On the Thursday afternoon, a day before the start, I took Aurelie and her partner to race registration at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg. A long story short, the organisers found out that I wasn’t riding and wanted me in the race. One phone call and some frantic packing later my teammate Nicci Grobler and I were on the start line of the Old Mutual JoBerg2C as Team USN-bizhub or as most in the race village called us Team Last-Minute.com.

Our journey from Heidelberg to Scottburgh would be run over 9 consecutive days covering a total distance of 900km. The first three stages were spent racing on the flatlands of the Free State welcomed home in the friendly towns of Frankfort, Reitz and Sterkfontein.  

On day 4 we left the Free State behind and headed into the Drankensberg mountain range. I was happy to finally start using my climbing legs while leaving the flat land, bunch riding behind. Climbing we surely did over the following three days, as we reached a total of 5549m of ascent in just 310km of riding. We had overnight stays in Winterton, The Glengarry Resort in Kamberg and finlly Underberg with the majestic Drankensberg mountain range providing a beautiful backdrop to each location. During our stay in ‘the Berg’, riders were given a taste of Farmer Gary’s splendid “Berg and Bush 3 day mountain bike stage race” routes. Another race to look forward to!

From Underberg we headed onto the renowned Sani2C routes laid out in the Kwazulu Natal province. I’ve ridden Sani2C a couple of times and therefore thought I knew what lay ahead.  Boy was I wrong?! Farmer Glen added and changed the single track sections so much, that I was kept on my toes throughout the final 3 days of racing to the sea. For the last two nights we stayed at Mackenzie club and Jolivet Farm before making our way onto the beach at Scottburgh where the final finish line awaited us.

Nicci and I have paired up for various stage races in the past and are good friends. This contributed to a solid team dynamic which saw us racing above expectation. We didn’t even expect to be in the race so every result that came our way we saw as a bonus. This didn’t mean we were just there to participate we were still there to race our heart outs and so we did. I think we might have overdone it slightly on the earlier stages and paid for it later on, but at least we have a stage win and a top 3 overall result to show for our efforts

As always I’ve enjoyed racing alongside Nicci. It was her first weeklong stage race and I think we both learned a lot from it. Joberg2C has always been a life enriching experience for me. You ride through 3 diverse regions of our country where the people are as different as the beautiful countryside they inhabit. You make friendships along the way that might last for a couple of days, weeks or a lifetime. For 9 days you and another 800 people endure the tough riding, sleeping in tents, the portable ablution, the weather and whatever other challenges arise to create a unique camaraderie on the journey called Joberg2C.

Thanks to the organisers from Joberg2C for making our goal a reality. As always it was a fulfilling experience and I hope to be back next year.

Final

Results:

1^st           Yolandi deVilliers & Ischen Stopforth

2^nd          Cherise Stander & Lise Olivier

3^rd           Yolandi du Toit & Nicci Grobler