INDUNA MTN MARATHON SERIES no. 3
(13 JUNE)

The 3rd leg of the MTN mountain bike marathon series was held at Induna adventures, just outside Hazyview.

I feared a wet and muddy course after all the rain that fell during the week leading up to the event. Luckily it cleared up on Friday, and I took the opportunity to go and train on parts of the course. The rain actually washed away most loose sand, which made the course compact with only a few wet forest sections.

At 8:00am Saturday morning the 75km (which I participated in) and 105km (newly added ultra marathon for elite men) were the first groups to start.

The Lowveld is well known for its climbs and the race route didn’t disappoint! As the neutral zone ended, we turned off on a dirt road and straight up a 4km climb with gradients of up to 12%.

I found myself struggling up the first hill and lost contact with the leading girls. I tried my best to get back to the leaders on the downhills, but with all the climbing in between, I started to lose motivation and just settled into a comfortable speed, pacing myself to the end.

Despite the fierce argument I had with myself on the climbs, I enjoyed the beautiful singletrack, and took the opportunity to work on my technical skills. This year I managed to ride all the technical sections and even rode smoothly over the hanging bridge! (I still had vivid memories from last year when I almost fell into the river, but luckily caught one of the cables to save myself!!!)
I am still new to the sport and it’s truly satisfying to see any little improvement from one race to the next.

It was evident that the team from Induna adventures put in a lot of effort designing the route. This year they added newly built bridges and interesting parts in the course taking the riders through some spectacular surroundings like the banana plantation etc.


I didn’t do as well as I wanted, but managed to finish as the 3rd elite lady and 5th overall on the day behind Ischen Stopforth and Samantha Oosthuizen (Garmin).
Yolande Speedy showed her class again by competing in the 105km event.